"So Far..." is a song by American hip hop

recording artist A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

, taken from his eighth studio album ''

The Marshall Mathers LP 2 ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'' is the eighth studio album by American rapper Eminem. It was released on November 5, 2013 by Aftermath Entertainment, Shady Records, and Interscope Records. The album is Eminem's last to have the involvement of inde ...

'' (2013). The song discusses Eminem meditating on the pitfalls of fame and the tendency for things to go wrong at the worst possible moment. The song was

produced Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

by the album's

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights ...

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popu ...

. "So Far" features samples from the

Joe Walsh Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: the James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr ...

recording "

Life's Been Good "Life's Been Good" is a song by American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joe Walsh that first appeared on the soundtrack to the 1978 film '' FM''. The original eight-minute version was released on Walsh's 1978 album '' But Seriously ...

" and also contains samples of " P.S.K. What Does It Mean?" as performed by

Schoolly D Jesse Bonds Weaver Jr. (born June 22, 1962), better known by the stage name Schoolly D (sometimes spelled Schooly D), is an American rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Career Schoolly D teamed up with DJ Code Money in the mid-1980s. His ...

Change the Beat "Change the Beat" is a song written and recorded by Fab Five Freddy, and one of the most sampled songs in music history. It was recorded at Martin Bisi's OAO Studio in Brooklyn, New York, United States, (later, BC Studio) and released as a 12" s ...

by Beside, as well as "

The Real Slim Shady "The Real Slim Shady" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his third album ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' (2000). It was released as the lead single a month before the album's release. "The Real Slim Shady" was Eminem's first song to reach num ...

" and "I'm Back" by himself. The song was met with generally positive reviews from

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mu ...

s upon the album's release and debuted at number three on the US ''Billboard''

Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

Background and theme

In the song, Eminem details pitfalls of fame and the tendency for things to go wrong at the worst possible moment, as he uses the song to take a look at his life of living in the "glass house of fame." Also he states the awkwardness that interacting with fans can be sometimes. As explained during an interview with

Sway Calloway Sway Calloway is an American journalist, radio personality, executive producer and former rapper. Known as Sway, he is known for hosting music, news, and culture programming. He was the co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show ''The Wake Up ...

. Additionally, he references two of his songs from ''

The Marshall Mathers LP ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' is the third studio album by American rapper Eminem, released on May 23, 2000, by Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. The album was produced mostly by Dr. Dre and Eminem, along with The 45 King, the Bas ...

'', "I'm Back" and "

". At the end of the second verse, he raps "The other day someone got all elaborate/And stuck a head from a fucking dead cat in my mailbox", a reference to the song "I'm Back", where he raps "I used to get punked and bullied on my block/'Till I cut a kitten's head off and stuck it in this kid's mailbox". During this line, the beat also changes to the original beat from "I'm Back". He then says "Went to Burger King, they spit on my onion rings/I think my karma is catching up with me". This creates a continuation from "The Real Slim Shady", where he raps "And every single person is a Slim Shady lurking/He could be working at Burger King, spitting on your onion rings." Here the beat then changes to the beat used in "The Real Slim Shady". He also mentions listening to

Ludacris Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), known professionally as Ludacris (, homophonous with 'ludicrous' in American English), is an American rapper, actor, record producer and record executive. Born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludac ...

while complaining that technology is hurting the distribution of real rap, and name drops his

Shady Records Shady Records is an American record label founded by rapper Eminem and his manager Paul Rosenberg, after the highly successful release of Eminem's '' The Slim Shady LP'' (1999). Shady has seen negative times when being part of the unsuccessful ...

-signee

Yelawolf Michael Wayne Atha (born December 30, 1979), better known by his stage name Yelawolf, is an American rapper. Born in Alabama and raised in Tennessee, he embarked on his career independently in 2005, releasing one extended play (EP) and four mixt ...

. Eminem also states his self-deprecating observations of aging.

Composition

The song was

and written by Eminem,

and Jesse Weaver. Like other Rubin productions on the album, it features a heavy use of samples. In all "So Far..." features samples from the

recording "

" and contains excerpts of " P.S.K. What Does It Mean?" as performed by

. It was recorded by Mike Strange, Joe Strange and Tony Campana at Effigy Studios in Michigan and Jason Lader at Shangri La Studios in

Malibu, California Malibu ( ; es, Malibú; Chumash: ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate and its strip of the Mali ...

. Additional keys were provided by Luis Resto.

Critical reception

"So Far..." was met with generally positive reviews from

s. Luke Fox of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'' praised the song's production as one of the album's best beat choices. Dan Rys stated, songs like "So Far" will "grow on you by getting stuck in your head, and before long you’ll know every word and skip ahead to hear the familiar refrains and deft flows." Jon Caramanica writing for the ''

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'' said the song is, "a reminder that Eminem has never settled on a musical aesthetic, only a strategy of rhyme." Jesal 'Jay Soul' Padania of RapReviews.com said, "Rick Rubin pops up for the third time and kills it (alongside the star of the show) on the cracking Detroit anthem "So Far..." - a song that conveniently shows up everything wrong with "Berzerk"." ''

The Metro Times The ''Detroit Metro Times'' is a progressive alternative weekly located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the largest circulating weekly newspaper in the metro Detroit area. History and content Supported entirely by advertising, it is distributed f ...

'' and the ''

Philly Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Penns ...

'' praised the song's humor. Nick Catucci writing for ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

'' praised the use of the Joe Walsh sample. In a negative review Mike Diver of '' Clash'' said, "It’s so awful that it should be scratched from every physical copy of this album, immediately." ''

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

'' ranked the song at number 41 on their list of the best songs of 2013.

Chart performance

References

{{Eminem singles 2013 songs Eminem songs Song recordings produced by Rick Rubin Songs written by Eminem Songs written by Joe Walsh