Making Family-Friendly Music Is For Wimps

Eminem’s massively successful 2000 album The Marshall Mathers LP begins with an intro called “Public Service Announcement 2000” in which Em’s publicist lashes out at the world. “Slim Shady does not give a f**k what you think,” the publicist sneers. “Little did you know, upon purchasing this album you have just kissed his a**.” The intro is supposed to be a rebellious declaration of independence from Em, a warning that even if you don’t like the man, he is going to behave however he wants unashamedly. It’s also a fitting beginning to a controversial album. Back in the spring of 2000 when this was released, 2Pac had been dead for nearly four years and Ice Cube was busy making movies such as Next Friday, so commercial rap needed an outrageous artist, someone who had crossover appeal but who also wasn't afraid to speak his mind and stir up controversy. Eminem came to the rescue, and The Marshall Mathers LP was criticized relentlessly by parents and gay activist groups for its allegedly violent, homophobic, drug-referencing, misogynistic lyrical content. And while the album isn’t entirely profane, there certainly is quite a bit of vulgarity on it. Em fantasizes about sexually abusing his mother on “Kill You,” talks about murdering his wife on “Kim,” discusses Bill Clinton’s infidelity on “Who Knew,” pokes fun at pop songstresses such as Christina Aguilera on “The Real Slim Shady,” bashes his enemies (Vanilla Ice, Insane Clown Posse, etc.) on “Marshall Mathers,” and makes gay-bashing jokes on “Criminal.”

Many people will find such subject matter tasteless, and that’s completely understandable. However, I don’t think that the amount of profanity on an album necessarily has anything to do with that album’s quality, and The Marshall Mathers LP is largely incredible. One of the remarkable things about the album is that even the skits—which seem to be monotonous on most rap LPs—are tolerable. In fact, they’re very humorous. In “Ken Kaniff (Skit),” Insane Clown Posse members Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope perform sex acts on a gay man, and the homophobic nature of that skit is intolerable and difficult to listen to. However, the angry aggression of “Public Service Announcement 2000” is funny (even though that isn’t really a skit), and in “Steve Berman (Skit),” Em gets amusingly chastised by a record executive for lacking commercial appeal. Also amusing is “Paul (Skit),” where Em’s manager leaves him a telephone message. At first it seems as if Paul is going to reprimand Em for The Marshall Mathers LP’s vulgarity, but he eventually decides not to and hangs up the phone, presumably because he knew Em was too deranged to listen to anyone. These interludes add to the devilish mood of the album, and their humorousness is really entertaining and doesn’t derail MMLP’s quality like so many rap album skits do.

Of course, I didn’t pick The Marshall Mathers LP up to hear a couple of skits—they’re just an added bonus. The actual music on the album is great as well, although there are a few exceptions. The D12-assisted “Under the Influence” has a really obnoxious and juvenile hook, while the good-but-not great “Remember Me” has a smooth, subtle beat with lots of eerie sound effects, as well as a pair of wildly unstable verses from Sticky Fingaz and RBX. The rest of the album, however, is great. The Marshall Mathers LP begins with “Kill You,” where Em’s delivery sounds really angry and his lyrics are dazzling (“Serial killer hiding murder material in the cereal box on top of the stereo”). Another first-half highlight is “Who Knew,” where Em lashes out at critical parents over harmonious synths, drums and bass guitars: “Quit trying to censor music/It’s for your kid’s amusement/But don’t blame me when little Eric jumps off the terrace/You should have watching him, apparently you ain’t parents.” “Who Knew” is about how amazed Em is over the amount of power he has, and throughout the album he talks about the cons of his life as a celebrity. On “Marshall Mathers,” for example, he vents about greedy relatives and judgmental fans that criticize the pop-oriented sound of much of his music.

Indeed, being that famous would probably get stressful, and Em gets emotional repeatedly on The Marshall Mathers LP. On “The Way I Am,” he angrily screams his lyrics and begs critics to leave him alone over gloomy pianos: “I’m so sick and tired of being admired that I wish that I would just die or get fired and dropped from my label/And stop with the fables, I’m not gonna be able to top on ‘My Name Is.’” Em also talks about his fame on “Stan,” and he does so uniquely. The 45 King provides a downcast, guitar-laced beat on that song, and British songstress Dido provides some sad vocals for the chorus. Em, meanwhile, raps from the perspective of one of his fans, a mentally ill man named Stan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend after his idol (Em) fails to respond to his numerous letters. Actually, Em does finally write a heartfelt letter back to Stan, and he includes an autograph for Stan’s little brother, Matthew, but by the time he does so, Stan is already dead.

“Stan” is certainly a gruesome piece of work, but it’s probably not as bad as the Bass Brothers-produced “Kim.” Over dark pianos and punchy drums and guitars, Em furiously and drunkenly shouts at his terrified wife, Kim, for allegedly being unfaithful. After bombarding Kim with death-threats and verbal abuse, he breaks down into tears and tells her that he loves her, but he remains furious, and eventually slits her throat. An eerie violin creeps into the mix after Em commits the murder, and then we hear him drive away from the scene of the crime. The song’s beat is extremely dark, the lyrics are obviously graphic and Em sings a lonesome chorus, but those sinister qualities make “Kim” compelling and one of The Marshall Mathers LP’s highlights.

Nothing else on the album is quite as gloomy as “Kim,” but there is less extreme anger on several other tracks. Over subdued acoustic guitars on “Marshall Mathers,” Em attacks the Insane Clown Posse (“I was put to put fear in f**gots who spray Faygo root beer/And call themselves clowns ’cause they look queer”) and Vanilla Ice (“Vanilla Ice don’t like me/He said some s**t in Vibe to spite me/And then went and dyed his hair just like me”), among others. Furthermore, he goes after the boy band N’SYNC on “I’m Back,” and he discusses the crime rate in his hometown of Detroit over the old school-sounding, bass-heavy beat on “Amityville,” where D12 emcee Bizarre stops by to deliver an incredibly graphic guest verse.

Not everything on the album is so downbeat, though. “Drug Ballad” is a great party song, with R&B vocals from Dina Rae and danceable bass and keys over which Em discusses his drug use, and “B**ch Please II” finds Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Xzibit all delivering smooth braggadocio, and Em does what sounds like a Snoop impression at the beginning of his verse. However, The Marshall Mathers LP’s best upbeat song is “The Real Slim Shady.” Over cartoon-sounding synths, Em abandons the brutality of the album’s other songs and just spits brilliantly: “We ain’t nothing but mammals/Well, some of us cannibals who cut other people open like cantaloupes/But if we can hump dead animals and antelopes, then there’s no reason why a man and another man can’t elope.” The similarly great, piano-laced “Criminal” finds Em spitting, “My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge/They’ll stab you in the head.” So the often-sadistic lyrical content on The Marshall Mathers LP may turn some people off, and rightfully so, but Em is a superior enough emcee and his beats are consistently good enough to make up for that. But of course, it doesn’t matter if you like the album, or even if you hear it at all. Slim Shady does not give a f**k what you think.

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**ch Please II”
16. “Kim”
17. “Under the Influence”
18. “Criminal”

Standout songs: “Kill You,” “Stan,” “Who Knew,” “The Real Slim Shady,” “B**ch Please II,” “Kim,” “Criminal”