Eminem annotates own lyrics on Genius

The rap legend is one of an increasing number of artists who’ve taken to explaining their lyrics via the website

or those that aren’t aware – though we’d be surprised if many songwriters aren’t! – Genius is a lyrics website that doesn’t just reproduce song lyrics, it actually explains what they’re about. Founded as RapGenius in 2009, the site changed its name simply to Genius in 2014 following the addition of new sections such as PopGenius, RockGenius, CountryGenius and even LitGenius, the latter offering York Notes-style explanations of novels and other fiction.

Since then, a number of high-profile writers have taken to annotating their own lyrics on the website. These include Wu-Tang’s RZA, GZA and Raekwon, Fall Out Boy, John Legend… and now Eminem, who recently signed up to share some insights on his writing process. Here’s what he has to say about D12’s Purple Pills, for instance:

Eminem’s annotation of the lyric to ‘Purple Pills’

And here are some thoughts on rhyme patterns in Lose Yourself:

For a full list of Eminem’s annotations to date, click here.

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