After his mainstream debut, (notice I said mainstream, I acknowledge Infinite as a thing) Marshall Mathers became a household name and sold a million copies. Even Marshall would tell you that he would be the last person to be a platinum selling artist. Not because he was bad, but he was a poor white kid from Detroit with bleached blonde hair. Even with Dr. Dre and Interscope Records backing him up, I doubt Em thought The Slim Shady LP would move very many copies. Thanks to a huge single, My Name Is, Marshall was wrong and the album sold an ass load of copies. There was one thing that made so many people gravitate to Eminem, though. Once you get past the initial shock value and graphic lyrics, you would realize that he had a considerable amount of talent and was once of hip hops greatest lyricists.
That's all said and done, though. Now it was time for Eminem to avoid a sophomore slump, and prove that he wasn't just a one hit wonder. With Andre Young right behind him, Marshall was returning with the same crew from his debut. The Marshall Mathers LP featured the same ridiculous topic, but also included some more personal songs that made this album so famous. One of the only faults of this album is that it gave Eminem the opportunity to introduce his weed carriers to the world, D-fucking-12. The group wasn't shift but certainly didn't have any place on this album. The whole concept of them being weed carriers is funny to me, though, considering they were formed before Marshall even decided to start rapping.
The Marshall Mathers LP sold over 1.7 million copies in the first fucking week, a record that still stands today. (No one has ever come close) the album also won the album of the year award at the Grammys along with many other accolades. (The Grammys don't mean shit nowadays, but I thought I'd point that out) Eminem got even richer and even more successful, but also ran out of things to talk about. He released some great material in the following years, but this is unarguably the peak of his career.
It still sounds great today, but here we go anyways...
1. Public Service Announcement 2000
I always thought these things were pretty funny and not a complete waste of time. Its comical but picking any song on the album would have been a better way to start things off.
2. Kill You
Eminem uses the first real track as a place to spit seem of the most homophobic and violent lyrics you'll ever hear. This might make me a terrible person, but I always laugh at the lyrics. This album is kind of like a gang, in the sense that you have to get beat up and take the initial shock value, but once you're in, the shits pretty cool. After listening to this again, though, i noticed how odd Dre's beat is. Not bad but it doesn't sound like his normal material. But yeah, this track is a good way to reintroduce yourself and show everyone that you hadn't become a pussy.
3. Stan (Feat. Dido)
Everyone in the entire world, that's including children living in holes in Lesotho, has heard this song. And they all love it. Eminems "Stan" is one if the greatest songs in music history and is still known as one of his career defining songs. The first time I heard this album, I couldn't finish it because I would keep on replaying this song. The last, say, seventy seconds are some of the most intense and brilliant of Ems career and still sound great. You can say what you want about him today, but I dare you to throw on this track and tell me Marshall isn't a legend.
4. Paul (Skit)
Paul Rosenburg is a reoccurring character in Eminem albums and pops up for occasional skit. This isn't one of his finest performances but l enjoy it.
5. Who Knew
One of the most underrated songs he's ever recorded, though I can't help but think about how much better it would have been if it started off the album. Eminem brilliantly describes the way people take lyrics too seriously and how he is so quickly blamed. He also taks about his shocking success and how its impacted his life. Dre's beat is also a significant improvement over "Kill You", so I have no complaints.
6. Steve Berman (Skit)
I've always preferred Paul over Steve but this leads nicely into...
7. The Way I Am
There's a really cool part at the beginning of the song where he says "This song goes out to", where he tries to relate to the listeners but then he just says, "fuck it, shut up and listen". As a whole, though, this song is still really good. Em uses the hook to rhyme in the form of Rakims "As The Rhyme Goes On". That's greats and the lyrics are very nice, as Marshall talks abou the way he is viewed in public. The beat is a little overly dramatic but it fits the tone of the song nicely.
8. The Real Slim Shady
The first officially single is another song that you've already heard. Unfortunately this doesn't not sound as good as you remember. I still love it since I'm an Eminem Stan but I can see where someone would be disgusted by the track. Its still a incredibly important track in his career, as it boasted him to a whole other level of success. The thing I remember most, though, is the video. Don't remember many details but I'm fairly certain it was funny. So take that how you wish.
9. Remember Me? (Feat. RBX & Sticky Fingaz)
And the award for most unexpected guest feature goes to Sticky Fingaz. Its so painfully obvious that this track was a throwaway from 2001 that it literally hurts my left thigh. Research will tell you that both RBX and Sticky Fingas were supposed to have other guest spots on 2001 but didn't make the final cut. It doesn't take a genius to realize that this was that song. You can thank me for that bit of information because I just know you were wondering why the hell these guys were on an Eminem track. I know I made this song seem weird and misplaced. The latter may be true but I still really enjoy this.
