The Way I Am (Eminem song)

"The Way I Am" is a song by the rapper Eminem, released in 2000. It was the second single from his worldwide hit album, The Marshall Mathers LP. It is also featured on his 2005 album Curtain Call: The Hits. In the tradition of most of Eminem's follow-up singles, "The Way I Am" features a much darker and emotionally driven sound than the album's lead single, which was "The Real Slim Shady." The song was named the 35th Best Song of the decade by the magazine Complex.^[1]

Background

It features the first beat Eminem produced on his own, featuring an ominous bass line, a piano loop, and chimes. In the song, Eminem lashes out at people he feels are putting too much pressure on him, including overzealous fans and record executives expecting him to top the success of his hit single "My Name Is" (though in fact he went on to do so with "The Real Slim Shady," as well as other songs). He delivers each line very aggressively, almost shouting them out.

The song has also been remixed by Danny Lohner featuring Marilyn Manson, who has performed the song with Eminem live on stage.

The song reached number 8 on the UK singles chart, while in the US it did not fare as well, not charting on the top 50. In 2005 it was released on the album Curtain Call: The Hits.

"The Way I Am" certifying Gold in Sweden, sold over 10,000 copies.^[2]

In 2008, Eminem released an autobiography titled The Way I Am.

Music video

The music video at the beginning plays a slow instrumental of his song "Kim", and part of the "Steve Berman" skit (which is the track before this song in the album), and when the song starts, it shows him about to jump out the window of a tall building, and shows him falling through the sky, in a sequence inspired by the Coen brothers film The Hudsucker Proxy, in which the hero also falls slowly from a skyscraper window.^[3] Marilyn Manson appears behind Eminem when the song refers to him—and a few more times thereafter. Other shots show fans coming up to him, asking for his autograph, as well as Eminem in his hood in front of an old house. At the end of the video, when Eminem hits the ground, it bounces him safely like a giant mattress. It was named the 19th Best Music Video of 2000's by Complex Magazine .^[4]

Throughout the music video there is little light. This is to represent his mad feelings about how Shady Records told him he had to top "My Name Is". "The Way I Am" is a reply to this request pretty much saying don't bother me I'll do what I want.

Music and lyrics

From the perspective of traditional poetic theory, almost the entire song (excluding the chorus) can be described as being written in anapestic tetrameter. However, though this poetic label accurately describes the short-short-long pattern that dominates Eminem's flow in this song, it fails to capture the musical rhythm of his delivery, which in Rap is more significant. Eminem delivers his short-short-long "anapestic" rhythm in a highly syncopated manner which is completely off the beat: he rests on the beat itself (1,2,3,4) and delivers his words on the other 16th notes (e & a), accenting the last 16th note (the same place where the kick drum hits). The rhythmic goes like 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a. This highly syncopated rhythm gives this piece much of it's dramatic tension and is identical to the rhythm of the piano accompaniment.

The chorus adapts lines from the song "As the Rhyme Goes On" from Eric B. and Rakim's debut album Paid in Full in which Rakim raps, "I'm the R, the A, to the K, I M--if I wasn't, then why would I say I am?" - Rakim would later be signed to Aftermath, but left before releasing an album.

Track listing

European CD single

UK CD single

Charts

References

External links

• "The Way I Am" Official music video on YouTube