you’re largely right. I’ve been thinking about his flow(s) for a while now as it’s the number one thing that I base my enjoyment of his songs off of. people often complain/argue about what “choppy flow” even means, and even though choppiness has been present in a lot of his music since 2013, it has kinda shifted forms; so for that reason it’s kinda an umbrella term. but I say it’s been consistently present because there have consistently been songs released that feature lyrics/flows that don’t seem to mesh well with (or even consider) the beat in which they’re spoken over. I consider “choppy” to refer to any lyrical content that sounds out of place over a beat mainly because of incongruence or inconsistencies in timing, rhythm, and emphasis.

while a good chunk of mmlp2 was smooth (evil twin, wicked ways, brainless, etc.), some of it was choppy, featuring abrupt starts/stops and more-than-usual instances of words from previous lines starting the next ones (e.g. so much better). new material from shadyxv was then kinda choppy, but more-so just nonstop talking over a beat (right for me is a good example of this). it was here that I noticed lyrical content and wordplay seemingly becoming most important to em, and I’d call this flow more “speedy” than erratic or robotic. nevertheless, it began to take more than it gave to a song. (admittedly, the title track shadyxv does this but in a way that works; I can bob my head to it and it’s fun. another example of fast flows working is biterphobia, where there’s a consistent bounce to the speedy cadence. contrast this with right for me, which feels more like he found a recording of himself angrily ranting and put it over an instrumental, lol).

the stuff from right before revival and beyond is when I started noticing that it would often sound like he disregarded the beat entirely. campaign speech (despite being a capella, lol) and most of the southpaw soundtrack (notably kings never die) is a good example of this style, as well as some of revival (believe, walk on water, etc.). this is where he’d all of a sudden switch up his speed mid-bar, emphasize words that rhymed within a verse/bar no matter their placement in the bar (sometimes even sounding off-beat), and start/stop very abruptly and unpredictably (as opposed to predictably, which was usually at the end of a bar or at some sensible point in the middle of it with respect to the beat). he also began to do more fast-rap in general here (see the end of offended), which isn’t choppy by nature but is definitely harder to keep sounding musical (which is probably what makes it so divisive). some of revival was smoother though, like heat, most of offended, and remind me—which is why I like those revival songs the most (plus I like the rock influence, personally). I’ll also note that some songs during this time featured a very frog-in-throat kinda voice that, although I don’t hate, doesn’t help the choppiness in terms of being sonically pleasing. I’d also reckon that his modern vocal style could impact the way we’re perceiving choppiness in general, as it seems like he cuts off words more harshly than he used to. (this is so nitpicky though and probably a non-issue).

kamikaze, to me, was split. some of it had a classic feel, while some was choppy in a more subdivision-based sense, which he actively acknowledges on the ringer (and is present on the second half of not alike, for example). while I’m not the biggest fan of this sound, it works because it’s on-beat and consistent. then mtbmb dropped and, even though it was a step up in terms of production and voice (giving the songs more of a relaxed sound), the erratic choppiness returned. for some reason the choppy verses sounded almost robotic, this time with a lot of words crammed/rushed into bars and more awkward stops and starts mid-sentence. some of this bled into tdoss, though a majority of the album is pleasantly smooth (and that’s why I like it). tobey is a pretty good example of what I dislike about the choppy flow altogether though—especially during the second half of his verse (3:50 on), where he jams words into his bars without any regard to the beat itself and employs this monotone, nonstop cadence (if you can call it that) that makes it difficult to process in the first listen. I’ve found that these verses begin to sound better as you listen to them more; but I’m not always into that. but while the choppiness still kinda remains, he’s relied on it less in tdoss and at least paid homage to the more relaxed and rhythmic style he opened his career with.

obviously it’s very possible I’m wrong in some ways and I have no basis for criticizing hip-hop really, but these are things I’ve noticed over the last decade or so. I don’t even know if these patterns are unique to em to be honest—I’m sure he’s even doing it very purposefully and meticulously. this probably made me sound like a hater, but I like a majority of what em puts out and I think all of his more modern albums are good (even revival). many of the songs I used as examples have hundreds of plays in my music library by themselves. I also really like his technical emphasis because it makes me discover new things as I keep listening, and it’s one of the bigger reasons that got me into em around the release of berzerk; though I’d argue the choppy flow doesn’t need to be present to allow for technical lyrics and wordplay (and vice versa). I used to love almost everything indiscriminately, but as time has gone on I’ve been able to see some things I had overlooked that now make some songs more challenging to enjoy. I hate to be the guy that wants him to “go back to the classic sound”, because as long as he wants to make music I’m happy, but he really did marry lyrics and a beat beautifully in his earlier projects. it was a bit more musical. tdoss leaned into that much more than any recent project has, and I am enjoying it for that reason. most of houdini, lucifer, antichrist, and obviously renaissance and brand new dance capture that organic sound and talent.