I knew it was a great choice for a single when my girlfriend said she thought he�d gone completely mad upon seeing the video (Madonna / MC Hammer rips, dancing kids, comedy projectile vomit, nudity et al), but I�d suspected already that it was a good sign when everyone else seemed so put out by it. �Just Lose It� is bizarre even by Eminem�s standards, stealing hooks from himself, from Lisa Simpson�s tyrannical tapdance teacher, playing gay, playing dumb, using a stupid laughing sample as the fulcrum of the chorus�

He�s always played comedy dramatics perfectly, giving the sociologists something to talk excitedly about, the kids something to shout excitedly about and the conservatives something to complain excitedly about. Now he�s fucked up his own fans, shifting lyrical emphasis from murder fantasies to homosexuals and vicodin to fame to this bizarre, deliberately crap melange of homosexual club-oriented meta-bio. But if people are pissed at this then they�re not listening properly � sure, the beat�s not the best he�s ever used, but �Just Lose It� is a procession of hooks from start to finish, and even if Em isn�t spitting hate and frustration and OTT bile, he�s still making people raise eyebrows and ask �what the fuck?�. Is he on the verge of coming out? Is he making a bid to alienate the people who made him famous (and thus made his life even more of a hell)? Is he just fucking with us and playing our expectations before we�ve had a chance to hear Encore? He�s not dropped a bad album yet, and I don�t imagine for one minute that �Just Lose It� is a sign that he�s lost it.