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They said there's no English rhyme for "silver." Eminem just obliterated the challenge.

Don't ever let them tell you anything is impossible.

By Scott Kinmartin - CC BY 2.0

Someone challenged Eminem to rhyme "silver," and he crushed the challenge without breaking a sweat.

It started with an innocuous Tweet from a popular account called UberFacts.

"There's no word in English that rhymes with 'silver'" the post read. For long-time English speakers, this isn't exactly news. We've been hearing about random words that seemingly have no rhymes for as long as we've been talking.

A user then decided to call in an expert to confirm whether this was actually true. So, they tagged rapper Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem, in a post issuing a challenge: "You have 24 hours!" the user joked. If anyone could disprove the so-called fact, it would be him, the wordplay master himself who once rhymed "calm and ready" with "Mom's spaghetti."

eminem, marshall mathers, rap, hip hop, rhymes, english language, rhyming words, rhyme challenge, silver, purple, orange Slim Shady to the rescue. Giphy

Eminem himself responded a day later and completely obliterated the challenge:

"Silver

pilfer

kill fer

Gilbert's

still hurts

steel shirts

Bill Burr

milf word

off kilter

no filter

chill brrrr

feel burn

still slur

will stir

Trent dilfer

Val kilmer

Still third

shield her

he'll squirt

Steven Spielberg

Lil twerp

Wilshire

She'll purr

Kill birds

milk curd

feel worth

Real nerd

Stans documentary I liked your film sir," he wrote in his own post.

If you're familiar with his music, you can almost hear the post in his voice. You can imagine him ripping this off as a verse in one of his songs. You also immediately get the sense that he could have easily kept going, but chose to stop the list there. Point proved.

Oh, sure, you can come up with a list of more words with no rhymes: Purple, month, ninth, opus. Pretty sure Eminem will have no problem tearing the list to shreds.

Eminem's post went viral and was reposted nearly ten thousand times. Thousands of people commented to share their admiration for the hip-hop legend:

"And that's why he's the GOAT" one user wrote.

"He took silver and did a verse of Gold!" another added.

"Eminem can make any word rhyme with any other word," said another.

(Oh, and "pilfer" was right there in front of us this whole time, if you can believe it! Merriam-Webster even chimed in to suggest the little-known "chilver.")

Eminem is known as probably one of the best rappers of all time specifically when it comes to wordplay, rhymes, and clever lyricism.

In a 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper from 2011, Eminem shared a little bit of his approach. Cooper offered up the notion that nothing in English rhymes with "orange," and Eminem was actually almost offended.

"If you're taking the word at face value... nothing is going to rhyme with it exactly," he said, noting that the art is in twisting and contorting words and phrases. Thinking outside the box. Then, off the top of his head, he ripped off a short rhyme:

"I put my orange four-inch door hinge in storage and ate porridge with George."

Cooper asks him if he walks around all day thinking about rhyming words. "Yeah. All day. I actually drive myself insane with it," Eminem said.

A young Marshall Mathers would read the dictionary even though he wasn't a "good student" academically. "I just thought, I want to have all these words at my disposal, in my vocabulary, at all times, whenever I need to pull them out."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Why are we so fascinated with a good rhyme?

You have to admit that reading or listening to Eminem's creative rhymes for "orange" and "silver" is oddly satisfying.

That's because rhymes, or even just rhythmic poetry, does something different to our brain than other forms of speech or prose.

"The brain's reaction to poetry indicates a deep, intuitive connection to verse, suggesting that appreciation of poetry is within our neurological structure," according to How Stuff Works.

We also perceive things that rhyme as 22% more true than statements that don't, which is why so many slogans and catchphrases utilize rhyming words. That also plays a big role in why music and song are so emotionally powerful, even when the lyrics are relatively simple.

Finally, it's really pleasing to our brains when we're able to predict words and identify patterns. That's a lot easier and more fun to do in rhyming forms like rap, song, and poetry versus prose and regular speech.

It's awesome to see an artist and master at work in Eminem's post and interview. It should inspire you to think outside the box and remember that, whenever someone tells you that something is impossible, the real art is in proving them wrong.

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Texas teen added a 'Hamilton'-esque rap to Frank Sinatra's 'Fly Me to the Moon'

via Wikimedia Commons

David Sikabwe, a student at the University of Texas who performs under the name Going Spaceward, put a modern twist on the Frank Sinatra classic "Fly Me to the Moon" and it's both nerdy and romantic.

Sikabwe added a rap verse to the swinging ditty first popularized by Ol' Blue Eyes in 1964 and, while at first it sounds like an awkward idea, it fits great. A big reason is Sikabwe's smooth cadence that's reminiscent of the rapping in "Hamilton."

"Fly Me to the Moon" with an original rap versewww.youtube.com


Sikabwe's lyrics combine a deep knowledge of science with some romantic woo-ing that would have made Sinatra proud.

LYRICS:

They say that every day, the universe expands

and we discover certain things that we don't understand.

Dark matter ain't the only mystery at hand

I'm wondrin' how I got a girl like you to say that I'm her man

It's a statistical anomaly, but girl, you've got me

Gravity is pulling me to your heavenly body

No astronomical phenomenon could ever stop me

You've got a smile that every star in the galaxy copied

The constellations couldn't make as beautiful a pattern

The conversations—every night, I ring you up like Saturn

The telescopes tell us folks that you're the coolest view

A supernova's scootin' over to make room for you

'cause you eclipse every wonder of the cosmos

It's almost unfair to them, but you're the one I want most

It's a miracle that Galileo never found you

If he did, he'd say the universe revolved around you

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Jay-Z's joy about his mom being openly LGBTQ is a good sign for hip-hop and masculinity.

