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The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters (2007)

June 17, 2009

The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters is a documentary about competitive video gaming that centers on two men battling it out for the all-time world record on the original arcade version of Donkey Kong. If it all sounds a little nerdy, that’s because it is; but the story is compelling nevertheless. One of the men the film focuses on is Billy Mitchell, a man that set a record on Donkey Kong in 1982 that wasn’t even approached before Steve Wiebe came out of nowhere in the mid-90s and claimed to have toppled a million points, a new world record. Unfortunately for Wiebe, Mitchell is highly beloved by the circle of geeks in control of the record books and his record is said to be invalid unless he can prove it in person. The film is often described as a battle between the two Donkey Kong masters–hell, I just said that myself in the first sentence–but to call this a “battle” would be giving too much of a backbone to Billy Mitchell. I get the impression that the filmmaker was a bit biased against the man, but rightfully so. Mitchell barely acknowledges Wiebe’s presence when they are in proximity of each other and is snootily evasive whenever talk of a friendly competition is mentioned. Not once during the doc, does Mitchell sit down and play a game of Donkey Kong in public after his record has been toppled. Instead, he sneakily sends in a taped session in which he sets a new high score and is rewarded for the same act that got Wiebe’s record overturned. It’s quite a depressing turn of events and one can’t help but hate the men behind the decision just a little bit, especially after watching Wiebe sit for hours on camera putting his skills on public display only to come up short in the end. Is it possible to feel emotional resonance watching a grown man crying over a video game? I think so, because I was genuinely sorry for the guy and I wanted nothing more than to see Billy Mitchell get his dubious record shoved up his ass. Does this story have a happy ending? Well, I guess you are going to have to see for yourself… or spend three seconds on Google and get your answer.

Grade: 7 out of 10 (must see)

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Bunch Of Short Movie Reviews

June 16, 2009

Okay, so my goal to make a new post each day might have been reaching a bit. I clearly am not meeting that goal and on Fridays and Saturdays I simply don’t have the time to do it. So I’m going to lower my expectations and shoot for 4-5 updates a week. I’m finding myself having a hard time writing movie reviews. I want to talk about some of the films I’ve seen recently, but I can’t seem to find my voice. It just isn’t feeling right to me lately…. with that said, here are some quick thoughts on some recent films I’ve seen:

Zack & Miri Make A Porno – I liked this a lot more the second time I watched it. Maybe I wasn’t in the mood during my first viewing, or my woman was dragging me down, or my expectations were too high after hearing so many people say how good it was… whatever the case may be, I was really underwhelmed the first time I saw it. However, my initial reaction was misguided as this was a fun and humorous flick. It has a unique plot and plenty of crude humor and it’s Kevin Smith’s best film in nearly a decade. Also, Justin Long absolutely kills it in his cameo role as a gay porn star at a high school reunion. “Yes… fucking movies”

Grade: 6 out of 10 (recommended)

Observe & Report – I went and saw this with a group of people and I liked it more than everyone else. Seth Rogen seems to be in everything lately, but this is the first time I’ve seen him in a darker role since he played a random bully in Donnie Darko back before he was a star. I think this was Rogen’s best performance to date though and I found this dark comedy to be pretty damn funny and entertaining all around. Spoiler alert… the ending was pretty shocking when Rogen’s character walks up and shoots the streaker. That took me by surprise… what was even more surprising was how everything in the film was building up to a depressing conclusion, but somehow an unemployed former mall security guard can walk up to someone, shoot them in broad day, and not only avoid a jail bid, but have everyone cheering for him like a hero in the end. I thought it was a corny way to end an otherwise ominous film.

