boutta listen to this first time because ion have school tomorrow

back when eminem was more based

back when his fanbase was (somewhat more) tolerable

fr
1999 Eminem would have very not nice words to describe 2024 Eminem
2024 Eminem is the type of people 1999 Eminem used to talk trash about.

eh
i still respect eminem as an artist overall
few artists have the type of longevity mr mathers has
i personally don't mind if he stops rapping about killing his mom n shit

and even though i don't really care for his newer shit all things considered, if we get the occasional track like "feul"
i'm fine with where he's at in his career 🤷‍♂️

same
nobody got the flow he does

like in "fuel" where he has that whole stream of "got the most content on the continent and constant compliments give me confidence" stanza
and it also has the diddy diss too

that's not why ppl got a problem with him now, it's more that he used to rap about how people got offended over nothing and how he wasn't apologizing for existing as a white rapper
now he got white guilt complex and feels he should apologize for his whole career

bro went from "will smith don't gotta cuss in his raps to sell records, well I do, so f**k him and f**k you too" to "i'm sorry i said the r word"

i doubt he feels any kind of guilt for being white honestly
it isn't 1999 anymore
the hip hop community as a whole has pretty much accepted him at this point
rappers like Nicki, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Nas, Lil Wayne, 50, etc, who had Nem featured on their projects show that nobody really gives a shit if he's white
i think the reason he's become more tame in his recent records is simply an account of maturity
it's kinda cringy to be 50 (ironically) rapping about beating up and raping women

tldr
if you prefer his older stuff, listen to his older stuff

he kinda acts like it nowadays
he used to not give a damn, and as you said, yes the rap community accepted him (matter of fact, several of them ganged on Ja Rule after he made the fatal mistake of taking a shot at Em's daughter)

I heard Ja Rule tried to regain relevance a few years ago and had a concert and 50 Cent bought all the tickets and didn't show up

i don't miss the raping women part tbh, i miss the part where he didn't give a damn about what people thought
today you can clearly see the culture got to him

ig it's a little annoying bc listening to his old stuff you'd never guess he'd fold like that

again, i don't think anything "got" to him
he simply grew up to be more mature
in 2017, when he called Tyler the f slur because Ty said Revival, Em's previous album, was digshit
he didn't later apologize to Tyler because he was "pressured" or "forced" to
he just apologized because he later thought it was wrong, because in general, Em respects Ty as a rapper.
both started out as edgy horrorcore rap artists, then later grew to be more mature, more respectful, more WISE if you will (one made way better music later on but i won't get into that)

all in all
marshall didn't fold; he just became, yet again, more mature

Then again, some people never grow up so ion think they'd understand that

well it sure did happen in accordance with the culture shift, so we really don't know
it was a very convienient timing

because the f slur also didn't get you lynched on social media until around then
and rappers used it to describe their friends in the early 2000s

so it's a little weird to suddenly "mature" when the world essentially is like "stop using words we don't like or we will cancel you or possibly even doxx you"

he've must've been pretty ignorant to the online culture for the past 5 years at the time if he only just realized that lol

i know people want to make the argument of "oh well look what cancel culture did this time!!" but sometimes i just think it's more sensible to sit down and think, "hey, why did this one guy do that?" instead of exclusively blaming cancel culture