Portrait of a Consummate Rapper...The Marshall Mathers LP

Nobody saw Eminem coming --- nobody.

With his introduction into the hip-hop mainstream on The Slim Shady LP (1999), he ignited a small wildfire deep in the heart of conservative America. A highly-successful and controversial solo debut, it discusses such dark lyrical themes as extensive drug abuse, statutory rape, and even driving to a lake to dispose of his dead wife's body, locked away neatly in the trunk...while his infant daughter rides in the passenger seat of the car next to him. In essence, the album was an over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek depiction of his "Slim Shady" persona, filled with excessive amounts of obscenities, heavy satire and cartoonish descriptions of graphic violence. On the other hand, it was a prelude to greatness...showcasing only a small glimpse of this man's amazing lyrical prowess and razor-sharp wit. Almost overnight, teenagers all over the country were reaching for their bottles of peroxide, and people everywhere were asking themselves the same question: "who is this dope emcee??"

He was Dr. Dre's new young gun, that's who...straight out of Detroit's underground battle-rapping scene, and newly-signed to Dre's recording label, Aftermath. Already a local legend of "The Hip Hop Shop" (an urban hot spot located in the stomping grounds of his hometown stretch of 8 Mile Road), Eminem had struggled to make a name for himself as a respected rapper in a predominantly black sub-culture. After years of practicing and developing his craft, he finally emerged with a unique style all his own. He was a raging lion on the mic, an expert at alliteration and assonance in his vocal delivery...not only could he shut down any emcee who dared to challenge him in a creative flurry of insults, he could do it in a distinctive lyrical style that few could match. Eventually, his relentless determination and phenomenal rhyming ability earned him the respect of his freestyling peers. Suddenly, it wasn't his skin color that stood out in a crowd of black hip-hop fans...it was his skills. He later went on to become the runner-up at the 1997 Rap Olympics freestyle battle, taking second place only to legendary battler "Otherwize". Love him or hate him, you GOTTA respect Eminem...his fierce lyrical technique on the microphone and thought-provoking insights into modern society are paralleled only by that of the late Tupac Shakur's...and even that is pushing it.

The Slim Shady LP would go on to become a 4x Platinum-selling blockbuster and a hip-hop classic, giving Em his first commercial radio hit with "My Name Is". White hip-hop fans were already closely identifying with this blond-haired emcee, developing an intimate bond with him through his very personal lyrics and "Doctor"-prescribed beats. They were eagerly waiting for another hit of this magical formula, and so the stage was set for one of the most influential, landmark hip-hop albums of the 21st century to be released.

With The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem leaves the satire of The Slim Shady LP far behind. Instead, he goes straight for the jugular --- delivering the most personal, ferocious, controversial, and highly-successful album of his entire career. As its title reflects, the record is a completely raw and unnerving look at Marshall Mathers, the real man behind the "Slim Shady" facade...his thoughts, his feelings, and the life experiences that have led him to be here. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the album cover would speak volumes...a bleak, despairing, black-and-white photograph of Eminem sitting alone on the stoop of a rundown shack. What is the powerful message being conveyed here...? The answer: everything you need to know about this album.

The shack in the picture is one of the actual homes that he grew up in as a child with his mentally-diseased mother, without the aid of the father that abandoned him at 15 months old. A "broken" home, not just on the outside, but on the inside...filled with desolate hopes and shattered dreams. THIS is his life, THIS is who he is, and THIS is where a lot of the angry feelings that manifest themselves on The Marshall Mathers LP come from. He sits alone, with his shoulders squared and his head held high...the only male figure to speak of in a house that is crumbling all around him. Also, the picture we see is a totally bland and colorless carbon-copy. This could be construed for the way in which Eminem sees the world on this sophomore album, in shades of black and grey. And, as the picture eludes to, not even the illuminate sun shining down on him from above is enough to brighten the day of a broke young man trying to make it on 8 Mile. One that used to be broke in his pocket, but never in his spirit...

