Eminem Album: “Like Toy Soldiers [Germany]”

Eminem has excelled himself with this track. He has successfully released a song appealing to the world of rap to walk away from the 50 Cent/Ja Rule beef (which is basically an ongoing fight between rap artists, and sometimes gets so out of hand that it includes record companies). 50 Cent is Eminem's protege and releases his music, so although Eminem has a vested interest in this particular feud, his words reach further than this one conflict.

If you listen to rap just for the beat then you won't be disappointed, but if you hear more than just that in the songs then the the lyrics preach a great message. The rap world has has lost enough "soldiers" to quote Eminem, and if this dispute between Ja and 50 Cent escalates further, then one of them will probably end up dead. That is no overstatement (50 Cent was stabbed by Lorenzo, who owns Murder Inc., the same record company who produces Ja Rule's music, and was shot 9 times in 2000).

This song has been heard and will continue to be heard by millions, spreading the message far and wide. The clever use of the children constrasting starkly with the reality of the warfare he raps about is genius. A violent and moving video accompanies it ennuciating his lyrics.

A fantastic track, and listen carefully to the words - it is worth taking something away from this.

beat good

lyrics good

but was this based on something that happened to him like the death of someone in his clan or even Dr. Dre

I dont know anything bout dr dre so i dont know if he is dead or not

...and hand over the production duties to Dre. Or anybody else, for that matter. All of Eminem's beats sound EXACTLY alike: anemic melodies, too much snare patter - it's becoming way too redundant, to the point where you start singing "Lose Yourself" whenever you hear an Eminem beat. Eminem also seems to get a bit lazy when it comes to the hooks, sometimes sampling the ENTIRE thing directly from another song, which happens to be the case in "Like Toy Soldiers".

Only thing different about the beat in Like Toy Soldiers is the tired drum-march beat, which works okay with the context of the song, and the sampled hook, but it doesn't really sound any good. Em's lyrics are fine here (that means they're not as f'ed up as usual) - in this track he touches on his beef with Benzino, 50 Cent's old beef with Ja Rule, etc.

Eminem tries to pull out one of his trademark melodramatic tracks here, but he's done it before so many times, and the production is so weak that you can't help but overlook this single.