313 Lyrics — Eminem
Album: Infinite[explicit/dirty lyrics]
Eye Kyu: Now what you know about a sweet MC from the 313
None of these skills you bout to see come free
So you wanna be a sweet MC you gotta become me
If you ever wanna be one see
Eminem: Man what you know about a sweet MC in the 313
None of these skills you bout to see come free
So you wanna be a sweet MC you better become me
If you ever wanna be one see
Verse 1: Eye Kyu
Yo some people say I'm whack, now if that's right
I'm the freshest whack MC that you ever heard, in your lifetime
My slick accapella sounds clever with the beats
Boy I'm the deepest thing since potholes to ever hit the streets
Forgot a gold digger's succubus , my souls thick with ruggedness
With the mic I'm like a dyke, can't no nigga f**k with this
I got more Different Strokes than Philip Drummound
On open mic I bone your women just to keep my lyrics coming (b**ch)
We elevated to new heights premeditated
Let it be that I stated they hate it now that they see that I made it
The escalated can be put to the test of greatness
Snatch the heart from MC's and I ate it
So I take it that's the reason I'm hated
To represent my temperment
If rap was a dick all you so called hard MC's would not be impitant
But pimping it, and acting like you could rock a show (so)
Harder than LL's Rock the Bells, but you is a ho (now)
Everything that you collaborate I lacerate
My rhymes they keep coming like nympho maniacs that masturbate
At a faster rate, yeah I got something for your ass to hate
I blasterate, and have you all running master gates
And as for face clutching and touching the flows
I got them open like marijuana smoke up in your nose
Bucking these hoes, I got that sh*t down to a science
Leaving them hot and bothered, turned on like an appliance
Defiance, no we won't have that
You want your sh*t to blow up?
Well I'ma stuff some dynamite in your ass crack
And blast that sh*t to kingdom come
Then bring them some of this real hip-hop
I drop beats and you ain't singing or gonna do a thing about
And you all knew from Meeko
That you couldn't hold your own with the strength of Lou Forigno
So stop that bullsh*t and flow
Yo, you need to come with the real skills, and act like you know
Chorus: Eminem
So what you know about a sweet MC, in the 313
None of these skills you bout to see come free
So you wanna be a sweet MC, you better become me
If you ever wanna be one see
Eye-Kyu: Now what you know about a sweet MC, from the 313
None of these skills you bout to see come free
So you wanna be the sweet MC, you gotta become me
If you ever wanna be one see
Verse 2: Eminem
So what, you know about a sweet MC, in the 313
You don't know sh*t so when you see one flee
You can be Run-D, you'll never beat the MC
I'll stop the alphabet at S and got it down to a T
I'm sure your bound to agree, a sweet MC crashes the spot
I'll make the roof hot like I was Rock Master Scott
Your ass forgot, so just in case you don't remember me
I'll run your brain around the block to jog your f**king memory
It's either them or me man, kill or be killed
You will and be sealed your casket closed you still gonna be billed
My facilities filled with fans, packed to capacity
I'll send a rapper back with the crack of his ass sh*tty
If he's acting soft and he cowers
He better come cleaner then Jay Rue jacking off when he showers
You flowers got no clout with a thing
You could date a stick of dynamite and wouldn't go out with a bang
I showered the slang, simple as A,B,C's
Skip over the D's and rock the microphone with E's
Dethrone MC's and I'ma max alone
Relax your dome like a solo from a saxophone
So facts are known, writers get treated with shocks
I rock a beat harder then you could beat it with rocks
I'm greeted with flocks, of fellow follower's singers
You couldn't make the fans throw up their hands if they swallowed their
fingers
But you can bring yours let's see what you got
But don't front and never try to be what you're not
Cause you can be quick, jump the candlestick, burn your back
And f**k Jill on a hill, but you still ain't Jack
Chorus: Eye-Kyu
So what you know about a sweet MC, from the 313
None of these skills you just seen come free
So you wanna be a sweet MC, you'll never become me
So you ain't ever gonna be one see
Eminem: So what you know about a sweet MC, in the 313
None of these skills that you just seen come free
So you wanna be a sweet MC, you'll never become me
So you ain't ever gonna be one see
Song Overview
Review and Highlights
“313” is the album’s rallying flag. A jazz-soul loop purrs, drums knock, and two emcees trade bar-for-bar flexes without wasting breath. Eye-Kyu opens as the wry street poet, Eminem answers as the surgical technician - internal rhymes ricocheting across the pocket. The aesthetic is classic boom bap with Midwest grit: minimal arrangement, maximum syllables.
- Back-and-forth design - posse energy without the clutter, chorus as baton-pass.
- Sample choice - a serene groove undercuts the competitive bite, which makes the punches feel sharper.
- Detroit ID - the title nails the area code to the mast and frames the whole album’s local-first ethos.