In a ridiculously heartwarming interview clip, rapper Jay-Z discussed his excitement for his mom’s newfound lesbian love.  

In David Letterman’s new series "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction," Jay-Z sat down with the comedian to talk candidly about his mother, Gloria Carter, coming out to him as a lesbian.  

“This was the first time we had the conversation,” Jay-Z said in a clip of the interview set to air April 6. “And the first time I heard her say she loved her partner. Like, ‘I feel like I love somebody.’ She said ‘I feel like.’ She held that little bit back, still. She didn’t say ‘I’m in love’; she said ‘I feel like I love someone.’ And I just — I cried. I don’t even believe in crying because you’re happy. I don’t even know what that is. What is that?”

Photo by Ari Perilstein/Getty Images for Roc Nation.

Jay-Z's tearful response to his mother's coming out experience is a much-needed example of publicly dismantling toxic masculinity.    

Often told that emotions aren't masculine or that crying isn't for men, many men struggle to openly express their emotions, much less recognize them. Toxic masculinity is a pervasive, dangerous societal problem that forces men into a hole of fear, making them reluctant to share their emotions for fear of not being seen as "man enough." By acknowledging he cried tears of joy, Jay-Z is adding a welcome change to the narrative that men, especially men of color, can't be both emotional and masculine.        

Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images.

Jay-Z’s openness to his mother’s later-in-life queerness in lyrics and on-screen is also refreshing from someone so prominent in the hip-hop industry.      

Having been a pretty early advocate for gay rights, Jay-Z’s views are still fairly unique to his industry. For decades, hip-hop artists have been using extremely homophobic lyrics and have often been extremely exclusionary to queer artists. But world-renowned artists like Jay-Z, Common, and Frank Ocean are using their own personal experiences to change the narrative of how queerness is viewed in the hip-hop industry. Through their own music, activism, and public interviews, many hip-hop artists are starting to show respect for queer love and rights. In the song “Smile” on Jay-Z's most recent album "4:44," the rapper talks about how long his mother hid her identity:

“Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian / Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian.”

By sharing his mom's story so lovingly, Jay-Z shows that homophobia is outdated, masculinity should be so much more than bottling up emotions, and people deserve the most love, respect, and openness we can give them.        

Though the clip definitely is a tease for more, it certainly paints a promising picture for hip-hop artists and their relationships with queer people in the future. We'll enjoy that for now.

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Utah lawmakers made a rap video. This is why we can't have nice things.

Picture this: Legislators for the great state of Utah gather in their chamber wondering, “How do we get young people to care about laws?”

And then, a mysterious voice from the shadows whispers, “Make a rap. It will be fun," before spraying a cloud of some kind of cartoonish "agreeability mist" into the air and scampering back to an evil lair.

And somehow, before the agreeability mist wore off, these seemingly reasonable lawmakers set to work on writing, filming, editing, and releasing the best/worst rap video of all time.

That is the only way to explain how this could have happened.

OK, maybe not. But it’s probably the story they should stick to. GIFs via Utah House of Reps/Twitter.

Legislators from the Utah House of Representatives debuted their first hip-hop single Feb. 28.

It’s a "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" send-up called "Fresh Prints of Bills Here" and it's about how a bill becomes a law. It is — and I say this with near 100% certainty — the best thing you will see all week. (Or maybe the worst?)

There are fake bills.

A surprising amount of Comic Sans.

(Or if you're familiar with local government, maybe it's not surprising.)

Damn it, Jerry! GIF from "Parks and Recreation."

There's a poorly choreographed thumbs-up.

But not as poor as the fit on this MAGA cap.

The wordplay is FIRE. They even rhyme "there" with "chamber"

(Yeah, they made it chame-bear. THERE ARE NO RULES!)

Plus, there's this Jason Sudeikis doppleganger, in a backward hat, making what he undoubtedly thinks is a cool rap hand gesture. IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE THIS CONTENT IS FREE.

And we can't forget Rep. Susan Duckworth, who appears to be the only person who can stay within 10 feet of the beat.

Go off, Susan!

Basically the video has everything but black people. (But can you blame Rep. Sandra Hollins for sitting this one out?)

But (and I'll admit this is a big but) if you can get past the dancing, cringeworthy rhymes, and hilarious hats, the video actually has a lot to offer.

Sure, a mostly negative reaction to the political parody was swift, with Stephen Colbert discussing it on his show and one of Utah's U.S. Senate candidates, Jenny Wilson, promising to never appear in a rap video if she's elected.

But if "Schoolhouse Rock!" was before your time, this video offers a succinct and useful breakdown of the legislative process.

It's also a great way for people to get to know their elected officials. In a 2015 survey, nearly 77% of respondents could not name one of their state senators. Yikes! These are the people responsible for a lot of the laws and policies that affect our daily lives. Knowing who represents you (and how they're doing) is key to making sure your voice is heard. This video offers a chance to match names to faces or at least names to stuck-out tongues — and that's a start.

To the good people of Utah, as ridiculous and cringeworthy as this video is, hats off to you.

Specifically, the backward one. Take it off. You'll thank me later.

Check out the video in full. Who am I kidding? You'll have to. It's impossible to turn away.

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