Eminem Best Posts: The "No Apologies" Debate

M Solo · Aug 7, 2024

Aug 7, 2024

Zebedee said

We all know No Apologies. One of the all-time greatest Eminem songs in many o' eyes. This is gonna be quite a long post but I wanted to put into one thread all the info and discussion on this song, with it only getting its release years later than it was recorded.

It's a very simple drum beat with only a kick, snare and the odd hi-hat that simply loops throughout the whole track but it just about works. The rest of the beat is pretty much carried by Resto and his melodic playing on his keyboards. We don't know how much input Eminem had himself in any of these melodies or the main piano melody, in terms of humming etc or whether he just let Resto do his own thing.

Its almost similar to Girls, in terms of the arrangement, (Piano melody with a bass and drum beat behind it) which is the first released collab on a Cd by Eminem and Resto together. This leads me to believe No Apologies is a very early example of Eminem trying to handle the production all by himself (with Resto), without the influence of Jeff Bass or his usual drum programmer DJ Head.

When was it recorded?

I think the general consensus here now is that we agree the majority of this song was recorded somewhere between 2001-02, with 01 being the more likely due to the inflections in his voice. I think we can also agree that the final "hook" is most likely 06 Eminem. We also have 01/02 radio freestyles in which he uses both of the first two verse of No Apologies. This tells us that he already knew before the release of TES that this wasn't gonna be on the album, which is why he used the verses for freestyles instead.

But I believe it was originally @M Solo that presented a slightly different theory. The whole third verse may have been recorded in 06, during recording for the Re-Up. His evidence pointing towards this was:

- The lyrics "In mourning, so I'm warning you don't coax me" which on the surface you would assume is talking about Proof.

- The lyric "all they did was ballooned it" which doesn't make much sense and seems lazy for a prime 2001 Eminem to write. It fits 2006 Pillinem to write something like this.

- The lyric "I'm sick of talking about these tattoos cartoon did" which again, may or may not be referencing the Proof tattoo, although cartoon had done tattoos for Eminem years before too.

Solo I think claimed that overall the third verse itself was sloppier than the first two and wasn't as good. The only thing for me that makes me struggle to believe this, is Eminems voice. It just doesn't sound like 06 Eminem at all imo, even with him trying his best to imitate the voice.
In the lines "they can s--- my d-ck while I'm pukin" at the end to me is certainly the younger Em voice, not 06.

However, there is one very small part of the song, aside from the last hook, where I feel like i do hear the 06 Eminem voice. On the word "slain" from the lyric "til i'm slain cuz of some f--s infatuation" You can hear his voice go hoarse like it did a lot in 06-07, But i believe this is only on the backing vocal. So I think he did do some new backing vocal takes on the verse in 06.

Thoughts on this stanleys and any info you wanna add that hasn't been mentioned here? @M Solo

EDIT: can any producers or old Triton users find the female choir sample sound that hits on the second beat of every second bar? Always loved the way they used that sound.
Click to expand...

Great post. I've had this song on repeat since you and @BiG MONKEY posted the instrumental last week. For the last 18 years there have been a decent amount of days where I thought this is the best beat he's ever rapped over. And I'm with you that female choir is absolutely next level.

If memory serves me correct the first two verses, the chorus and the beat were all done ahead of The Eminem Show. The third verse in the outro were done late summer of 2006.

It was originally intended for The Eminem Show but they felt it would have made the album too dark so they axed it for Drips.

I know that Stimulate was replaced by Say Goodbye Hollywood but it's so wild to think that we were really close to a version of TES without Drips and with No Apologies, Stimulate and Say Goodbye Hollywood. Unreal.

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