10. I'm Back
Another gem among the Marshall Mathers discography, Em's lyrics are as comical and surprisingly clever as ever. I've gotta recommend this just so you can hear the last verse, which might just be the most politically incorrect statement Eminems ever said. There's also a few words ("kids", "columbine") that are bleeped out, even in the explicit version. Songs like this really make me wish that Em branched out and found some other producers, avoiding Dre's already shitty production.
11. Marshall Mathers
One of the more personal tracks, in which Em addresses some of his beefs. This is one of the few cases where I don't hate Ems singing on the hook. The instrumental could have been better (Seriously? This is the track where you decide to go light on the drums), but the lyrics on here are nothing short of great. Not a standout, but keeps the ball rolling nicely.
12. Ken Kanniff
The infamous third character in the Eminem albums. This is pretty disgusting but its worth noting that the original actor in this, Aristotle, had beef with Eminem and decided not to do the skit. Em took it upon himself to recreate the character by himself.
13. Drug Ballad (Feat. Dina Rae)
This song is extremely synonymous with "Cum On Everybody" from The Slim Shady LP, in the sense that its the weird up best dance track thrown in the middle of this dark album. The guest feature does nothing for the song and makes this the worst song in the album. All I really remember is the opening line about Marky Mark.
14. Amityville (Feat. Bizarre)
I love this song and Eminem lays one of his best verses of the album but the whole concept of Bizarre being a personal is just so weird to me. He's another member of D-12, who is easily the worst member. I've always thought that every rapper was someone's favorite rapper, but when I think about Bizarre... man, I don't know. I just can't picture someone sitting there with a straight face and saying that bizarre is their favorite rapper.
15. Bitch Please II (Feat. Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, & Xzibit)
I could basically copy and paste my comment from "Remember Me?". It would honestly be quite interesting to see in anyone even noticed. Like the other track, I can't imagine a reason why dre, snoop, Nate Dogg, and Xzibit would appear on a damn Eminem album. Snoop may be an exception, though, as his career was already on a steep downward slope and he needed to appear on a soon to be platinum album in order to stay relevant. The original version, entitled "B Please", can be found on Snoop Dogg's "No Limit Top Dogg", featuring Xzibit. I've gotta say that I prefer the original to this. This is still nice but its actually Eminem with the let down performance. Not that he's trash, but his style just doesn't fit this song at all, but its obvious that Eminem is about ten times better at rapping than every other participant. Man, I can ramble on about things that aren't related to the song a hand.
16. Kim
This shit was so damn fucked up that they didn't even bother censoring it on the clean version. Instead they just threw in a completely different track, "The Kids". This also appeared on "The Slim Shady EP", serving as the precursor to "Bonnie & Clyde", describing in great detail the events that led up to arm throwing Kim into a lake. I've heard a lot of messed up rap over the years but this is still just creepy, especially the original that isn't censored. That version includes the line about the four year old kid laying on the ground with a slit thought. I'm not even going to get in Interscope for censoring that.
17. Under The Influence (Feat. D-12)
This track serves as the official introduction to Eminems weed carriers. In that was the goal, well he couldn't have done much better, as all six members appear on this track. Some of the members aren't bad at all but I'd describe them as, "just good enough". Eminem is the only one who sounds any different from the rest, but I guess we'll have to wait for the D-12 write-ups if we want to distinguish any of these rappers. My god am I dreading those.
18. Criminal
The Slim Shady character makes one last appearance in the last track as a excuse for Eminem to spit some of the nastiest and homophobic things he can think of. After the robbery skit in the middle, Eminem explains and rationalizes to the audience why he's making this song. He gives fairly good reasoning and pretty much summarizes the entire album.
Rating: 5/5
The final album of classics week is our only controversial classic and was something I wanted to do when I first had the idea to do this. I can imagine why but some people may not like this album, either because its too dark for them or they're unfamiliar with more hardcore hip hop. This has always been my favorite album ever and its opened so many doors to me in the world of hip hop. Not all of the songs are great or hold up amazingly but as a whole, this project is nothing short of brilliance. Call me close minded towards the current day musical output but I consider this to be the last true classic to be released. Considering this shit was released in 2000, that shows how much Hip Hop has declined over the years. Anyways, you're a terrible person if you won't have this in your collection. Its sold over twenty million copies world wide, so you probably already have it somewhere. If you don't, though, well you better get your ass moving right now. Each second you don't have this album raises your chance of getting cancer.