Rhyme Or Reason

This song finds Eminem twisting English rock band The Zombies' 1968 hit single "Time Of The Season" into a sad ballad that touches on the disappearance of his father. The Zombies' Rod Argent told Rolling Stone that he is very pleased with how the Detroit MC sampled their tune. "I actually loved it," he said. "I loved the way he takes words and phrases from the original record and then spins off of the particular phrases. It kicks him off onto an avalanche of funny wordplay and invention. It's very amusing. It's a waterfall of words, and the associations just keep coming."

The song was produced by Rick Rubin, who Eminem refers to as the "Yoda of rap" (Yoda is one of the oldest and most respected Jedi knights in the Star Wars movie series). Speaking during a Q&A session mediated by Sway Calloway, Eminem explained that he calls Rubin "Yoda," because of the legendary producer's amazing ability to work across, and master, so many musical genres.

The phrase neither rhyme or reason refers to something with an absence of sense, from both a poetic and logical standpoint. The term originated in France where it was said that because a piece of badly rhymed verse is at best distracting and at worst nonsensical, such poor poetry was "sans rime ni raison.'' The first English recording was by John Russell, in The Boke of Nurture, c1460: "As for ryme or reson, ye forewryter was not to blame, For as he founde hit afore hym, so wrote he ye same."