Origin Stories Mix Part 3

15). My Name Is — EminemAt once a master of internal rhyme and toilet humor, Eminem introduced himself to the American public with “My Name Is,” a song, I would venture to say, most males of a certain age memorized front to back. Everything that would define Shady’s most fertile period is here: mommy issues, drug addiction, cheesy sound effects, Dr. Dre and mean-spirited, but often clever, digs at celebrities. Glimpses of Marshall Mathers peek through the cartoon he projects (“I just found out my mom does more dope than I do”), but Eminem’s main goal was to poke fun at the establishment, piss off some squares and become a hero for troubled youth. Now that Eminem is recording tracks with Bruno fucking Mars, it’s hard to remember how shocking and intriguing he was when he burst onto the scene.


16). Juicy — The Notorious B.I.G.

The ultimate Hip-Hop origin song, and the forefather of thousands of subsequent “I made it” anthems. In the first verse, Biggie radiates his love for the music and marvels at the surrealistic idea of being paid huge money for rhyming. In other hands, all this bragging about ends could get obnoxious, but Biggie roots every line in the past, emphasizing the struggle he once faced before he broke into the rap game. Since we understand where Christopher Wallace comes from, we don’t begrudge him his success and we get why he chooses to live a life of extraordinary luxury. Besides all that, “Juicy” is filled to the brim with great lines (“birthdays was the worst days, now we sip champagne when we thirsty”; “Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, when I was flat broke shit I couldn’t picture this”) and a high-class beat, with a bouncy sing-along bassline. And it’s all good, baby baby.


17). Through the Wire — Kanye WestThough Kanye would go into greater detail about the start of his career in “Last Call,” “Through the Wire” was an early display of Kanye’s skill for spinning tales from his personal life into compelling tracks. Kanye’s car crash was a formative incident on his artistic persona, especially in his early days, which helped him seem grateful, not just for his opportunity to become a rap star but for his life. This is probably the only track where Kanye seems (gasp!) humble. There were songs on The College Dropout that were more radio ready (“Slow Jamz,” “All Falls Down”) but Kanye released “Through the Wire” as his first single, possibly because he felt it best represented him as an artist.


18). My 1st Song — Jay-Z
My 1st Song,” is the last song on what was supposed to be, but nobody actually thought would be, Jay’s last album. The other Hip-Hop origin stories on the playlist are introductions, opening salvos that try to show the world what the artist is made of. “My 1st Song” is a retrospective, spanning the whole of his career in two verses and a drawn out shout out to all those who helped Jay on his way to the top. The first verse mines the same familiar subject as “Juicy” and millions of other Hip-Hop tracks: he started out with nothing, started selling drugs, etc. The second verse is about the necessity of maintaining a high level of passion and intensity for your rhymes throughout your career. Did Jay-Z retire because he didn’t believe he was capable of keeping up his high standard? The world will never know, because he came out with the sub-standard Kingdom Come two years later.


19). Fetus — Nas“Fetus” wins the award for traveling the furthest back into the life of the artist. It begins with Nas’s conception and ends with his birth, as he raps from the perspective of an unborn fetus. “Fetus” is thrillingly realized, if self-aggrandizing, with fascinating, disturbing images of womb life and a window into his parents’ marriage. Most rappers would not be able to sustain the pre-birth gimmick for an entire song without making it seem overly-sentimental or cheesy. What makes “Fetus” such a great origin song is that Nas finds a way to use the gimmick to give the listener a deeper understanding of the man as an artist and as a person.