Eminem on SNL

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I didn't see another thread. So, did anybody else notice that he was lip-synching "Mosh" (and seemed to be staring down at lyrics on a teleprompter at his feet)?

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Sunday, 31 October 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Perhaps he was asserting solidarity with Ashleeeeee.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 31 October 2004 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

shoulda worn an 'ill-fitting shirt'

― dave q, Sunday, 31 October 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

acid reflux for all

― maura (maura), Sunday, 31 October 2004 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

nervous jigs for all

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Sunday, 31 October 2004 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, I saw part of this. It was pretty obvious he was lip-synching. At one point he took the mic away from his mouth, and the voice kept going for another half a second. So unless it was some crazy reverb, the dude was lip-synching.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 1 November 2004 00:02 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG EMINEM HAS NO TALENT EITHER CALL THE ROCKIST POLICE

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Monday, 1 November 2004 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Eminem in trying to subvert faded strawman shocker.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 1 November 2004 00:30 (twenty-one years ago)

eminem was doing a quite common lip-synch thing and, presumably, what ashlee was trying to do -- rapping along with his own taped vocal. for most of his performance, his voice was clearly double-tracked, suggesting there was one eminem vocal on tape and another happening live. when he took the mic away from his mouth, the vocal would keep going but the double-tracking would disappear. at least that's how it sounded to me.

but that's still lip-synching, and it shows an amazing level of non-self-awareness that they'd do two separate bits on "weekend update" to make fun of ashlee on the same show that eminem was more or less doing the same thing.

on the other hand, kudos to both eminem and SNL for doing that song on the eve of the election. i don't care if he was lip-synching or if that was just a hologram of him on the SNL stage. it was a cool gesture either way.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 1 November 2004 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i can't think of any rappers who perform live without the pre-taped vocal track to rap along with.

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 1 November 2004 02:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Understandable. The risk is too high. For a rapper, fumbling a line is infinitely more embarrassing than hitting a sour note is for an average rock/pop singer.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 1 November 2004 04:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Understandable

you *are* kidding, right? fumbling a line would be infinitely more embarrassing than that for, say, a stage actor, but i don't see them lip-synching too often (at least i don't think i do!). if the average rapper can't memorize the two tracks he's got to perform on the average tv show or radio concert, then, um, perhaps he shouldn't be performing on a tv show or radio concert.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 1 November 2004 06:43 (twenty-one years ago)

um, well, one of em's things is the complex split-second timing of various versions of himself, sometimes doubletracked, pro-tools as representation of devil/angel schizophrenia etc etc but this is very well understood at this late hour yes??

― g--ff (gcannon), Monday, 1 November 2004 07:36 (twenty-one years ago)

apologists!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 1 November 2004 09:12 (twenty-one years ago)

De La Soul doesn't do this (at least they didn't in '92 or '97).

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Understandable. The risk is too high. For a rapper, fumbling a line is infinitely more embarrassing than hitting a sour note is for an average rock/pop singer.

Oh please COME ON! The risK? THIS IS WHAT PERFROMING IS ALL ABOUT, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!. Be you a rapper or a singer or a juggler or a yodeler or a plate-spinner. It's about being PREPARED AND REHEARSED.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 November 2004 13:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Dude, if he can't rap it live, then he should stick to the studio. It's true that his songs rely on timing, but if it can't be done live, it shouldn't be attempted.

On the other hand, it's show business, which is just a big hoax anyway, and if people are buying it, he ought to sell it.

So I guess it's a question of integrity for integrity's sake -vs- giving the people what they want.

In other words, I don't care, but I already types all this, so [Submit]

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 1 November 2004 13:02 (twenty-one years ago)

oh christ. i am so tired of all this mock outrage. performers (rappers, pop singers and otherwise) have been doing this for eons. was the ashlee simpson mistake really that revelatory to anyone?!

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 1 November 2004 13:17 (twenty-one years ago)

was the ashlee simpson mistake really that revelatory to anyone?!

