Like Toy Soldiers is one of Encoreâs masterpieces of work.. The chorus is a sample of Martika, a Cuban American artist and actress. You will learn more about Martika on the following website.
Like Toy Soldiers fully exposes us the dangerous character of hip hop beefs and how easy it is to get involved in a war most of the rappers would prefer to avoid if they could.
Hip hop wars made us lose Tupac and Biggie in 1996 and 1997. Many beefs can end in bloody wars and thatâs exactly what Eminem would like to avoid:
« I’m supposed to be the soldier who never blows his composure
Even though I hold the weight of the whole world on my shoulders
I am never supposed to show it, my crew ain’t supposed to know it
Even if it means goin’ toe to toe with a Benzino it don’t matter
I’d never drag them in battles that I can handle unless I absolutely have to
I’m supposed to set an example
I need to be the leader, my crew looks for me to guide ’em
If some shit ever just pop off, I’m supposed to be beside ’em⦠»
Eminem is a like a courageous soldier and he is never afraid of his enemies. People who have followed the great emceeâs battles with Benzino had the pleasure to listen to Benzinoâs lyrical murder.
Marshall is also supposed to set an example for his crew and to show loyalty to them by sticking up for them in case of trouble.
Because he signed 50 Cent to Shady Records, Eminem got involved in a huge beef with Ja Rule, Irv Gotti and the whole Murder Inc crew.
Attentive spectators of the Eminem/ Ja Rule have noticed how personal this beef became in no time.
Ja Rule dared attacking Hailie in his song, which is certainly the attitude of a coward. I will never understand why people dare going that far. In Eminemâs case, most of his enemies are not that well weaponed lyrically to drop their bomb against him. Attacking an innocent child is easier. It is also a sure way to get a reaction from Eminem- and some more publicity:
« ow Ja said ‘I tried to squash it, it was too late to stop it’
There’s a certain line you just don’t cross and he crossed it
I heard him say Hailie’s name on a song and I just lost it
It was crazy, this shit be way beyond some Jay-z and Nas shit
And even though the battle was won, I feel like we lost it⦠»
Marshall has put so much energy in a lyrical beef that the Shady camp has eventually won. But this hard war has left him exhausted. Now Marshall is tired of those beefs. He clearly addresses to his enemies and shows his determination to squash them.
He makes you understand how much he is fed up with those useless beefs. Eminem also reminds us that he never got involved in the beef opposing Dr Dre to Suge Knight.
Eminem is a huge contributor to hip hop culture, he doesnât want to be an annihilator of what he helped build :
« spent too much energy on it, honestly I’m exhausted
And I’m so caught in it I almost feel I’m the one who caused it
This ain’t what I’m in hip-hop for, it’s not why I got in it
That was never my object for someone to get killed
Why would I wanna destroy something I help build
It wasn’t my intentions, my intentions was good
I went through my whole career without ever mentionin’ Suge
Now it’s just out of respect for not runnin’ my mouth
And talkin’ about something that I knew nothing about
Plus Dre told me stay out, this just wasn’t my beef
So I did, I just fell back, watched and gritted my teeth
While he’s all over t.v. down talkin’ a man who literally saved my life
Like fuck it i understand this is business
And this shit just isn’t none of my business
But still knowin’ this shit could pop off at any minute cuz ⦠»
Marshall is conscious to have a lot of true and loyal soldiers within his Shady camp, but also among the numerous persons who support him:
“We still have soldiers that’s on the front line
That’s willing to die for us as soon as we give the orders
Never to extort us, strictly to show they support us
We’ll maybe shout ’em out in a rap or up in a chorus
To show them we love ’em back and let ’em know how important it is
To have run ya nav and who sulked us up in our corners
Their loyalty to us is worth more than any award is
But I ain’t tryna have none of my people hurt and murdered …”
Heâs so right about it: this kind of loyalty is worth more than an award. But Eminem doesnât want anybody to get killed because of worthless bloody wars.
He also recalls a time the emcees only role were to spit some hot rhymes in a battle.
The message towards his enemies is clear: « letâs end a war in which we are acting like little toy soldiers. »
No more blood for hip hop rivalries. Eminemâs sincerity is touching. No contest Like Toy Soldiers is one of the best songs of the album.
Comments
69 responses to “Like Toy Soldiers”
i luv that song! but its so sad!
HELL YEAH THIS IS ONE TITE ASS SONG!
i agree strongly, this is one excellent song, one of his best yet
If sum1 siad sumthing like that about my child i woulda jus popped off
in case u dont know the lyric of the song hes talkin about its a song Ja Rule made about 50 cent Busta Rhymes and eminem. The song: “loose change” the lyric “Em you claim your mothers a crackhead, and Kim is a known slut, so whuts hailey gonna be when she grows up?”
the way eminem acted dat clip “like toy soldiers” is just impressive
… it won’t let u wonder wat’s blown up this war… but makes u hate
Ja Rule’s ass for nothin !
eminem’s sincerity is amazing in this song and the chorus just makes the song even better.
and ja rule man…how the frick cud he sumthing like that about a little girl…that’s just
wrong. i don’t blame eminem for losing it with ja.
i like the original version by Martika. has anyone on hear herd it? marshall really beefs it up tho
Eminem N1 !!!
He says Runyon Avenue Soldiers up in our corners not
“To have run ya nav and who sulked us up in our corners”
See here’s the thing. What all of these gun toting idiots have forgotten is “they are entertainers!” They aren’t soldiers. You want to call yourself a soldier then show up at your nearest recruiting station for a one way ticket to downtown Fallujah. These are people who write songs for the public to buy. If the public would stop supportting these idiots it would stop. i’m not even going to go into the big business behind these shootings and their deliberate methods of perpetuating the cycle of violence in order to sell more records. It’s corrupt and disgusting. Playing with peoples lives for the almighty dollar is the fundamental problem in our world. My respect to Shady for having the courage to stand up and say “ENOUGH!!!”
What yall need to realize Shane… yeah those are soldiers over in Iraq, but that doesnt mean that their aint soldier s in the United States that grow up as soldiers. U never grew up in a ghetto, u dont know what itslike, it is a war out there, u dont know shit about this. I give my 100 percent respect to the soldiers in Iraq and everywhere else we have them in the world, but I gotta say, I know a lot of soldiers that arent in the military. until you’ve been shot at, or had to shoot someone on the streets of america, u cant say nuttin.
i hear ya cuz, shane you dont know shit boy.
the song is awsum n ja’s a nob wot the fuk is all tht about n e way
“To have run ya nav and who sulked us up in our corners” wot u on bout he didn fukin say tht lol
Biggerboy,
I can’t say nothing cause I haven’t been there? And you wonder why there is a problem? Nice sense of democracy.What i am trying to get at is the reasons people are dying in the ghetto. My statement wasn’t against people on the street. it was against those who drive around in Escalades paid for by record companies acting as PR heads for a continuation of the violence so Label owners can make more mmoney. Have a close look and see who it is I am throwing my comments at. It’s not the poor kid growing up in a very scary place (I know America isn’t all that nice a place anymore). My beef is with people making money off the deaths of innocents. You don’t have to grow up in thwe ghetto to have an opinion on this. Using the term soldier implies many things. One big one is a sense of honor and purpose. What purpose are you soldiers fighting for? Just to survive or something more noble? Who is the enemy? What constitutes an end to the war? What conditions must be met? If you are just fighting to survive you aren’t a soldier, you are no different than everyone else. The continued militarization of societyu is going to bring us all down.
Sometimes… I call my penis, “Soldier” because it has put up some serious battles in the past.
shane i dunno wtf your point is, ive come across people like you who like to defend the soilders in iraq yet ud be shit scared to go out there yourself. you don’t know fuck all just shut the fuck up dickhead.
eminem is number one. tells lifes true matters. he tries to stop this. anyone got beef with eminem has beef with this white boi here
okay…i thought that Shane made sense…and Hypes – I thought that Shane was NOT defending the soldiers in Iraq lol! Maybe you got the wrong end of the stick…wotever
Give the guy a break, he has an opinion same as you, an even if you don’t agree he has a right to say it
Great song tho – so fucken powerful
Yo “ooo” – I’m feeling ya. Song is fuckin Powerful. Shane – good point- but this prob ain’t the forum to make it. Check the way u express yo self 2 – gotta learn to “code switch” pawtna.
Fuck it – watch “inside death row” — homie made a good point. Interscope was sold for like $300 million. The only thing of value they had was control of Death Row – (So David Geffen and friends) made $300 mil off the deal – Suge and the West Coast homies got fucked and thats biz y’all.
