"This is another Public Service Announcement, brought to you, in part, by Slim Shady. Slim Shady does not give a fuck what you think. If you don't like it, you can suck his fucking cock. Little did you know, upon purchasing this album, you have just kissed his ass. Slim Shady is fed up with your shit, and he's going to kill you."
The above lines open Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP", and compared to the rest of the album, actually seem peaceful, tame, and mild-mannered. It's the fastest selling solo album ever, a landmark achievement in hip-hop, and one of the most controversial things ever put on tape.
"Kill you" is a disturbing (and I promise not to use that word regarding every song on this album) warning Eminem waves in our faces. A slick beat allows him to explain that if he "can't rap about coke no more", he'll kill, rape, take drugs, and spit it in their faces: "Oh, now he's raping his own mother, abusing a whore/snorting coke, and we gave him the Rolling Stone cover?". He's cold and psychotic, not to be trifled with. After that first song , one might think he's all flash and no fire, no substance to his shocking rhymes.
They'd be wrong, because "Stan" follows, a song everybody knew but few really understood (that label could actually fit Eminem perfectly as an artist). It's an incredibly tight narrative, that descends into the psyche of eponymous, mad, obsessive fan that identifies himself with Slim. He writes him letters that start out as normal and end as nightmare-inducing. It showcases Eminem's ability to change his voice, his perfect cadence and the fact that he understands us as fans, creating a scary caricature of anyone who's ever had an obsession. This song is also the first, and so far only reason anybody's ever heard of Dido, her suave voice balancing out the madness.
"Who knew" is a slap in the face of everybody that ever said that music is responsible for violence's pervasiveness nowadays. He laughs at people who tell him to sing without swearing constantly ("Oh - you want me to watch my mouth, how?/Take my fuckin eyeballs out, and turn em around?"), and throws their accusations against them ("But don't blame me when lil' Eric jumps off of the terrace/You shoulda' been watchin' him - apparently you ain't parents"). It's obvious he's pulling people's legs here, probably laughing like a maniac every time somebody accuses of corrupting the mind of the youth.
"The way I am" was the song that dispelled every doubt people might have had about the young rapper's talent. Eminem's flow is untouchable, and lyrically, he's at a legendary level on this song. It's a big middle finger pointed at everybody else, yelling his thoughts with an almost subconscious power (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 the pinky or the ring or the thumb/It's the one you put up when you don't give a fuck /When you won't just put up with the bullshit they pull/Cause they full of shit too). Eminem gives everybody hell, whether they deserve it or not here. "Think twice before ever criticizing your favorite artist" is the moral here.
The next song is more light-hearted, treating all the imitations that came along after him, a whole lot of celebrities, and proving to be a chart-topper (even if it was written as the exact opposite). He rips Pamela Anderson, Christina Aguilera, and most memorably Will Smith ("Will Smith don't gotta cuss in his raps to sell records/well, I do. So fuck him, and fuck you too."), and prophesizes that there's a little Slim Shady in all of us. Truth be told, haven't we all wanted to tell everybody who's made it big a thing or two?
In "I'm back", Eminem is especially cynical, and finds some of his favorite targets over the years (Christopher Reeve, N'Sync and others). He's treading on thin ice, with a reference to the Columbine Massacre (that's censored even on the uncensored version of the album), psychopaths, and addressing rumors that he had sex with Jennifer Lopez. Any other artist would have been considered a lunatic. Eminem did all of this with so much panache, people embraced him as a genius, and with lyrics as scary-good as these, who's there to argue?
"Marshall Mathers" is the most underrated song on the album, an eye-opening story told through a clenched jaw, that pities music in general, his new-found fame, and the hypocrisy it brought. It also starts, and ends a beef with Insane Clown Posse, and is complementary to "Stan". After listening to it a few times, you can't help but feel sorry for the guy ("Is it because you love me that y'all expect so much of me?").
Out of the final few songs, "Bitch Please II" stands out as the one of the best group efforts on the album, and probably is the most memorable W.C.-Jam of the last years, with Eminem being the best of the bunch (Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Xzibit). "Kim" follows, a brutal mock-murder of his then-wife, a song that will remain in history as the most strange, paranoid, and disgusting love-letter ever. "Under the influence" is a fantastic song for D12, Eminem acting as a deranged conductor to his own take on the tired "boy-band" concept he so happily smashed on this record. It's quotable line for line, as is the last song, "Criminal". On these two, he dispels any doubts: he's the bad guy, and he loves it, for better or worse.
I was 9 years old when I first bought and even though I only recently fully understood just how fascinatingly sick it is, I was still mesmerized. People listen to Eminem without even thinking about the lyrics and that's a shame. They nod their heads to murders, rapes, and hate. It's not the beats (although they help), it's Eminem's undeniable talent. This album feels like a train-wreck, an accident, something that you shouldn't like listening to, but are compelled to. It's so vulgar and profane, no fully uncensored version exists. It's bloody, and bloody brilliant."The Marshall Mathers LP" is one of the best albums of all time, created by the most talented guy of his generation, at his peak. Eminem knows this, and juggles between fact and fiction, in creating the most fascinating character we've ever witnessed in music: himself.
10/10 Stefan
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