The evidence of his rapping skills is easily found in the record's first single ("Not Afraid"), a three-verse barrage of puns spliced with another attempt by Eminem at a sing-song chorus.
The track reaches its climax at the end of the second verse, where the clever lyricist drops this hard-not-to-notice gem: "But it's time to exorcise these demons / These mother-f***ers are doing jumping jacks now!"
It's undoubtedly a powerful line, and one that paints a vivid picture of Eminem's personal battles. But let's rewind about three years, when he was somewhere in the doldrums between Encore (2004) and Relapse (2009) ...
In 2007, Talib Kweli unveiled his third solo album. What first comes to mind about the release of Eardrum is its eclectic gathering of musical guests; there's Kanye West, Norah Jones and even Justin Timerlake, among others (Kweli, by the way, makes quality tracks with all of them).
But the song that might dampen superlatives ladled over Eminem is "Hostile Gospel, Pt. 1 (Deliver Us)" -- and the Brooklyn-bred MC delivers, all right. Kweli is known more for his social commentary than for the composition and structure of his words -- not that he's known much in the pop culture landscape, period -- but his so-called underground status hasn't held him back and surely doesn't on this cut.
Three solid verses nearly come to a close with this lyric: "It's all backwards ... We ain't workin' out 'til we exorcise the demons that's inside of us ... "
Kweli employs the same homophone, admittedly with not as much force as Eminem but with a lead of about 1,000 days. And that should count for something.
As the search for pre-2007 usage continues, check out "Hostile Gospel, Pt. 2 (Deliver Me)" (there's also a Pt. 3 on one of Kweli's mixtapes) and a trifecta of freestyle flows, including a dominant showing by Eminem at the end.
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