The production on The Marshall Mathers LP is a step above anything else Eminem had ever committed to wax at that point in his career...from the crisp, solid beats and thumping bass lines of Kill You and Remember Me? (produced by fellow studio mentors Dr. Dre and Mel-Man), to the larger-than-life, epic feel producer F.B.T. lays down on Marshall Mathers. Even though this is the most intimate album that Eminem ever recorded, it still retains all of the glossiness needed to make it an easily-accessible radio hit to all of those "popular" fans of rap out there. Musically, it is a prolific, hard-hitting hip-hop album, featuring everything from the melancholy sample of Dido's "Thank You" on the haunting Stan, to the party-hopping, dance-influenced sounds on Drug Ballad. Overall, the album's sound is a wonderful blend of commercial and street, laced up with very personal and opinionated lyrics on issues that were relevant in the year 2000 and even today. It is also worth mentioning how amazingly well the production stays true to the root of the subject matter that's being presented here...this is the realest musical testimony that Eminem ever laid down, and the music knows it. It never tries to overshadow him in the intensity of his vocal delivery, or in the depth and artistry of his lyrics. Mostly, it serves as a flawless counterpart to his brilliant solo performance here, and lets his lead vocal be the star. The pounding beats and solid musicianship provide the most appropriate atmosphere for Eminem's raging vocals on each track...from the darker, psychotic moments on Kim, to the slapstick humor of The Real Slim Shady. And every so often, Em's rhymes are accented with great instrumentation --- from reverberating guitar licks and chiming bells, to playful harpsichord passages and audio "prop" EFX (i.e., a bottle of pills rattling when Eminem talks about his mother's addiction to painkillers). This all results in a more powerful experience for the listener, and as history has shown us, the album succeeded in providing exactly that.

There's no denying that Eminem is one of the most lyrically gifted and highly prolific rappers in the history of hip-hop. Buried underneath all of those controversial statements on his albums is a lyrical delivery so technically profound and intellectually advanced that it has, quite frankly, not been done since Tupac Shakur touched a microphone. The Marshall Mather's LP is a stunning example of this...Eminem's ability to speed up his vocal delivery and rhyming styles, all within the same phrase, without losing the beat (or the cohesiveness of the multiple images he's throwing at you all at once) is showcased several times throughout the duration of the album. This is something that the majority of the critics and social activists who panned the album never realized... much less appreciated. They were too blind-sighted by the excessive amounts of swearing and use of the word "f*g" to notice the absolutely brilliant way in which Eminem was delivering them. For example, on the album's eye-opening track Kill You, he displays this particular talent numerous times in a quick, furious succession: ("These motherf*ckers are thinking I'm playin'/Thinking I'm sayin' this sh*t/'Cause I'm thinkin' it/Just to be sayin' it") and ("I invented violence/You vile, venomous, volotile bit*hes/Vain Vicadin, RIN-RIN-RIIIN!!"). He also displays the characteristic, intense rhyming scheme that he has become known for on this track: ("Blood, guts, guns, cuts/Knives, lives, wives, nuns, SLUTS!"). This sharp, staccato annunciating style and rapid, machine-gun fire delivery are just some of the traits that made Eminem a stand-out in Detroit and to the rest of the world, and gave hip-hop a refreshing new sound and dominating presence.

Besides being technically efficient, Eminem is also a visually complex storyteller. His lyrics on the album's third single Stan, a dark and chilling narrative told in letters from an obsessed fan's point-of-view to him, present a candid outlook on the relationship between an artist and their fans...and the pressure of how hard it can be for them to communicate with every one of them to make them feel appreciated. Throughout the song, Stan grows increasingly irritated and mentally unstable when Eminem won't return his letters, denying him the close, intimate relationship he needs from that one person he thinks can understand him. Eventually, he loses it and drives his car off a bridge with his pregnant girlfriend locked in the trunk (a reference to The Slim Shady LP's "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" track, with the same ending). A couple of weeks later, Eminem finally has a chance to write him back, and the words are a stark contrast to the persona he emulates in his records...