Grade: 6 out of 10 (recommended)

Milk – It took me forever to watch this movie. I rented it on March 11th and returned it on May 19th… I started watching it at least eight different times before I finally sat through the whole thing. That’s not a knock on the film though, it’s just a reflection of how much of a priority film-watching has been to me lately… because this movie was really, really good. I was shocked when Sean Penn won Best Actor earlier this year since all the hype was pointing towards Mickey Rourke and, to a lesser extent, Frank Langella. I saw both of those performances before the awards and even though I hadn’t seen Milk yet, I didn’t think Penn was going to top either one. I was wrong. Having seen all the nominated performances (aside from dude in The Visitor), I think Penn was hands down the best. It’s one of those rare performances where the actor completely becomes the character… so much that you forget that you’re even watching Sean Penn. It was truly remarkable. On top of that, Harvey Milk’s story was an interesting one, James Franco was really good, and Emile Hirsch is quickly rising on my list of favorite actors. While Milk probably won’t have enough replay value to be worth owning for me, it’s definitely something I’d highly recommend everyone see at least once.

Grade: 8 out of 10 (excellent)

Rachel Getting Married – I only rented this movie because of the buzz surrounding Anne Hathaway’s performance… an actress more known for corny teeny-bopper flicks than Oscar-worthy material. I can’t say the story particularly interested me, but Hathaway was as good as advertised and I’m looking forward to seeing her test her acting chops even more in the future. The best scene in the film is when Hathaway gives a grimace-inducing speech at her sister’s wedding rehearsal dinner. This movie is worth watching for Hathaway alone, but if you don’t care about great performances in mediocre movies, you can skip this one.

Grade: 5.5 out of 10 (worth watching/recommended)

Lords Of Dogtown – Yeah, this movie is a bit older. It’s basically a film adaptation of the excellent 2002 documentary Dogtown & Z-Boys and follows the rise of a group of teenage skateboarding phenoms who build their skill sets by sneaking into someone’s back yard, draining their swimming pools, and honing their talents on their makeshift half-pipes. I can’t think of too many documentaries that have been recast with actors and turned into feature films, so I can see a lot of potential problems with the concept–most noticeably having an actor playing a real person that has already starred in the same story as themselves. However, all the actors did fairly well, and once again, Emile Hirsch knocked it out of the fucking park… which would give him a streak of three straight solid-to-excellent performances I’ve seen from him. Heath Ledger was also in this and was nearly as unrecognizable and amazing as he was playing The Joker. I didn’t even know it was him until halfway through the movie…. probably the first time he showed potential of his greatness. Overall, a fun and loyal adaption with surprisingly solid performances, but honestly, the documentary was much better and more interesting.

Grade: 6 out of 10 (recommended)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine – This movie got kind of slammed by critics, but I enjoyed it. It didn’t blow my mind and it doesn’t hold a candle to the much superior superhero films of last year (The Dark Knight & Iron Man), but I had fun watching it. I can’t say I’m familiar with any Wolverine comics at all, so I can’t comment on how faithful the adaptation was or if fanboys are going to think they butchered it. For all the hype surrounding a long awaited Gambit appearance, his character was pretty lame, didn’t contribute much to the film, and wasn’t nearly as bad ass as I remember him in the cartoons or video games. All I can really say about this movie is that it was entertaining, Lynn Collins is fucking gorgeous, and I need to get on Hugh Jackman’s workout regime for this film ASAP.

Grade: 5.5 out of 10 (worth watching/recommended)

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Small Update

June 8, 2009

Nothing too exciting today. I have one big announcement. I’m going to quit playing online poker until I’m finished recording my album… it’s simply too big of a distraction if I’m planning on hitting my September release date. I’m retiring for three months!

Also, I saw some rough artwork for my album cover and/or flyer. It’s gonna be dope! Hopefully I’ll have some artwork up next week sometime.

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Briefcase Joe: Eminem Teaches Jimmy Kimmel to Rap

June 7, 2009

I know I’ve been on an Eminem kick lately, but dude did just release a new album and he’s generally a pretty funny dude. This shit is hilarious. “I got testicles.””Oh. I do have those. I have two of them.”

