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SUPPORT ME ON PATREON\n\nWATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE\n\nWhen I choose a podcast topic, I can usually get a handle on my angle with some research, listening & general contemplation. This week I\u2019m gonna come right out and say I need some help. There are certain artists whose output is so dense & prolific that to try to summarize it in one podcast is overwhelming. Dylan comes to mind. Zappa. Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson. Apparently Buckethead holds the record for most albums with 166?!?!\n\nWith Eminem, it\u2019s not about raw numbers. It\u2019s about density. Few artists of any kind pack as much into their lyrics as he does. Whether you\u2019re into his content or not, anyone paying attention who has any knowledge of wordsmithing has to agree that he is one of the masters. Story & character. Flow, dexterity & clarity. All that, yes. But what blows me away over & over is the wordplay. Internal rhymes. Alliteration. Assonance & consonance. Multisyllabic rhyming! I\u2019m using these words purposely to bring home the point that Eminem is one of the greatest poets of all time.\n\nA study was done in 2015 that found Eminem has the largest vocabulary of any music artist ever, beating second place Jay Z by more than 2,000 words. Side note: the top four richest music vocabularies are all hip hop artists, followed immediately by Bob Dylan. I don\u2019t find this surprising at all. And how he uses those words is repeatedly stunning. Take this lyric as one of hundreds of examples:\n\nMy pen & paper cause a chain reaction to get your brain relaxin\u2019, the zany actin\u2019 maniac in action. A brainiac in fact son, you mainly lack attraction. You look insanely wack when just a fraction of my tracks run.\n\nI count NINE multisyllabic near rhymes, in the midst of several coherent ideas making one unifying point. I\u2019d make parallels to the lyrics of Sondheim or Lin-Manuel Miranda for sheer dexterity & ingenuity. If we\u2019re talking legit poets, I\u2019ve seen comparisons to the bigs like Shakespeare, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and many others including the obscure but apt John Skelton. What about beat poets & their raw emotion? Free verse poets and their flow? Certainly slam poetry, which has some connection to hip hop, especially freestyling. Point is, there are way too many elements in Eminem\u2019s lyrics to dismiss it as anything other than poetry.\n\nMy discussion on the \u201ccontroversy\u201d in his lyrics? Eminem demands that you go beneath the surface by hitting you in the face over & over. Surface dwellers only hear the \u201cbad language\u201d or disturbing stories, and completely miss the context & often deft characterizations. Has he overstepped? Yes, mostly when dissing other celebrities or music. But overall he is an illustrator of the grotesque \u2013 calling it out for the twisted horror that it is.\n\nOne of my favorite aspects of his work is the humor. I recently had a talk with someone who said any artist who can incorporate humor into their music is fully evolved. Eminem \u2013 like Prince, Beatles or Bob Dylan \u2013 showed it\u2019s possible to be self-serious AND self-deprecating, meaningful AND ridiculous. And it\u2019s a mark of a listener\u2019s evolution if they can identify the humor and know how to take a joke.\n\nFrom the moment I heard Eminem, I copped some of his lyrical technique \u2013 sounds & rhymes turning on themselves, twisting, repeating with variation. As a former poet, it was an easy adaptation. I LOVE multisyllabic rhyming & throw it in whenever it feels organic. Even aspects of his delivery & humor filtered through me. \u201cStop It!\u201d, \u201cNever Tell\u201d, \u201cDifferent People\u201d, AND this one:\n\nREC \u2013 \u201cSing Owwt\u201d (from Syncopy for the Weird)\n\n\n--- \n\nThis episode is sponsored by \n\xb7 Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app\n\nSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/musicisnotagenre/support\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices