page_title: Mosh (song)
section_title: Critical reception
hierarchical_section_title: Mosh (song) / Critical reception
caption_attribution_description: English: Eminem on Stage, during the 'Anger Management' tour on 08-08-2005 in NYC. Deutsch: Eminem auf der Bühne während der Anger Management Tour am 8. August 2005 in New York City. فارسی: امینم در حال اجرا در سال 2005 در شهر نیویورک
context_page_description: "Mosh" is a protest song by Eminem, released on October 26, 2004 as a digital single and the second single from his fifth studio album, Encore. It was released just prior to the 2004 presidential election.
  The video for the song is available for free on the Internet and encouraged voters to vote George W. Bush out of office. The song was excerpted from Eminem's album, Encore, not yet released at the time the video was made available to the public. G-Unit rapper Lloyd Banks also appears in the video.
  This song is ranked 58th on About.com’s “100 Greatest Rap Songs".
context_section_description: Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic highlighted the song. Entertainment Weekly wrote a mixed description, saying the song "was nothing less than the sound of America's favorite Caucasian rapper at his most intense and focused. Protest songs made a comeback this year, but none captured doom and apocalypse the way 'Mosh' so brilliantly did. Eminem is still a narcissist, of course — he wants us to follow him to liberation, or at least to the voting booth — but the power of 'Mosh' made you forgive his never-ending self-absorption" and called the song itself an anomaly. DX magazine wrote that "he (Eminem) turns political and blatantly lashes out at Bush on 'Mosh' (sure to cause some repercussions from politicians considering his visibility)." Pitchfork Media wrote a mixed review: "'Mosh'—sadly, not yet completely past its sell-by date—seems more like a plodding dirge here among the spry string of tracks that surround it." NME magazine wrote a favorable review: "And then there's 'Mosh'. Oh boy, there's 'Mosh'. --- Should 'Encore' prove to be a swansong, then 'Mosh' is its blaze of glory, a scalding assault on the Bush regime that hits all the harder for its arriving days too late. The rapper sounds absolutely livid as he mounts a stealthy assault on the Prez that swells with density and rage over its five minutes until fire and brimstone is raining down on the shitwit Texan's perpetually befuddled head. Although you might argue that everything Eminem says is inherently political through the sheer numbers that he reaches and the sheer anti-social nature of most of what he espouses, this is a different kettle of politicised fish entirely. "If it rains, let it rain/Yeah, the wetter the better/They ain't gonna stop us, they can't/We're stronger now more than ever", he rages with a demented fervour that makes Rage Against the Machine sound like Belle & Sebastian. And if that non-specific rabble-rousery is a little on the vague side, the likes of "Stomp, push, shove, mush/Fuck Bush until they bring our troops home" should make it crystal clear. On a more base level, it's fucking fantastic to jump up and down and bang your head to, which is the level where politics and pop most effectively connect."  Steve Jones of USA Today said that the song "[lambastes] President Bush and his war policies."
  The A.V. Club wrote of the song: "[Eminem] stops attacking scapegoats and straw men and finally goes after the people who actually wield power. Over Dr. Dre's apocalyptic production—all rain-clouds and thunderclaps—Eminem launches into a searing, overtly emotional attack on President Bush and his administration's bloodlust and misplaced priorities. Eminem has always been angry, but his anger has never before been this righteous, focused, or plugged in to what matters in American life." Los Angeles Times was somewhat positive too: he stated that Eminem "catches us off-guard with eloquent political reflections in 'Mosh,' his equivalent of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'." While Eminem's rap doesn't have the timelessness or literary aspirations of the Dylan song, it hits with the visceral charge and topical urgency of the best rap. Lashing out at various social injustices, he leads a legion of young followers toward what appears to be the kind of violent rebellion one might expect in hard-core rock and rap. Instead, as the video for 'Mosh' shows, their charge is to the voting booth." The Austin Chronicle called the song a "potent anti-Bush rant".  SPIN was a bit positive: "The seething anti-Bush single 'Mosh' may not have brought droves of Eminem acolytes to the polls last November, but it suggests that Em—like fellow potty-mouth-turned activist Howard Stern—realizes that his gifts have uses beyond FCC-baiting and fart jokes."
  RapReviews was also unimpressed: "'Mosh' suffers from a similar stigma: a disconcerted, ADD Eminem who can't seem to lock down his lyrics." Robert Christgau of Rolling Stone wrote: "[Was Encore] a feint designed to double the wallop of 'Mosh,' which signaled a Marshall Mathers gone political — too late to help his
caption: On the Anger Management Tour promoting Encore
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