Eminem on SNL, lip sync? [video]

Filed under: Music | 42 Comments

Did anyone else think Eminem wasn’t really live during his first song on SNL? He was performing the politically charged song Mosh. He pulled the mic down a few times but his voice kept rapping. The whole time sounding CD quality. I was waiting for him to diss Ashlee, but he never did. Does anyone have the video?

What gives SNL… Two in a row!?

Update: A local morning show posted the video… Pretty freaking obvious.

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42 Responses to “Eminem on SNL, lip sync? [video]”

  1. Sunny says:

    Are you sure if he was not poking a jab at Ashlee? It seems very likely.

  2. Jon Gales says:

    If he was poking fun at Ashlee there should have been a joke… Just being lazy isn’t funny.

  3. Sunny says:

    Yeah. Usually he is very upfront with his jokes. He did the same to Mark Wahlberg in TRL a while back (reminding him of his rapper days). Yeah, I suppose he is getting lazy.

  4. Rick Bruner says:

    I’m sure it was fake. Lemme know if the video turns up. It must.

  5. lagirl says:

    I saw the ep and he was totally lip syncing during the first song, there is one particular line where his voice is still going and his mike is nowhere near his mouth, and during the second song there were other times when he was off and you could still hear his voice. I had it Tivoed and watched it again several times to make sure. I found this page because I actually did a search for ’eminem lip sync’ because I haven’t seen the story anywhere else … why isn’t this getting any media attention like last week w/Ashlee?

  6. Jon Gales says:

    Yea, it is a shame that it hasn’t gotten coverage. Just because he didn’t run off crying doesn’t mean Eminem is not a fraud. What are we going to find out next? He voted for Bush?

  7. Hey guys,

    I’ve been running a website dedicated to the Ashlee Simpson fiasco, anyways I’ve uploaded a high-res version of Eninem lipsyncing on SNL. http://www.lipsync.us/

  8. Mal says:

    I completely agree that he was lip syncing….I also can’t believe that it has received so little media attention. I think he is getting lazy….also, he was definitely reading his lyrics off of the teleprompter at the foot of the stage…how could SNL not know that he was doing this, or Ashlee Simpson last week?

  9. Enna says:

    YEAH…ENIMEN TOTALLY LIP SYNCED THE FIRST SONG ON SNL. THE SECOND ONE I COULDN’T TELL! BUT IF I HAD TO BET…I’M SURE HE PROBABLY HAD SOME KIND OF HELP WITH A NOT SO LIVE VOICE!

    YEAH AGAIN…HOW COME ENIMEN IS NOT GETTING THE SAME PUBLICITY AS ASHLEE SIMPSON?!! THEY BOTH DID IT! MAN…SNL SHOULD BE S.N. LIP-SYNC!

  10. Duh says:

    What a bunch of ding dongs…Watch it again morons, it was the second voice that came through, and he purposely pulled the mic to get make the switch obvious (it’s the black voice that speaks when he stops). Plus his voice is doubled to give the performance the depth of the album. SNL made fun of dip-shit simpson, they don’t like any more than we do. no comparison between that talentless twinkee and Shady.

  11. thajktath says:

    I think Eminem Lip-sync was on purpose, and made those mistakes on purpose too. To get the edge off Ashley Simpson. Just to prove that all singers/rappers Lip sync too. I guess he felt bad. Eminem would NOT Lip-sync on snl live after what happened to ashleys snl performance the week earlier. So i think he did it on purpose. Just my opinion though.

  12. ChaotiK says:

    I just watched it. He lip-sync’d on purpose, you can see his eyes watching for the camera, it was planned. The 2nd sone was clearly NOT lip sync.

    The first song played a cd version in the background im sure tho, if it didn’t i don’t think that song would have been as good. it really gave it a deep / echoish tune overlapping like that which was a great performace idea

  13. jackster6 says:

    Hey,

    A lot of rappers do what Eminem did on SNL. The track that has the music also contains the vocal track and the live performer simply rhymes over his own voice track. It helps make the vocals sound fuller with an almost echo effect. It also makes it easier on the MC to stay on beat.

    This is similiar to what Ashlee Simpson did, sort of.

    Like I said a lot of rappers due it. N.W.A used to just play their CD’s at concerts and rap over them. I don’t see anything wrong with rapping over a voice track.

  14. jackster6 says:

    Also, if you check it out again, there is a definite vocal track during the Chorus of the song… (“come along…follow me… etc..). But I believe he is rapping during the verses.

    He also uses a vocal track during the chorus of “just lose it” the second song.

  15. cleeve says:

    Vocal doubling has been around as long as there has been vocals- when making a record, almost every vocal is at least doubled if not tripled for at least some of each track.
    It’s easy to do in the studio, the vocalist just sings along to his recorded voice on tape and when the two (or more) tracks are played back it sounds makes a thicker chorus effect. The catch is that when a cd track is what the audience is used to hearing on the radio or mtv whatever, the live performance will sound pathetic and weak if only a single measly voice is coming through the live sound. The old way to deal with this is by having some guy in the band or a backing vocalist double the lead vocal live on stage. Another way is to use an electronic delay with a little pitch bend to simulate the doubled vocal, but that only works with certain things, like Ozzy.
    So now with easily sync-ed up digital recording, it’s easiest to just ‘pipe in’ the double vocal and let the live performer vocalize along with that.
    Since eminem is pretty much a one man act, he’s gotta do something live to simulate what you hear on the cd..

    Rap is harder to double live using a backing vocalist, because it’s not really sung, but spoken, and there’s no way of really writing down the various emphasis and tone variations that the backing vocalist would need to follow in order to be exactly ‘on top’ of the lead vocal. The electronic-bend delay method fails with rap because the words are too percussive and short in duration for the pitch bent delay to be noticible, and if you get the delay too long, you start to jumble the vocal, sounding like the confused echo crap you hear in a high school gym school assembly or a train station announcer.

    So the only salvation is to have an identical twin that you always rehearse with, double with a digital track, or sound weak.

    That said, it was funny as heck that he pulled the mic away like he did.. it was fully calculated to be just noticeable enough..
    clever guy..

  16. evilpuppy says:

    Yea, I hope he went to his dressing room embarassed. Especially since there were so many jokes that episode about A. Simpson. SNL never used to do such things. This just shows how weak pop music is. Real hip-hop artists would shrill at the thought of lip syncing.

    Sell out.

  17. jjron says:

    Rap is’nt harder to “double” in a live setting, it just takes practice (imagine that). Also, you don’t need an identical twin to pull it off in a live setting, I have seen several rappers pull off their songs live with backup rappers/singers. I would also like to add that there is “nothing” in Eminems music that is rythmically complex, it is all simplistic and in 4/4 time. If he was trying to pull off some polyrythmic thing with the vocals ( 5/7 against 7/8 for instance) it might take more work.

    Finally, some of you people are using the Ad Populum fallacy to “try” and justify what Eminem and Ashee did. Just because lots of people do something, it does’nt neccassarily make it right.

  18. jd1pek says:

    I don’t think he was lip sinking, just like all of his tracks he has multiple tracks and he was singing with a track playing in the bg.

  19. Golfer5600 says:

    A lot of rappers have backing tracks for the choruses and they sing the verses…

  20. hi says:

    Eminem does not lip sync!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if anyone says he does ur stupid and you dont no anything about him one thing eminem does not do is lip sync he is a an orignal rapper that does his own music and sings his own music and so if you think he lip sings then you can kiss my ass and his fags

  21. Stevie says:

    This is ridiculous, I can’t believe so many people think that what Eminem did was Lip-Syncing. As noted above by cleeve, this is very common in the hip-hop industry and is generally done on the hook to help the MC both stay on beat and help him catch his breadth after doing a verse.

    Traditionally the hook is sampled. Hip-Hop has always been about sampling, this is normal. Lazy? Sell Out? Jesus christ, just calm down.

  22. gcnsgd says:

    shut up Hi. You dont know him.

  23. Vicki says:

    Haha I love Eminem.

