In Godzilla, Eminem's fierce verses outshine a waterlogged chorus...until they don't.
Eminem's flow is intact, but what does he have left to rap about? His old motivations — being broke, being doubted, a crazy baby mama, a crazy actual mom — have long been run into the ground. He's come back. Fallen down. Dried out. Come back again. His best moment of the last decade wasn't even on a recorded song. youtube.com/watch
In a standout moment of the first verse of Godzilla, Eminem has a sly slant rhyme with "hydroxy cut" and "Courvoisier". It's the kind of rubbery wordplay that exemplifies his peaks, and highlights a verse full of energetic — if somewhat generic — hip-hop chest thumping. Not necessarily a terrible thing, but the scene he paints is more bark than bite.
Percussive and playful, the first two verses could have been lifted by a stronger hook, but instead feel truncated by the lazy, soggy chorus by Juice WRLD (RIP). There are the sonics: Juice WRLD sounds bored, entitled and soupy. And then there's the meta: The song is called Godzilla, but the word "Monster" is featured much more predominantly throughout. Didn't Eminem already have a megasmash with a song literally called "The Monster" in 2013? Why are we doing this again? Is this the sound of a lizard eating its own tail?
In the third verse Eminem offers a changeup flow, but his subject matter is rote before devolving into a masturbatory, vaguely defiant, world salad.
Conclusion: while either of Eminem's first two verses would have been a strong feat. on someone else's song, this track never coalesces into a cohesive piece. Godzilla the creature is the king of monsters, destroyer of cities. Godzilla the song huffs and puffs, but ultimately runs out of breath before doing any real damage.
In Godzilla, Eminem's fierce verses outshine a waterlogged chorus...until they don't.
Eminem's flow is intact, but what does he have left to rap about? His old motivations — being broke, being doubted, a crazy baby mama, a crazy actual mom — have long been run into the ground. He's come back. Fallen down. Dried out. Come back again. His best moment of the last decade wasn't even on a recorded song. youtube.com/watch
In a standout moment of the first verse of Godzilla, Eminem has a sly slant rhyme with "hydroxy cut" and "Courvoisier". It's the kind of rubbery wordplay that exemplifies his peaks, and highlights a verse full of energetic — if somewhat generic — hip-hop chest thumping. Not necessarily a terrible thing, but the scene he paints is more bark than bite.
Percussive and playful, the first two verses could have been lifted by a stronger hook, but instead feel truncated by the lazy, soggy chorus by Juice WRLD (RIP). There are the sonics: Juice WRLD sounds bored, entitled and soupy. And then there's the meta: The song is called Godzilla, but the word "Monster" is featured much more predominantly throughout. Didn't Eminem already have a megasmash with a song literally called "The Monster" in 2013? Why are we doing this again? Is this the sound of a lizard eating its own tail?
In the third verse Eminem offers a changeup flow, but his subject matter is rote before devolving into a masturbatory, vaguely defiant, world salad.
Conclusion: while either of Eminem's first two verses would have been a strong feat. on someone else's song, this track never coalesces into a cohesive piece. Godzilla the creature is the king of monsters, destroyer of cities. Godzilla the song huffs and puffs, but ultimately runs out of breath before doing any real damage.