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Put Zodiac On Your Netflix Queue

June 6, 2009

Today is the last day of this phase of my life. Tomorrow I start fresh again and I have set out several goals for myself in the upcoming months. I was doing pretty good on bettering myself from March to May, but I let a woman sidetrack me and lost focus and the past couple weeks I’ve really let myself go. That’s fine. I should have an even bigger sense of accomplishment in the upcoming weeks. As I said a while ago, I wanted to start gaining some serious weight and getting back into shape. I haven’t lifted in a few weeks and my appetite has been horrible ever since I got some weird food poisoning-like sickness a few weeks ago and spent the whole night throwing up. I started my weight-gaining journey at 144 pounds and I peaked at 160… if I had to guess, with the way things have been going recently, I’d say I’m back down around 152-153. I’ll find out tomorrow when I finally hit the gym again and I’ll post regular updates regarding my progress. I have a new workout routine typed up for lifting days and non-lifting days and I’m going to start focusing on my diet again. I’ve somehow got back to one meal a day and that is not cracking. Unfortunately, I’m also kind of broke, so I’m going to have to get creative with this shit.

I watched the film Zodiac last night and I have to say it’s one of the most underrated films of the past several years. It didn’t really receive a lot of awards attention and I don’t really hear a lot of people talk about it, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s my favorite film from 2007. There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men get all the publicity, but I don’t own either of those films. I saw No Country in theaters once and never again and I’ve rented Blood from Netflix twice and I’m yet to see the film in its entirety. While that is a travesty on my part, it does say something about how good Zodiac is. First of all, the story is really what’s interesting here. I find myself eager to read the novel after seeing the movie for a second time. It will be interesting to see how much of Graysmith’s story didn’t make the film and find out what was left out and what was changed or exaggerated. I’m not going to laud any of the performances… I can’t say anyone was too overlooked here, although this film marks Robert Downey Jr’s resurgence as an acclaimed actor more than Iron Man should. For those of you that have been sleeping on this film, this tale of a serial killer who toyed with the media and the police, but still got away with everything, comes highly recommended by me.

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Leaving Las Vegas News

June 3, 2009

First of all, if I’ve happened to develop any regular readers of this blog, I’m going to start rewarding you for your patience with extremely regular updates… and by regular, I mean, I plan to make at least one post a day, whether or not that post will be substantial or worthwhile remains to be seen, but I want to start increasing traffic to the site.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m currently working on my third album entitled Leaving Las Vegas. I’m pretty excited about the project and I think it’s coming together nicely. I’m really in the zone as far as writing is concerned and the last two verses I’ve written might be the best work I’ve ever done. I have parts of 18 different songs written at the moment. I plan to have about 25 songs to choose from and I’ll pick my top 15 or so for the album and I’ll likely release all the songs that didn’t make it on a separate bonus disc. I’m currently targeting a mid-September release (yeah… it is what you’re thinking.. can’t break a trend, can I?) and I think I’ll have no problem hitting that date at this point in time. I’m still undecided if I want to record everything in my bedroom or go for a more professional project. The truth is, I’m not that serious about this shit so I don’t want to invest a ton of money into it and the quality I get from my home setup is pretty solid. The real question is whether or not I want to spend my time personally mixing it when I’m not really that good at it. For those of you that want a sneak peak, you can check out the MySpace page link to the right and listen to “Meghan’s Song” in my profile. Oh, what a sweetheart I am. It’s a rough version that I didn’t put a lot of mixing down time into, but it’s a solid skeleton of what to expect from the track. Don’t worry though… for those of you that prefer the second half of Relationshits, I have been officially crossed and the gloves are now off; someone is getting torched: “Bitch, piss me off, I’ll make another damn Relationshits.” I don’t fuck around and you were warned.

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First look @ my 2009 MLB All-Stars

June 3, 2009

So I went to my first Mariner game of 2009 and I picked up an All-Star ballot and filled it out with these results:

American League

First Base – Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins – This was the toughest choice I made on the entire ballot. Mark Teixeira has been beasting over the past month, posting a .345 average to go along with 13 homers and a ridiculous 34 RBI. No one in baseball has been hotter. However, 85% of Teixeira’s production has come in that span and Morneau has been consistent all season long, managing to better Big Tex in both runs and RBI, while posting a much better season average (.345 vs. .279). Miguel Cabrera and Kevin Youkilis have also had great seasons so far, but Morneau is still the pick… for now.

