Eminem ft. Big Sean & BabyTron - Tobey (Thoughts)

Initial thoughts

Eeh, it's alright... A very good rap song, but IMO, not worth the hype.

He told fans it's dropping midnight and then it didn't, until it finally dropped like 7-15h later (our time difference is 7h, the timeline's a bit hazy for me).

With trolling and hype like that, I expected something world-altering. Again, the song's good. But I'm still disappointed.

Everyone on the track is a great rapper, I like the beat, the hook isn't too repetitive or annoying...

What I gather from the lyrics is that there's not really anything new to gather. You're a GOAT? We know. Tell us something we don't know.

Kind of a badass move to drop on a Thursday, since Friday is hands down the best day to drop.

I liked the Wes Craven bars, though. Great movies. RIP.

Knox's reaction

https://youtu.be/DnEVKGxhN9I?si=87MNrhbHPDwvGj06

12h later, got it.

I just knew it wasn't between 7am to 10:30am when I was awake but hadn't yet left for work, and then it wasn't at 5pm when Knox dropped a video saying it didn't drop, and then I didn't check after that, apparently it dropped around 7pm, when I got off from work. I noticed when I was going to bed, around midnight, that he had in fact dropped the song.

I do consider myself an Eminem fan, but I'm not sacrificing my sleep because of him. Or pretty much any artist, except maybe if Ashnikko said she was dropping at a time when I'm normally asleep, I'd rearrange my sleep schedule accordingly, but I'm not sure if I'd even do that for her...

Ok, so there's some pretty nice doubles from all of them. It's still just another hiphop song boasting about how great they are. Talking a lot, but not saying anything.

I like how Knox found a connection to old beefs. That gives the song at least some relevance and purpose.

And Knox opened some of Em's bars, he does have a reason to write a song like this now. There have been a bunch of people who don't like Eminem, i.e. Melle Mel, and that has sort of created a need for this song. Either a need for him to express his thoughts about these opinions or a need to say something back to them. Knowing him, probably the latter. What they say doesn't get to him, but he's just like "Nah, y'all wrong, I'm a GOAT".

Ok, sure. This does raise my opinion about this song.

Closing thoughts

I noticed another thing about the lyrics: Em says "Shady gone, but maybe I'm the GOAT".

YESS! When he dropped the previous song I had a bunch of theories about what I think the album might be about, The Death of Slim Shady. And the theory I didn't really believe in but what I hoped the album would be is Shady coming back, and going out with a bang, getting a proper farewell with the album, and then Eminem continuing his career without Shady. This bar might hint that that theory is not completely bonkers, there might be something there...

There doens't seem to be a music video... Somehow I guessed one won't be dropping, at least not now, since the song was delayed so much.

The song's alright. Like, technical aspects are a 10/10, the beat is nice, the hook is hooking and not annoying. The lyrical matter is a bit better now that I've seen Knox's breakdown of it. It's a solid song, there's nothing wrong with it per se. The lyrical matter just ain't my thing - I still do not understand what's so cool about boasting. I blame it on being somewhat new to hiphop (been listening for 1,5 years actively) and cultural differences (I'm Finnish, being humble is a virtue, being arrogant is a character flaw).