Top 10 Eminem Verses
For this list, we will be breaking down Em's best verses to date, but will be excluding guest verses, such as his appearance on the Dr. Dre classic “Forgot About Dre”.
#10: “Drug Ballad” feat. Dina Rae Verse 1
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Ever the storyteller, Eminem takes listeners on a journey into the depths of his own depravity with this silky smooth introductory verse. “Drug Ballad”, from Em's seminal 2000 album “The Marshall Mathers LP”, delved into his well documented history of drug and alcohol abuse with lines like “We used to mix Hen' with Bacardi Dark” and “I'm so high that I might die”. In verse one Em invites us to enter his intoxicated mind as he meanders his way through a fictional house party. It’s the kind of fun-loving, listen-with-friends track that the iconoclastic rapper simply does not make anymore.
#9: “No Love" ft. Lil' Wayne Verse 2
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Eminem held nothing back on this track, spitting fire with impactful lines like “I ain't never giving in again / Caution to the wind, complete freedom” and showing off his trademark wit with gems like “'Til I'm toppling from the top I'm not going to stop, I'm standing on my Monopoly board / That means I'm on top of my game and it don't stop, 'til my hip don't hop anymore”. It basically turns Lil Wayne’s verse into an afterthought, with one critic quipping that Wheezy was basically relegated to the role of a “hype man for a whole two and a half minutes.” True to his word, Em’ was alive and well on this track.
#8: “Square Dance” Verse 2
“The Eminem Show” is filled with so many iconic songs, including this stand out. “Square Dance” saw Eminem exercising a few political demons, lamenting America’s involvement in Iraq and calling out then President George W, Bush, the U.S. senate and even Uncle Sam! Verse 2 paints a compelling picture of world in which young men are drafted and sent to fight a political war on foreign soil, something Eminem rails against with acerbic wit and piecing hyperbole. The entire song is a middle finger to Eminem’s perceived enemies, but the second verse contains the best jabs
#7: “Sing for the Moment” Verse 1
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Imbued with emotion from the first chord thanks to a sample of Aerosmith’s “Dream On”, “Sing for the Moment” featured an Eminem locked and loaded and ready to take on a range of different subjects. However, it’s the song’s first verse that hits home the hardest, with the Mathers taking shots at the difficult upbringings of early 2000s youth. It’s clear that Eminem is drawing from his own turbulent past, but makes his lyrics ubiquitous enough that they can be applied to any era, past, present or future. Best lyric? His house is a broken home, there's no control, he just let's his emotions / Go”.
#6: “Rap God” Verse 3
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Eminem spits lyrics the way Stephen King writes novels: quickly. And his rapid-fire flow was never more on display than in “Rap God’s” third verse. In the verse he manages to run through a slew of different styles and tempos and drops more metaphors in three minutes than most rappers deliver in an entire album. As the title of the track implies and the third verse confirms, Eminem is truly a “Rap God”. The Grammy nominated song features Em spazzing out for nearly 6 minutes, dropping a ton of diverse references that both established his cultural longevity and his affinity for rap history.
#5: “Just Don’t Give a F*ck” Verse 1
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Few song titles personify an artist as succinctly as this. “Just Don’t Give” functioned as both a brilliant introduction to an up and coming rapper, and a perfect embodiment of Eminem’s core mantra. And while the entire song is peppered with tiny moments of personal introspection the first verse is easily the best. Instead of inviting listeners to question what he’s all about Em straight up tells them with lines like “My name is Marshall Mathers, I'm an alcoholic” and going on to say he’ll slit your throat and he’s coming for your cash. If it weren’t for the head-bobbin’ beat, we’d be terrified.
#4: “The Way I Am” Verse 1
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After “My Name Is”, record company executives were pressing Eminem to pen another radio hit. His response was “The Way I Am”, a dark and brooding song about the perils of fame and the pressures that comes with obtaining mainstream success. The song as a whole is brilliant, but it’s the first verse that seals it. It features a clearly agitated Eminem lashing out at everyone and anyone, including music critics, fans and boy bands like N’SYNC. He closes with the line “I don't mean to be mean but it's all I can be, it's just me.” That pretty much says it all.
#3: “'Till I Collapse” feat. Nate Dogg Verse 2
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In just one verse Eminem displays three complex and wildly different emotions. First, he reveals admiration for his craft with the line “there's a certain feeling you get /When you're real and you spit and people are feeling your sh*t”. Next, he shows off a vulnerable side by saying “This is your moment and every single minute you spittin' / Trying to hold onto it 'cause you may never get it again.” Finally, he expresses humility, listing eight rappers ahead of himself on his self-proclaimed “greatest rappers of all time” list.
#2: “Stan” feat. Dido Verse 3 and 4
When the real Slim Shady finally stood up he produced an opus of magnanimous proportions, laced in tragedy and told in four brilliantly distinct verses. Listening as the titular character prepares to kill himself all because his musical hero wouldn’t write him back is brutal, but it becomes all the more real when Eminem finally responds, realizing in time that the man on the news and “Stan” are one and the same. “Stan” isn’t a song; it’s a Greek tragedy. Rolling Stone listed it as one of their “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” and after just one listen; it’s easy to understand why.
#1: “Lose Yourself” Verse 1
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Eminem’s most well known verse not only helped him take home an Oscar for Best Original Song, but also solidified him as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Everyone and their grandmother can recite the lines, with each one having permeated itself into the hearts and minds of a generation of music lovers the world over. The passion that Em puts into the verse is unmatched, setting the stage for what has since become his most iconic track. Seriously, you know you’ve written a masterpiece when people are using a song with the words “mom’s spaghetti” as their workout inspiration.