The dope and rap game – its all the same.
O my god I love that song but it is so sad espicially when u watch the video I think it is one of the best songs that Eminem has made!
OOOO my god I love that song sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!! Its da Bomb!!
Shane I understand where you are comin from I’m a U.S. Marine . I just got back from Iraq and I was in the Battle for Fallujah where I lost some close friends and was shot twice myself.There is a difference in the two , but war is war and it happens in Iraq the same as LA , someone always profits from it, record lables/in hip hop and Cooperate America in Iraq however a soilder is a soilder if he is fighting any war for any cause.
Eminem makes a strong point and I think it applys in more places than he even intended
Open your Mind brother.
The first time i heard this song, I saw it on the music video. I didn’t really understand it at first . But once I listened to it the second time, I really agree with it’s point. Em has a good Point, and I feel thos song was one of his best.
This song is amazing. i love it so much. i love all his songs, but this one has to be one of the best. Eminem made such a good point on this song. Eminem is right, the beefs should stop. And i hate
Ja rule now. I can’t believe he said that about Hailie. Ja Rule is just afraid to diss Em so he goes after Hailie. Anyways, eminem is the best and so is this song.
fuck. one fine-ass song…’i cant think of a perfecter way to word it’
this song sucks dick
hey i hear that song on the radio all the time i luv it… i have never actually seen the video clip for it though and i wish that i could have. does any1 kno where i can watch it…
i think this is a fuckin awesome track … bout time someone released an album like Encore, it Rocks. (AnarchistK, your a funny fucker!)
if theres any eminem fans in here….
http://www.explicitcontent-eminemfansspeakout.info/
go here. it’s a new eminem book they wanna publish to silence the critics. e-mail them with your name age location, why you like eminem and how he changed your life. they need 200,000 signatures for it to be published.
really i might just do that….. so how long have u liked eminem 4?
Thanks guys for likin my song!I thought it was good,but not that good.And fuck you Shane. You don’t know shit about war.You probably sit your big fat ass on your couch,playin video games and eatin potatoe chips all day!How bout we strap your ass with an AK47 and send your ass into war!!!
cum on shady leave shane alone. he is only expressing his opinion. anyway have u guys heard that new song of Eminem’s Mocking Bird?
Fuck you too Kerry if you don’t go with my word.Shane’s an asshole.And of corse I heard the song Mocking Bird!I wrote it!!!I always gotta put my baby Hailie in my shit!!!She’s my life.If I lost her, I don’t know what I’d do.Probably quit rappin and end up killin myself!!!
you know I started liking eminem because he was hot, but then I seen that he was a lyrical genious. He has used his talent to first release emotions that he endured while growing up in Detroit. He was able to open up and show everyone that no matter where you come from with enough determination you can do whatever the fuck you want. Then after his fame came about and he ended up in court over the gun charges, he started to realize that the judge had the power to take hailie away from him. This last album Encore some people think that em has gone soft on us. I think this song shows that he still has what it takes to make things happen if he wanted.
“We still have soldiers that’s on the front line That’s willing to die for us as soon as we give the orders Never to extort us, strictly to show they support us”
some people know that it chilled em out when he thought he was gonna lose his little girl, but see em doesn’t have to get involved he has people willing to handle his beef for him, but he doesn’t want their coffins ending up on his conscience so this song just says hey I will do what I got to do, but lets just let it go! I respect eminem for his position in life and for the fact that he has used his fame to make a better life for his little girl, his niece, and his little brother. Eminem has earned a number 1 fan here, and yeah he is still hot!!!!!! Sorry about the novel just ran across this page and thought I would give my 2 cents, so if you don’t like it then don’t fuckin read it, peace!!!!
well shady if u think ur eminem i think u have more then 1 screw loose…. anyway i still think that eminem rocks!!!
ye shady u really think dat we’d all believe dat eminem has the time to vist and contribute to website discussions bout him an his songs?!
im men, get bloody real!
wot fuckin dawks wud go rnd pretendin 2 b eminem?!
You know what!I do get free time and I just happened to find this site wile lookin up some other shit on the web!I forget what it was,but if you guys don’t want to here from Shady no more on here then,TO BAD cause I aint goin no fuckin where bitches!!!Ha ha!So fuck you all if you don’t beleive in Shady!
yeh angel ur rite…
well if shady wants that delusion let him…. at least we kno who and wat we r!!
Hmm… still like Martikas version
The song is sad. Especially the music video when the police shoots Eminem’s friend.
who’s this freak pretending to be Eminem anyways?
i donno
shady I have something to ask you!! I know this has NOTHEN to do with what ya are talking about but if you dont like bush(like what you said in mosh) then did you vote for the kerry dude who ran aginst bush??!!!?!?!!!
they is not like enjoyable like being a hip hop
yo i am from croatia EMIN3M RULEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ THE BEST RAPER IN THE WORLD EMIN3M 4EVER MY BLOG IS http://emin3m.blog.hr
peace bro….=)))
Eminem is the best song writer ever, but without god there would^nt by any eminem, so thank god for the best rapper ever in our times
1)like toy soilders
2)stan
3)cleaning out my closet
I like you man
Glad to see people still appreciate good lyrics and depth in a song. Eminem has a lot to teach us all, glad to see some of us are listening.
Hello, some of the people on this site may recognize that the lyrics in Like Toy Soldier is very powerful, literate, and grammatical. The person pretending to be Michael Mathers is quite bad, considering he doesn’t even know how to spell while and believe. I also strongly recommend you pay attention to the sentence, “I just happened to find this site wile lookin up some other shit on the web!I forget what it was though.” I don’t think someone like Eminem, who has better things to do then go and search things on the internet randomly would forget what he was searching for when he is one of the busiest men alive and would need a good reason to go on the computer. I’ve kicked guys asses like yours before so don’t go and be an imposter to someone who doesn’t deserve to have a shithead like you pretend to be him, ok? Thank you, that is all.
It´s a fucking rappers ploblem, that i don´t give a fuck.
Lexi its Marshall Mathers not michael dumb ass
That’s the best song ever!
And Eminem is the best one, because he is a good songwriter with a nice touch of rythm!
I wean somelyrics
i am happy with the song and the album wit eminem i have more respect for him and i hope rap wars stop forever well done shady ja rule is a dik for saying tht wot a fag
shane, but you are not thinking straight, remember that eminem went through a lot of shit to get where he is now, and what that fuck are you talking about them people making money off the deaths of innocents, all they doing is giving all these people an opportunity to express themselfs and they have to get paid anyways!.Record labels only produces and distributes the record, they don’t write the songs, Now why that fuck if you think these music business is so disgusting and corrupt you are here wasting your time on this site, instead of doing something you think can be more productive!!,besides if you can say nothing about war, cause you haven’t been there, why even say something in the first place. We might not have to grow up in the ghetto to talk about it & have your our own opinion, but one thing is to talk about it and not really know what the hell you’re saying cause you always had everything & other is talk about it cause you’ve been there and had to struggle to become somebody and have a least a little bit of something you always dreamed about.ANYWAY!!!!!
I have two questions for you since you talk so much about Honor & Purpose, what’s your purpose in all this?, what are you doing to stop war? MR.PERFECT!! everywhere in the hood or in the so mention Iraq.
OOH! Kerry to watch the video go to vh1.com on artist main and click on the video “when i’m gone” and you’ll have other choices including “like toy soldiers” on the encore, and you should know this if you call yourself a marshall’s fan.
what the hell what’s that michael mathers?
you know what shane i think your write, just why is there so mush eveil in the world, i mean every where you go there just hase to be some asshole looking at you funny or making fucked up speeches about global warming, and am taking a stand, i (p,usa) for one am saying enough! why all the violence? why are you making as feel boured? and you know what i say sort it out people before we have had enough and bomb you, oh and just one more thing shane how would you like to run this project for me title! Secretary of violence
I’ve heard the song he refers to in his video/song. I don’t blame him for being pissed because of it. If I were him, I would be really pissed too.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s definitely a great song. Is it the best ever? I don’t think so. According to rankopedia.com, the best ever is Stairway to Heaven.
i heard the song. i have 2 cds with it on them. i have seen the video. its a good song, though listen to the lyrics and it gets really sad . i dont care what you say, its a brill song and eminem is a great singer.
3 words. FUCK JA RULE!!!!!!!!!
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I have a question 50 Cent is even in the music video and yet continues to start beefs with other rappers. Does he not realize his hipocricy and why doesn’t Eminem remind him?
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