Creation History
Cut for Web Entertainment in 1996, the track was produced by Mr. Porter with the Bass Brothers steering the project. The album’s booklet credits Detroit hands-on roles - DJ scratches, drum programming, small-room engineering - the DIY muscle that defined the era. “313” rides a Grover Washington Jr. sample, a crate-digger’s pick that gives the verses room to sprint.
Song Meaning and Annotations
Plot
There’s no story arc, only stance. Two emcees step in, mark territory, and run clinic. Eye-Kyu sizes up pretenders and fires off punchlines; Eminem answers with a memory-jogging demolition, flipping idioms, nursery rhymes, and old-school references into fresh ammo. It reads like an open-mic night that became an oath.
Song Meaning
“313” is a calling card for Detroit competitiveness. The chorus states the price of entry - skill - while the verses model it. The message: authenticity first, craft above hype. Mood-wise it’s cool, terse, and relentless. Contextually it lives in a post-Illmatic world where precision was currency, and this track spends it loudly.
Annotations
“Now what you know about a sweet MC from the 313?”
The hook stakes out home turf. 313 is Detroit’s area code - shorthand for the city’s rap crucible and the scene that raised both artists.
“If rap was a dick, all you so-called hard MCs would not be impotent, but pimpin’ it... Harder than LL’s ‘Rock the Bells’...”
Classic battle rhetoric: flip a crude extended metaphor, then measure your live show against a benchmark cut from LL Cool J’s catalog. It’s boast-as-critique and a hat-tip to the canon.
“You can be Run-D, you’ll never be the MC.”
A neat Run-DMC wordplay that also shrugs at trend-chasers. Namecheck the greats, then draw a line between lineage and imitation.
“He better come cleaner than Jeru jackin’ off when he showers.”
A two-layer gag: the phrase “come clean” and a nod to Jeru the Damaja’s “Come Clean.” It’s juvenile, sure, but the cadence lands like a snare hit - comedy as percussion.
“You could date a stick of dynamite and wouldn’t go out with a bang.”
Punchline economy. One bar, three meanings: romance, career blow-up, literal explosion. The internal rhymes keep it tidy.
Style, Rhythm, Production
Genre center is boom bap with a jazz-sample chassis. The beat breathes - a pocket that lets multis fire in bursts. The emotional arc runs from Eye-Kyu’s sly provocation to Eminem’s clipped demolition, a steady tightening that peaks in the second verse.
Cultural touchpoints
Allusions swing from LL to Run-DMC to Jeru - a cipher’s shorthand that places the track within a larger 90s hip hop conversation while keeping the compass locked to Detroit. The 313 chant would later echo through 8 Mile, cementing the number as pop shorthand for the city’s battle pedigree.
Key Facts
- Artist: Eminem
- Featured: Eye-Kyu
- Composer: Marshall Mathers, Denaun Porter
- Producer: Mr. Porter
- Release Date: November 12, 1996
- Genre: Boom bap, jazz-rap tint
- Instruments: jazz-soul sample, programmed drums, DJ scratches
- Label: Web Entertainment
- Mood: competitive, focused, streetwise
- Length: ~4:11
- Track #: 5 on Infinite
- Language: English
- Recording: Bassment Sound, Detroit area
- Sample source: “A Secret Place” - Grover Washington Jr.
- Music style: punchline-driven, internal-rhyme heavy over a sparse loop
- Poetic meter: conversational cadence with dense internal lattices
Questions and Answers
- Why title the track after the 313?
- It frames the record as a Detroit thesis - rep the code, prove the skill, then export the sound.
- What does Eye-Kyu bring that sets up Eminem?
- Warm swagger and crowd-priming punchlines. He loosens the room so the second verse can go surgical.
- What’s happening under the hood musically?
- A smooth Grover Washington Jr. sample loops while crisp drums leave negative space for internal rhymes to pop.
- How does the song fit the album?
- As a mid-album pillar, it distills the project’s priorities: local pride, bar-work, and boom-bap discipline.
- Did the “313” idea matter beyond the song?
- Yes - the number became shorthand for Detroit rap identity, amplified later by mainstream moments tied to the city’s battles.
How to Sing 313
Tempo & key: about 150 BPM, key center in D. It’s brisk - ride the backbeat and keep syllables per breath realistic.
Breathwork: write in commas. Short, percussive bursts with micro-pauses on bar edges. Save air for the end-rhyme chains.
Diction: tight consonants. Let internal stresses hit kicks and snares so the multis feel locked, not rushed.
Character: verse one leans sly and bantering; verse two tightens to clipped, efficient pressure. Switch posture when the chorus flips.
Additional Info
The 313 chant later surfaced in cinema culture, further tying the number to Detroit battle lore. The track itself never served as a commercial single - it lived and traveled through word of mouth, bootlegs, and rediscoveries. According to NME magazine, that underground-to-archive journey is part of why Infinite feels like a prologue more than a footnote.
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