Second Base – Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers – Again, another tough choice. Kinsler has tanked in the past month, posting a .219 average, which puts his season average (.277) significantly lower than Aaron Hill’s (.328), who has posted similar counting numbers. However, I’m still giving Kinsler the slight edge because he’s a threat on the base paths and a more exciting player. Robinson Cano and Brian Roberts are heating up too.

Shortstop – Jason Bartlett, Tampa Bay Rays – Not even a recent DL stint has hurt Barlett’s stance as the best offensive shortstop in the league during the first third of the season. His numbers are ridiculous: .373-7-30 with a 1.014 OPS. Are you fucking kidding me? What’s more absurd is that the 7 HR he has in 161 ABs this season is only one less than he hit in 1297 ABs over the past three years combined. That’s mind-blowing. He’s also 13 RBI short of his career high and we’re only a third of the way through the season. It just goes to show you how dope that Tampa Bay line-up has become.

Third Base – Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays – A no-brainer. With A-Rod injured for all of April, Longoria has jumped way ahead of the pack. He’s hitting .322 with 13 homers and an MLB-leading 55 RBI. No one else at this position is even close to that kind of production.

Catcher – Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins – Easiest pick on the ballot. Mauer has barely cracked 100 at bats, but he’s almost matched his career high in homers. On top of that, the dude is hitting .433. His 1.389 OPS is by far the best in baseball and even though his position mates have 50-70 more at bats, he’s already bested everyone in homers and is only 3 RBI off position-leader Victor Martinez who has logged over twice as many ABs. Sick.

Outfield – Adam Jones, Baltimore Orioles, Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay Rays, Jason Bay, Boston Red Sox – I wonder if the Mariners are regretting trading Adam Jones yet? Dude is hitting .344 and is on a pace for 38 homers, 124 RBI, 141 Runs and 14 stolen bases. Those are MVP-worthy numbers and while I expect his power numbers to dip a bit, I do think he is capable of stealing about 30 bases. Carl Crawford is batting .319 with 40 runs… those are good numbers, but he’s on pace for 94 stolen bases. That’s all that really needs to be said. I originally went with a home town bias and picked Ichiro over Bay, but then I got home and looked at the numbers again and realized how stupid that was. Ichiro has a nice average and a long hitting streak, but that’s about it. Bay is on pace for 40+ homers and about 160 RBI. Retarded.

National League

First Base – Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals – No surprise here. Adrian Gonzalez is having a real nice season with a 69 homer pace, but that’s sure to drop off, and Pujols simply has better all-around numbers posting a .339 average to go with 16 homers and 45 RBI, despite being constantly pitched around. Toss in 7 stolen bases from the big guy and only 18 Ks (absurd for a power hitter) and this is still an easy choice.

Second Base – Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies – Utley has been mediocre over the past month (.264, 4 HR), but he’s still far and away the most production two-bagger in the NL posting a .299 average to go with 12 HRs and 36 RBI.

Shortstop – Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins, Miguel Tejada, Houston Astros – Okay, maybe this was the toughest choice on the ballot. It’s so close that I can’t even call it. Both of these guys have posted great averages (.346 for Hanley, .362 for Tejada), while Hanley has the lead in runs and Tejada has the edge in RBI. If Tejada wasn’t hitting .360, I’d give the vote to Hanley because of his 25 stolen base pace and slight lead in homers, but right now, it’s still too tough to call. Give it another month though and I think Hanley will be the clear favorite.

Third Base – Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals – Again, I went with David Wright on my ballot, but I didn’t realize his average had dropped .40 points in the past 10 games or so. Not only is Zimmerman now hitting for a better average (.322 vs. .321), but he’s crushing Wright in the counting numbers with 11 homers, 40 runs, and 37 RBI.

Outfield – Raul Ibanez, Philadelphia Phillies, Justin Upton, Arizona Diamondbacks, Carlos Beltran, New York Mets – Ibanez is as much of a cinch as Joe Mauer was and I thought that before he went 3 for 5, with a double, two homers and five RBI tonight. Check out this guy’s pace: .340, 139 runs, 62 homers, 165 RBI, and 13 SBs… that would go down as the best offensive season of all-time if it happened. Obviously, he is going to regress, but still, this is your NL MVP for the first third of the season… easily. Upton has posted some really good numbers with a .322 average, 10 homers, and 33 RBI… that’s impressive… but the most ridiculous thing about it is that the kid is only 21 years old. WTF. I gave Carlos Beltran the nod over Matt Kemp because he’s crushing Kemp in average (.352 vs. .310) while posting similar counting numbers in 25 less at bats.