  24. mark says:

    He wasn’t lip syncing. He sings with his
    recorded song playing in the background. He did
    the last time he was on snl too (when “the real
    slim shady” came out).

  25. tom says:

    Rappers dont “sing” they “rap” which means in ters that the hook of the song – which is of least importaince is never sung live. it dates back to the smapling days of RUN-DMC where the hook was from another artist. hope this helps to explain a little

  26. ranbo says:

    i totally agree with what the person said earlier about doing it on purpose. how he constantly was looking down at a teleprompter and was off with his words/timing was obviously staged. give him a little credit as a professional and a comedian. it had to be a joke. i’m sure he would have done a little more practice in memorizing his lyrics if it weren’t.

  27. sean says:

    I’m a fan of both Ashlee and Eminem. Just because he lip synced doesn’t mean you can’t like him, and Ashlee can sing,if you watch the Ashlee Simpson show she does sing and she has sung well live before, a little pitchy but when you’re singing in front of thousands of people it’s hard. And ya in the recording studio she’s flat or sharp sometimes,but EVERYONE is in the recording studio (I own one), it takes them a few tries before they can get on key. People who can’t sing judge to easily, Em’s music is good,but there’s not talent in it and the guy can’t sing either,Ashlee’s not the best,but she’s not bad.

  28. ashley sucks ass! says:

    ashley suckz and she lip syncs….shez a wanna- b punker and she just wants to be more famious than her sister!fuck u ashley..but i love tour sister!****

  29. Always a EmInEm FAN! says:

    eminem did not lip-sync…he would not do that! he knows he has a talent and he will show it!!We all love you EM..from. Alyse,Kryss,caleb,and taylor!!

  30. god says:

    Who cares if its a “norm”? That doesnt make it right. These performers should actually be able to perform. If they can’t sing their own lyrics, they shouldnt be on stage in the first place. Ashlee and Eminem are talentless.

  31. James says:

    You guys are retarded. All rappers lipsync the chorus. You can hear at the end of the video that it’s his voice. This shouldn’t even be a question in the air if you guys can’t realize that rappers don’t rap the chorus live. Pick up your games. all y’all

  32. hi says:

    i dont think eminem lip syncs bcuz i hav his cd encore and ive seen 8 mile he soooooo sing the songs he dont lip sync

  33. jessica says:

    WHAT THE FUCK…eminem is the best..he would never lip since and he hot and i love him soo fuck off all og you faggots okayy ezzpeace i love u eminem

  34. jess says:

    u r all retards h eis the cutest man in the world and he would never lip syns! u need to find something better to do then sit around and insult the greatest rapper ever!!!!!!!!!! even if he did lip sync which he definetly didn’t it was only a 1 time thing go dis ashley simpson she is the lip syncer!

  35. jess says:

    i am ur biggest fan ever eminem i luv u and all the peeps on this site are fags!

  36. jess says:

    hi alyssa, sarah w., sam, jenn, lauren,whitney, sarah A.,maggie and liam, EVERYONE! I LOVE EMINEM!!!!!!!!!!

  37. jess says:

    I HATE U AMANDA!

  38. jess says:

    THE ONLY THING THAT IS WRONG WITH EMINEM IS THE RUMER MY FRIEND TOLD ME ABOUT HIM GOING OUT WITH ASHEY SIMPSON! HER SISTER IS COOL BUT NOT HER! EMINEM IS THE BEST AND HE DOSNT HAV TIME TO LISTEN TO THIS CRAP!

  39. jess says:

    hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  40. jess says:

    i love eminem

  41. jess says:

    happy early bday em!

  42. Mike says:

    eminem is a lip syncing bitch. And i hate when his stupid fans (who are mostly hip gangster wannbes) say he raps over a pre recorded track because he raps so fast so what thats lip syncing eminem fucking sucks I hate him so much. Most rappers suck Live ne ways with exepton of the Beastie Boys who play all there instruments live and they dont have pre recorded tracks playing in the backround like eminem does. Its so sad eminem is headlining all the sweet festivals this year since hes a lip syncing bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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