This past weekend, I was fortunate to be in the audience for Saturday Night Live with host Kerry Washington, from NBC’s Scandal, and Eminem as the musical guest. It was a very interesting experience, one in which you get to witness all of the inner workings that goes into the live airing of the show, which has a running time of approximately an hour and a half. Between the writing of the skits, the overall production, creative teams, set building, costume, hair and makeup teams all having to be on the same page for seamless transitions from skit to skit, it’s a truly commendable job done by all. You can’t help but give each and every member of the staff their due.

With the show, some skits are a hit, and some not so much; that almost becomes secondary when you are actually in the audience. It simply is what it is, and you are just excited to be there. I wouldn’t trade the experience in for anything. But one thing that I noticed, or rather what didn’t resonate with me, was Eminem’s overall performance. At the time, I couldn’t put my finger on it. You have to realize, when you are sitting in the audience, you aren’t right up in the artists face, so it’s a bit difficult to discern what might be a bit off about things within the performance.

Afterwards, looking at video, it is pretty obvious that Eminem was lip-syncing. It is crystal clear during his performance of “Berzerk,” in which the vocals from the original track are used the entire time. Now, granted, Eminem’s flow and delivery on certain songs, along with his constantly changing cadence, can be extremely difficult due to the wording of his lyrics. So, some use of a background track is almost entirely necessary. However, this was a bit much. I mean, isn’t that what you have a backup emcee for?

With the second performance of the show, for the Call of Duty track “Survival” with Skylar Grey, things went over slightly better, though not exactly swimmingly. Either way, going to an airing of Saturday Night Live and getting to see a rap legend perform, with Rick Rubin at the turntable, was an experience that I will not soon forget. Although, it would have been nice if Eminem performed his track “Rap God,” which he performed completely live at the YouTube Music Awards show last night in New York City.

Check out the difference in each performance below:

– Chris Meyer

“Berzerk” w/ Rick Rubin:

“Survival” w/ Skylar Grey:

“Rap God” from the YouTube Music Awards: