“Guess who’s back—back again. Shady’s back. Tell a friend.”
At the risk of sacrificing any shred of coolness I ever had (which can’t be that much; I’m a lawyer, after all), I’m going to analyze a rapper’s lyrics in an academic-ish way. The quoted words are from the opening lyrics to Eminem’s song “Without Me” from his 2002 album The Eminem Show. Now, my assumption in casually listening to that song for all these years is that Eminem’s Slim Shady alter ego went away and is announcing his return. Which, in effect, is what he’s doing. This album followed the Marshall Mathers LP from two years earlier. And while two years isn’t that long between releases in the grand scheme, it is long enough to announce a return.
Here’s the thing: I’ve never thought too deeply about it and always just thought it was a casual use of the phrase “back again”—kind of like the subtitle of The Hobbit: There and Back Again.* But then I started really thinking about what “back again” means. If you really think about it—and I’m sure you haven’t, but for reasons we shall not go into I have—“back again” has to mean the third arrival or more. In other words, the person has to have gone away and returned at least once already before using “back again.” Here’s why: A person cannot be “back” without having been to the place at least once. Marty McFly went “back” to the future because that’s where** he came from. “Again” is a repetition. So for a person to be “back again,” they have to have been to the place, left, returned, left again, and then returned again. This leads me to the conclusion that Eminem is referring to his first absence between 1997’s Slim Shady EP and 1999’s Slim Shady LP, and then to his second absence between his albums in 2000 and 2002.
So why does this matter? It doesn’t. Not at all. Not unless you’re really into deep analysis of rap lyric meanings. But words do matter. They have specific definitions and usages which, if you ever find yourself in a contract dispute, are going to have a huge impact on the outcome.
Let’s say Slim Shady was in a badly drafted contract that provides for him to be paid half now, to take a break, and then to be paid the other half when he comes “back again.” If I’m representing the other side of that badly drafted contract (having not drafted it myself, of course), one of my arguments might be that Eminem is not entitled to the second payment upon his first return. He’s only entitled to be paid on the second return, for the reasons stated above. Is that a winning argument? Maybe not—the other side would probably argue that “back again” in common parlance just means “back.” But at least it gives me a plausible argument and a real chance of a court interpreting the contract the way I want.
Here’s a better real world example. What if you’re supposed to be paid, or supposed to pay someone, a percentage of revenue? What does that mean? Is it gross revenue or net revenue? If it’s net, what expenses do you deduct before calculating it? What income do you include in gross? Only music? Your side hustle as a purveyor of fine homemade lemonade on suburban sidewalks?
If you don’t work that out on the front end, you could find yourself in expensive, drawn-out, and emotionally taxing litigation to have a judge tell you what you meant by “revenue.”
So hire a lawyer to do your contracts. Because we think about words way more than you do.
* I acknowledged my nerdhood at the beginning of this article, so save it.
** When, technically.