In several interviews, Eminem said he drew a lot of inspiration from rapper Treach from Naughty by Nature. Treach isn't that well-known these days and it's crying shame. He's an amazing MC with immaculate sense of wordplay, rhyming and flow. If you wanna know his stuff a bit better, go check out O.P.P, Feel Me Flow, Hip Hop Hooray, and Yoke the Joker.
Yoke the Joker in particular is special for multiple reasons. First, as a fan of playing with language, it has an amazing part that keeps repeating the sound S (do listen to it, it goes crazy). Second, when this came out, Eminem was still near the start of his own career, and when he heard it, he didn't write a single rhyme for the whole summer.
He almost quit rap altogether, because after hearing Treach he thought "I'm never gonna be this good".
It's a bit pretentious to compare myself to Eminem, but I'm having a similar feeling reading works by people who are so talented at writing. It's a delight to read of course, but that thought does keep creeping in, even if I know it's not a fair comparison and that it's just ego. I thought the anecdote was interesting to share though.
Breakdown, feel the party;
Put your hands together everybody!
All the ladies in the house I call the honies first,
'Cause it's pure and ya sure, sure ta get your money's worth.
So just...