Video Of The Week: Eminem, Big Sean & BabyTron

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Eminem made the news recently when he was the surprise headliner of the concert that marked the reopening of Michigan Central, a building whose dereliction had come to symbolize the city's financial struggles. It was a Detroit-centric show, a Detroit-centric performance with his guest stars, and he continues the theme here with fellow Detroit MC Big Sean and Michigander BabyTron, on Em's latest single, Tobey: It's a little too "trapy" for my taste, as it gets repetitive between standout lines throughout the verses, but Big Sean and Eminem have a few strokes of genius here and there, particularly the eight-bar Melle Mel diss.

25 years in and still current, with references that draw from the past and present equally. Solid.

The video itself was directed by frequent Eminem collaborator and pioneer of underground rap for the past decade Cole Bennett, from what was probably an insanely long storyboard, and the special effects are well done for something that probably didn't cost plural millions, seeing as videos aren't really a thing anymore with no ratings-driven TV station to play them.

Stupidest Lyrics Of All Time

One of my pet peeves is dumb lyrics. The main culprits, in my opinion, are Black Eyed Peas ("My Humps", the repetitive blandness - and terrible spelling - of "I Gotta Feeling", and most of the oeuvre since Monkey Business, really), The Beatles (I can forgive the drug-fueled weird-word associations like "I Am The Walrus" and "Strawberry Fields Forever", and I'll forget that "Let It Be" and "Hey Jude" are nothing but na-na-na sing-alongs for most of their duration, but there is no going past "Love Me Do", "Scrambled Eggs", "It's Only Love", "Birthday", and their worst culprit, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", urgh) and The Police ("De Do Do Do, Da Da Da"), but Drake (90% of it) and Queen ("Radio Ga Ga") surely deserve nods as well.

Montréal-based Top-10 list makers WatchMojo found and shared eight more in this video:

I can't help but feel that our civilization is doomed, if this is the culture we're spreading from one generation to the next, while self-serving McDonald's are popping up everywhere to feed us.

Remembrance Day

November is a month in which we remember
Mankind's penchant for armed conflict and slaughter

From Guy Fawkes in London to WW2 trenches
To current-day Holy Wars that boggle the senses

You can't blame the soldiers who are merely doing their jobs
But you sure as fuck can blame governments who rule like they're gods
Sending young men to die for oil and territory
With the only reward of medals and glory
In exchange for lost limbs and lost lives of their comrades
In the name of NATO or other such NORADs

Yeah. Fuck Flanders Fields.

One quote I really like about wars is this one:

I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.  

~George McGovern

I'm Deprived (Lyrics I Just Made Up)

Ain’t got a shudder, don’t need to blink

Got a million reasons to not want to think

I’m on the brink of self-elimination

My government wants to keep building fucking prisons

They laugh out loud, they have no shame

Their banker buddies tell them it’s just a game

In their downtown towers with the a/c on

We’re about to tear down, stone by stone

Weary in my sleep and worries in my soul

I’m probably going to die before I get old

Champion of lost causes since 1995

I’m deprived…

Times They Are A-Changing

Greece. Morocco. Egypt. Libya. Wisconsin. London.

People want change, they're tired of getting screwed
For once they get inspired by the shit that's on the news
Millions march in protest, progress on the move
The key to success is to not let go of the noose

Eight Cop Cars, No Ambulance 2: The Song It Inspired In Me

8 cop cars, no ambulance
To deal with man-made decadence
She lies on the sidewalk in a pool of blood
Washed away by the rain...

Lining up the belligerents
Rather than attend to the victim
They act just like the system taught them
Efficiency over wisdom

8 cop cars, no ambulance
No action-takers just observants
She lies on the sidewalk in a pool of blood
Washed away by the rain...

Why the violence?
Animals of direct descendence...
Reflects on our society
Infects my own City...
 
8 cop cars, no ambulance
But the situation is urgent
She lies on the sidewalk in a pool of blood
Washed away by the rain...

Crescent Street is Douchebag Street (and the women who love them)
Skeleton-clad shirts by Ed Hardy (what did I think would happen?)

8 cop cars, no ambulance
No action-takers just observants
She lies on the sidewalk in a pool of blood
Washed away by the rain...