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Eminem Reminding The World He Still Might Be The Best

May 25, 2009

Seriously. He kills these “freestyles.” This is the kind of stuff I wanted to hear on Relapse. You must watch this all the way through.

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Eminem – Relapse

May 15, 2009

Eminem’s career path has been an interesting one to follow: after bursting onto the hip-hop scene in 1999 and surprising the world with his shock value tactics and ability to rhyme, he had cemented himself as one of the best and most talented emcees ever by the time 8 Mile came out in late 2002. For whatever reason, starting in 2003, Slim Shady just suddenly stopped caring about his craft and we watched his skills rapidly decline, ultimately resulting in an incredibly disappointing album called Encore in 2004. Then… he just disappeared off the face of the earth and the very few appearances he did make (The Re-Up) showed that he was still just a shell of his former self. Thankfully, that disappearance has given the hip-hop community enough time away from Marshall to have some of us optimistic enough to be thinking that Relapse could be a return to form.

The first couple of tracks leaked from Relapse were cause for concern, however. “Crack A Bottle” is a pop-rap track that has Eminem rhyming nonsense over a candy ass beat, forgettable guest appearances from Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, and an incredibly corny, albeit catchy, hook. If that song wasn’t enough reason to sound off the alarm bells, Em decided to follow it up with “We Made You,” which is arguably one of the worst songs ever made. The rapping is actually much better here, but the hook is some painful shit to listen to and Eminem is using what online hip-hop forums have affectionately dubbed his “Osama Bin Shady” voice. Eminem once again attacks random pop singers and B-list celebrities and shows that artistic growth was not on his list of concerns during his hiatus. “Old Time’s Sake” leaked early also and is right on par with the first two tracks. Dre sounds terrible once again and while Eminem sounds kinda dope over the beat, the lyrics on the song are boring and forgettable.

Fortunately, the rest of Relapse is much better. The first thing that Eminem makes clear on this album is that, vocally, he is still one of the best rappers in the game from a technical standpoint. “Bagpipes From Baghdad” is a terrible song with juvenile lyrics and cheap shots at Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon, but the rapping is so good on it that I can’t stop myself from playing it: “Nothing will stop me from molesting you, titty-fucking you ’til your breast nipple flesh tickles my testicles.” Words can’t describe how dope it sounds when he says that. I doubt anyone wanted to hear another song about Debbie Mathers, yet “My Mom” finds Eminem placing blame on his mother’s drug habits for causing his own Vicodin addiction. Despite the content being incredibly tired at this point in Em’s career, the lyrics and delivery make it a very enjoyable song anyways. Just look at the way this guy is putting syllables together in these lines: “‘Mrs. Mathers, I think your son has been huffing Ether/ either that, or the motherfucker’s been puffing reefer’/ but all this huffing and puffing wasn’t what it was either/ it was neither, I was buzzin’, but it wasn’t what she thought.” Again, dude just tears the track to shreds.

I think listeners will come away slightly disappointed after the first couple times they listen to Relapse all the way through. While it’s evident that Eminem hasn’t matured much as a musician since 2002 and that he may never release a sure-fire hip-hop classic, Relapse is at least a scathingly dark album. Between “3 A.M.,” “Same Song & Dance,” and “Stay Wide Awake,” Eminem shows that he may actually be a little nuttier than we all thought he was–if that’s even possible. He’s gone from saying “raping his own mother” in comical fashion to describing his fantasies of murdering Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears in extreme detail while abandoning the tongue-in-cheek tone of voice that used to make his outlandish behavior acceptable; he’s legitimately scary on this album. “I said, yeah baby, do that dance… it’s the last dance you’ll ever get the chance to do/ girl, shake that ass, you ain’t ever gonna break that glass, the windshield’s too strong for you.”. Yikes. I’ve heard this album described as “American Psycho on wax” and I think that’s a fitting description. With “Kim,” Em had the excuse of saying it was his way of handling his emotions and with “Kill You,” we all knew he was just joking around… but when Eminem gets asked about the inspiration behind this trio of songs on Relapse, I don’t think he’s going to have any excuses this time. It’s like he says on “Medicine Ball”: “Man, they don’t understand, I’m just a sick man.”

