Eminem vs Prodigy: Who wins?

There must be a lot of hat-eating going on today in all those University departments who claimed kids would one day study the lyrics of Eminem alongside Yeats and Wordsworth.

The main lyrical thrust of his new single argues that Lindsay Lohan and Portia Di Rossi are (oh dear) "too pretty" to be gay. The song also includes fart sound effects. There are eight-year-olds with more satirical sophistication.

Eminem also interrupts your current programming to newsflash that Jessica Simpson once had weight issues, Amy Winehouse has used illegal substances, Sarah Palin is sorta-kinda hot and Kim Kardishian is sorta-kinda not (like, duh). It's clearly an attempt to revisit those old zeitgeisty Slim Shady slapdowns... But those oh-so-2008 reference points just make him seem a bit out-of-touch and, well, crap.

What's next? A lyric about Moses parting the Red Sea? A withering putdown of Emperor Nero's virtuosity on the fiddle?

Maybe Mr Mathers should have taken a leaf out of The Prodigy's big boy handbook of writing a comeback. I wasn't bowled over by Omen when it came out at the beginning of the year but a few plays (and blanket coverage on Radio One) brought out the old arms-aloft-rave-glowstick side of me. A side that I thought had died along with the upper ranges of my hearing and the ability to hold a drink in about 2001.

Their new single builds on that ballbusting breakbeat 'n' buzzsaw bassline template by adding a shrieky anonymous acid house diva, beamed straight into your MP3 player from an old Deep Heat compilation.

There is also a rather classy stop-motion video, which slyly references Firestarter without resorting to self-parody. Very nice indeed.

Warrior's Dance - uncut from The Prodigy

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