Two other things Eminem did right in 2002 - very right, almost to the point of making them his own art form - were the use of unique meters in his rhymes, often syncopated with the beat; and in "Lose Yourself" what was perhaps the apex of "bending" the phonetic pronunciation of words in order to match many syllables in a rhyme scheme. It starts out: "His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy / There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti / He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready" and never lets up.
Rakim and Big Daddy Kane started it all with polysyllabic rhymes on tracks like "Follow the Leader" and "Ain't No Half Steppin", and Nas and AZ took it to the next level on "Life's A Bitch", but here, Em takes those influences and carries rhyming not only to its next logical step but almost to the breaking point of what hip hop and language are capable of.
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