So where does Relapse leave Eminem in the scope of the hip-hop world? It’s not his best album, by any means, but it’s infinitely better than Encore and certainly a step in the right direction. On Encore and all of his appearances during his hiatus, Eminem just sounded like a soulless shell of his former self. I can say with confidence that the man has found his passion for music again. How he still managed to make a song as bad as “We Made You” I don’t understand, but Relapse as a whole, is a return to form for Slim Shady. Don’t expect artistic growth here or a huge change in focus as far as content is concerned. Simply put, Relapse is a reminder that Eminem is not to be fucked with on the microphone and that the man still has it. Let’s all hope Relapse 2 is even better.

Grade: 7 out of 10 (Must Own)

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Random Shit

April 25, 2009

-Following up on my goal to gain weight: since mid-March I’ve gained 14 pounds (144 —> 158) via lifting weights 3x a week, taking creatine, and bumping my daily calorie intake somewhere around the 3000-4000 range. I’m still roughly 27 pounds off my ultimate goal, but I wanted to achieve that by October, so I feel pretty solid about my current progress. I can’t really say I can see the 14 lbs, but I definitely feel healthier and a bit more in shape… but most importantly, I feel good.

-Fuck poker. Honestly. I hate the game. I made it a goal to not play at least twice a week, but the actual result has been not playing roughly five times a week and the few days I do play are very limited sessions. I just don’t have it in me to devote hours and hours anymore to something I really don’t enjoy in the least. Here’s the problem: I don’t like playing cards nearly as much as I like making fast money–at least not on the internet. I enjoy the camaraderie of playing with actual people, but something about playing online allows the inevitable bad beats and cold streaks to just drive me completely fucking crazy; it makes me absolutely miserable sometimes. Despite cutting back on my playing time by roughly 90%, I have managed to eek out my first winning month of 2009 (assuming I didn’t just jinx myself). It’s admittedly a moderate pull so far, but it’s refreshing to know that I’m still capable of being a winning player.

-I’m recording a new album. Yes… I know I’ve said this before and it has been six years since I released Relationshits and I might as well be retired at this point, but I’m in a zone… the kind of zone I haven’t hit since I was recording Relationshits. I’m deep into the writing process and I’m just starting to record songs… Despite that, I think a summer 2009 release date is pretty likely at this point although that time frame doesn’t correspond with my trend of releasing my music on one of my famed “cursed” days (I’m looking at you February 14th, October 12th, and December 20th). Anyways, I’m far enough along with the project to know that it’s going to be called Leaving Las Vegas. That’s a reference to the Nicolas Cage film since my battle with and recovery from alcoholism is a central theme and gambling also played a rather large role in the downward spiral that was my life from 2005-2008. I should have some guests on the album as well, but I’ll wait a little bit before I air that information. Stay tuned.

-Eminem’s album Relapse comes out in roughly a month. So far I’ve heard four tracks from Eminem in 2009 and I’m not really sure what to expect from the album. Here are the four songs that have been leaked/released: 3 A.M., We Made You, Crack A Bottle, I’m Having A Relapse (Freestyle). Based on the quality of those tracks, I think Relapse is likely to be better than Encore, but still disappointment overall. I think it’s highly likely that the Eminem from 1999-2002 that was poised to be one of the best emcees of all-time is dead and will never come back. However, the lyrics and flow seem to be back–dude absolutely rips “3 A.M.”–but for whatever reason, Eminem seems incapable of rapping in a normal voice anymore. Every single one of those songs I posted has him using his Triumph The Insult Comic Dog/Arabian voice from “Azz Like That.” I don’t get that shit at all… it’s wack as hell. Hopefully dude can at least put it together long enough to be sincere when he inevitably touches upon Proof’s death.