No, it's merely schadenfreude.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 November 2004 13:23 (twenty-one years ago)

He should have moved the mic away from his mouth at the end of the song so that people could plainly see that hew was lip-synching and then it would have all been a cuhraaaaazy joke and we all would have laughed along with the loveable scamp. I'm actually more disappointed that he didn't do something rad like bring a flaming bush head on a stick out on stage. That's kinda why i stayed up to watch. a little piece of paper with "vote" written on it? kinda sad, really. especially since he was all alone up there. He shoulda had a black-hooded army behind him holding signs with pictures of dead Iraqi kids and dead soldiers on them. But that's just me. I'm always rooting for eminem to not turn into a toothless bearded hag like madonna just yet. I think the video was a nice touch.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 1 November 2004 13:26 (twenty-one years ago)

a toothless bearded hag like madonna

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 November 2004 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

On 60 Minutes last nite they showed that Ashlee was clearly worried about losing her voice during the dress rehearsal. she ran off the stage crying and holding her throat before the show went on the air. they were filming a thing on lorne michaels and they caught the whole thing.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 1 November 2004 13:29 (twenty-one years ago)

lorne michaels also said performers didn't lip-synch on the show which is humorous because both britney and janet jackson were obviously lip-synching last year.

― tricky (disco stu), Monday, 1 November 2004 13:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, I think the reason so many rappers do this is not so that they have a guide vocal but so that they have a studio-perfect beat going behind them (Missy Elliott does this all the time but never ever follows the cadence of the recorded vocal).

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 1 November 2004 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

because both britney and janet jackson were obviously lip-synching last year....

And Jennifer Lopez.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 November 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Every time Em has been on SNL, he has A) used a teleprompter really obviously, B) lip-synced; EXCEPT when he did "Forgot About Dre" with Dre and Snoop. Which was a REALLY GOOD performance. What a confusing asshat.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 1 November 2004 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

there is not excuse for this sort of shit. the performance of 'mosh' was shitty, not just because he was lip-synching and reading a teleprompter, but also because he didn't move at all, he had no stage presence whatsoever. it was like a coffee shop open mic, except those guys usually don't get to bring their lyrics on stage.

i can understand why some rappers do it, rap songs usually have more lyrics than other genres do, but i mean, even i, an 18 year old emcee, have the capacity to perfectly memorize and perform shit that i wrote. how hard is it to memorize something you 1] wrote and 2] perform live pretty much every day of your life? maybe he should learn to cover shit up if he fucks up, instead of using a backing track as a crutch?

― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Monday, 1 November 2004 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

not to mention that there are many many 18 year olds out there who know the words to every em song backwards and forwards.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 1 November 2004 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, I think the reason so many rappers do this is not so that they have a guide vocal but so that they have a studio-perfect beat going behind them

so why don't they just bring along a tape or file or a studio-perfect beat, WITHOUT A GUIDE VOCAL TRACK?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 1 November 2004 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

(rollie, yr only 18? wow)

― m. (mitchlnw), Monday, 1 November 2004 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

why are indie fans such dick heads

― 2te£kz, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

"indie fans"

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

If anything, it's the part of me that's been to umpteen kickass rowdy liver-than-fuck hip-hop shows that is most disappointed by Em's TV "performances". I mean, if someone like the oft-maligned KOOL KEITH can handle 90 minutes of ACTUALLY RAPPING into a microphone with NO BACKING TRACK and NO TELEPROMPTING for songs with such simple hooks as "MAKE UP YOUR MIND, WHO YOU WANT TO PUMP THE BUTT?" surely the oh-so-grandious-and-inspired-Marshall-Mathers might be able to handle a barely five minute performance unaided...surely.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

when i saw kool keith he used a backing tack and made no attempt to hide it.

― timothy, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

pwn?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Really? I've seen Keith SEVEN times and he's NEVER used a backing track.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

counter-pwn?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

it was on the black elvis tour (though he did a lot from sex styles and dr. oc.) he didnt do no freestyles or nothin. he wore a helmet for the first few songs (hard to sing through that) then when he took it off you could hear two keiths.

― timothy, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

ha ha he DID do the SPACE HELMET when I saw him. And then Black Silver spent like ten minutes asking us "y'all ready for KEEF!?!" and we were like "YEAH" and this went on almost forever. Then he took it off and they did "Sex Style". This was also Black Elvis tour.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 21:19 (twenty-one years ago)

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