Overview
"Berzerk" is a song by American rapper Eminem. The song, released on August 27, 2013, is the first single from Eminem's eighth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2. The song was produced by Rick Rubin and samples Billy Squier's "The Stroke", as well as the Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right", taken from their 1986 debut album Licensed to Ill, which Rubin had also produced, and Naughty by Nature's "Feel Me Flow". The song was heavily downloaded in its first week of release, resulting in the song debuting at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Composition
The song, produced by Rick Rubin, samples Billy Squier's "The Stroke", the Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right", taken from their 1986 debut album Licensed to Ill and also produced by Rubin, and Naughty by Nature's "Feel Me Flow". Writing credits are given to Eminem, Rubin, Squier, Adam Yauch and Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys, and Anthony Criss, Vincent Brown, and Kier Gist of Naughty by Nature, Ziggy Modeliste, Art Neville, Cyril Neville, Leo Nocentelli and George Porter Jr. for the "Feel Me Flow" segment.
The song starts with a "blast of static, hard guitar and Em roaring out of the gate sounding like the long-lost, fourth Beastie Boy", according to Yahoo! Music critic Craig Rosen. The song samples the "Kick it!" part of "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)", performed by Ad-Rock. According to Billboard Lars Brandle, the song is "a punchy, guitar-and-beats driven song which channels Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' I Love Rock 'n' Roll and Licensed to Ill-era Beastie Boys."
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).