Dear Stan, I meant to write you sooner but I just been busy
You said your girlfriend's pregnant now, how far along is she?
Look, I'm really flattered you would call your daughter that
And here's an autograph for your brother, I wrote it on this Starter cap
I'm sorry I didn't see you at the show, I musta missed you
Don't think I did that sh*t intentionally just to diss you
But what's this sh*t you said about you 'like to cut your wrists too'...?
I say that sh*t just clownin dogg, c'mon - how f*cked up is you?
You got some issues, Stan, I think you need some counseling
To help your a** from bouncing off the walls when you get down some
And what's this sh*t about us meant to 'be together'...?
That type of sh*t'll make me not want us to meet each other
I really think you and your girlfriend need each other
Or maybe you just need to treat her better
I hope you get to read this letter, I just hope it reaches you in time
Before you hurt yourself, I think that you'll be doin just fine, if you relax a little
I'm glad I inspire you, but Stan, why are you so mad?
Try to understand, that I DO want you as a fan
I just don't want you to do some crazy sh*t
I seen this one sh*t on the news a couple weeks ago that made me sick
Some dude was drunk and drove his car over a bridge
And had his girlfriend in the trunk, and she was pregnant with his kid
And in the car they found a tape, but they didn't say who it was to
Come to think about, his name was...it was you
Damn!

On The Way I Am, another huge single from the album, Eminem addresses his critics, his need for privacy to his fans, and his status as a highly successful rapper and controversial figure in the national media. He tackles the issue of his lyrics negatively influencing American teenagers head-on, as well as controversial music artists being the ones to blame for the Columbine High School massacre...

Sometimes I just feel like my father, I hate to be bothered
With all of this nonsense, it's constant
And, "Oh, it's his lyrical content --- the song 'Guilty Conscience' has gotten such rotten responses"
And all of this controversy circles me
And it seems like the media immediately points a finger at me...
So I point one back at 'em, but not the index or pinkie or the ring or the thumb
It's the one you put up when you don't give a f*ck
When you won't just put up with the bullsh*t they pull
'Cause they full of sh*t too
When a dude's gettin' bullied and shoots up his school
And they blame it on Marilyn...and the heroin
Where were the parents at??
And look where it's at, Middle America
Now it's a tragedy
Now it's so sad to see, an upper class city
Havin this happenin'...
Then attack Eminem cause I rap this way
But I'm glad cause they feed me the fuel that I need for the fire to burn
And it's burnin' and I have returned

Truly, this album is Eminem's finest lyrical achievement...not only from a technical perspective, but from a "depth" perspective, as well. Eminem covers the entire emotional gammet on this record...from his problems with his mother, inside and outside of the courtroom; to his issues with his ex-wife Kim (and her fictionalized murder on the intense and distrubing Kim); to his beefs with a lot of the celebrities in the commercial mainstream at that time in 2000, from Christina Aguilera to Insane Clown Posse. The album also hosts guest appearances from then-unknown Bizarre from rap group D-12 on Amityville (a reference to Detroit) and refreshing rap performances from Snoop Dogg, X-hibit, and Nate Dogg on B*tch Please II, a continuation from the first cut on Snoop's No Limit Top Dogg album. Put simply, this entire record is just phenomenal, a timeless classic, and a must-have in any hip-hop fan's collection. Of the 14 cuts and 4 skits that make up the record, not one of them fall short...and that's saying something in a genre seemingly comprised of albums chock-full of "filler".

The Marshall Mathers LP went on to become the most popular, talked-about, and controversial recording of 2000. It earned four Grammy nominations (including Album of the Year!!), as well as infamous amounts of backlash from social activist groups like GLAAD for the album's flagrant use of the word "f*g" and other homophobic and misogynistic phrases. My advice to all of those people...if you don't like it, then don't listen! It hasn't changed the fact that this still remains one of the most important albums of the 21st century. If anything, all of the controversy has only helped it.


Track Listing:
1. Public Service Announcement 2000
2. Kill You
3. Stan
4. Paul (skit)
5. Who Knew
6. Steve Berman (skit)
7. The Way I Am
8. The Real Slim Shady
9. Remember Me?
10. I'm Back
11. Marshall Mathers
12. Ken Kaniff (skit)
13. Drug Ballad
14. Amityville
15. B*tch Please II
16. Kim
17. Under the Influence
18. Criminal