#11 - Phil

Eminem

The Marshall Mathers LP

2000

“Slim Shady does not give a fuck what you think. If you don’t like it, you can suck his fucking cock.” These words that open Eminem’s second record, The Marshall Mathers LP, perhaps summarize the decade’s most successful artist as well as ever. After taking the world by storm with his shockingly brilliant and controversial 1999 debut The Slim Shady LP, the white Detroit rapper set out to release a more personal, introspective, and unapologetically offensive follow-up. Just 15 months later, the result was the best record of 2000 and one of the most discussed rap albums of all-time.

The first song on The Marshall Mathers LP is called “Kill You,” an early indication of how dark and offensive this album really is. One of the themes that Em has touched on repeatedly throughout his career is his hatred towards his mother, and that feeling has never been more effectively expressed than it is here: “Put your hands down, bitch, I ain’t goin’ shoot you / I’ma pull you to this bullet and put it through you / (Ahhh!) Shut up, slut, you’re causing too much chaos / Just bend over and take it like a slut – Ok Ma?” These disturbing images only continue, as the following track, “Stan,” tells the story of a crazed fan who kills himself and his pregrnant girlfriend when Em won’t return his letters. Even the album’s lead single, “The Real Slim Shady,” is about as controversial of a hit pop song as the radio has allowed: “We ain’t nothin’ but mammals / Well, some of us cannibals who cut other people open like cantaloupes.”

The bottom line is this: Eminem was able to make a record that forced the media and the general populous to face him head-on. He was too big to be ignored – stations couldn’t keep these songs off the air, and activist groups couldn’t simply say, “Don’t buy his CD, kids.” He became an icon of unfathomable proportions, and his courage in releasing this album is something I have always strongly admired. -P.W.

The fascinating thing about Eminem is the persona he has created. He has created a character made up of truths and lies. After listening to his stellar albums, The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP, the only question is, what’s real and what’s not? Using his very powerful delivery, his black humor is disturbing and always begs the question, “Is this guy for real?” A perfect example are his notorious tracks, “97 Bonnie and Clyde” from The Slim Shady LP and “Kim” from this one, which are about Eminem committing murder. While these songs are always a huge turn off to me, I find them fascinating when thinking about them in the context of Eminem’s faux persona. - Ryan

Eminem has had quite a decade. Beginning with a whirlwind of acclaim and attention only to end up as something of a late-naughts burn-out. At least in the process we've been given "The Marshall Mathers LP", an electrifying record with a diverse sound and startling tracks of ingenuity, wit, humor, violence, redemptions, satire, drugs and Eminem's enviable flow. This record spits back hard from the jumbled broken-mirror-fun-house of Eminem's mind. - Steve