“Little did you know, upon purchasing this album, you have just kissed his ass.”
One year after his debut, Eminem didn’t dodge the bullet that is ‘The Underwhelming Second Album.’ He caught it in his teeth like Bruce Leroy, and spat it back at us all, hitting us right in the bull’s-eye with the album of the decade: ‘The Marshall Mathers LP‘ (2000).
In fact, there isn’t a mark he doesn’t hit.
“You want me to watch my mouth? How? Take my fuckin’ eyeballs out and turn ‘em around?”
Impact? Think about the beginning of the decade. You’d have been hard pressed to flip to a channel that did not devote a majority of their time talking to or about something Shady-related, directly or indirectly. No one was safe: rap magazines, Insane Clown Posse, Christopher Reeves, the president, and even his own mother, raped by the end of the first verse on the album. Under fire from every acronym you can think of (See: GLAAD) he navigated the land mines with ease and intelligence. Accused of bigotry towards homosexuals, you would think he might tone down his use of inflammatory slurs. Instead, he performed a duet with out-of-the-closet superstar Elton John, who is now a close friend. And the idiots that blamed his influence for everything from their kids swearing to Columbine had the blame placed squarely back on themselves with one lyric:
“But don’t blame me when little Eric jumps off of the terrace. You should’ve been watchin’ him, apparently you ain’t parents…”
Importance? The art of MC-ing can be divided simply into two eras: Pre and Post-Shady. The color barrier in rap went the way of The Wall. Another war for our freedom of speech was fought and won, although there were many boy band casualties along the way. This album was arguably the apex of it all. Arguable only because many feel his best song is the Oscar-winning(!) Lose Yourself from the 8 Mile soundtrack. But we’s talkin’ albums, not songs, peckerwood.
“Will Smith don’t gotta cuss in his raps to sell records. Well I do, so fuck him and fuck you too.”
Originality? Without losing any of the competitive, playground posturing rap is known for, Marshall was real to a point that would embarrass others. Soul-baring, self-deprecating and seriously funny. You’d catch bits of it with Pharcyde, Fresh Prince and a handful of others, but not on this level, on this grand of a stage, and certainly not this visceral.
“My fuckin’ bitch mom’s suin’ for $10,000,000. She must want a dollar for every pill I been stealin’.”
Cohesiveness? A road map of his warped mind and dark past, MMLP takes you to various, very different places, yet each song flows logically into the next. Not exactly linear, but I find it more interesting when a story zigzags in a dizzying fashion as long as it all comes full circle. Like the movie ‘Memento‘, or the previous year’s ‘Fight Club.’ In fact, the latter film and this album share a lot of themes. Both are portraits of broken, angry, mama’s boys gone wrong, that destruct rather than construct, and using violence (verbal or otherwise) become rebels for our generation. Not so surprising then that both projects speak to me.
“My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge that’ll stab you in the head whether you’re a fag or les.”
Skills? Barely two albums in, people were already beginning to prepare flimsy arguments for why this white boy shouldn’t be brought up in ‘Greatest of all Time’ MC discussions. The only legit one (at the time) was longevity/body of work. He hadn’t been around long enough yet. Ok. We’ll talk again. Say in…9 years?
“Shit, half the shit I say I just make it up to make you mad, so kiss my white, naked ass.”
Songs? Fuck. Find me a better songwriter, and I’ll charge you with perjury. If this mythical creature does exist and can summon an ounce of his fire and carry that over to how they deliver those lyrics to the microphone, I’ll eat my hat. And buy their albums.
“Slim Shady. His tape is dope, I dug it. It’s rugged but he needs to quit talkin’ all that drug shit.“
Like a kid being told he can’t do something, Marshall goes the opposite direction and does it even more. And worse than the first time. (See: Drug Ballad.) The Way I Am was a revelation. At his most sick and tired, he recoiled away from the first album song that broke him, and crafted the anti-My Name Is. The beat is dark, and his delivery is aggressive and non-stop, full of multi-syllable rhyme combos. He flips an old Rakim lyric into a chorus that sarcastically accepts all of the accusations and expectations coming his way now that he’s famous. 4:50 of piss, vinegar and vitriol.
The two songs that best represent his immense writing talent, as well as his abilities to flip from poignant and mature to scathing and scary, are Stan and Kim. Stan told a tragic tale of an Eminem fan in letter format, received all of the (deserved) acclaim and awards, and has been talked about endlessly, but the latter is just as important a song. It thrusts us into a revenge fantasy/horror movie as Shady and his daughter take his hated/beloved Kim on a drive to go kill her. The song ends where the previous album’s 97 Bonnie and Clyde begins. Extremely hard to listen to, but I do not have a more perfect example of music as therapy. Better that someone says hateful, crazy shit than does it. (I once saw a “making of” on the album and they spoke to the people that witnessed Em laying the vocals to this song. Like a method actor, he essentially lived what he was rapping about for the duration of the recording session, bringing himself to tears and hysteria. They said it was the most intense, frightening performance they had ever seen.)
Even the few near missteps (due to a couple of weak guest spots) are amazing because as soon as Em starts spitting, he makes you forget what came before and marvel at what the fuck he just said. And how he said it.
“When I go out, I’mma go out shootin’. I don’t mean when I die, I mean when I go out to the club, stupid!”
I could go on, but Mr. Mathers would make the case better than I can. Do yourself a favor and just go listen to this album. Your morals (and parents) may be sorry you did, but your ears won’t be.
As you were,
– Nuv
Before you even ask, here’s a cut segment from the main article, with some albums that were in consideration. Maybe your album of the decade’s in here:
“White Stripes – Elephant was the next runner-up to my Album of the Decade. Jack White is a bad motherfucker and this was the baddest, and biggest, Stripes album. Seven Nation Army and Hardest Button To Button lead the charge, but the rest of the album is rad harsh too.
Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below are both incredible and incredibly diverse, especially The Love Below half. The only area they lose in is maybe cohesiveness, which I guess will happen when you make a sprawling epic like this. Stankonia is also amazing, and may have the song of the decade on it (Bombs Over Baghdad), but this one best represents how multi-faceted ‘Kast truly is, and is my generation’s White Album. Or Sign O’ The Times.
Jay-Z – The Black Album. What more can I say? This album’s power is lessened only because Jay didn’t remain retired afterward. This is the ultimate swan song of a legend at the peak of his powers. The Blueprint is also incredible, and has one of the best diss songs of all time on it (The Takeover) but I am partial to this one. Either way, neither make the cut, so fuck it!
Johnny Cash – American IV: The Man Comes Around. Though he makes them his own, all but 3 songs are covers and it’s power largely comes from being the culmination of his entire career and death.
Kanye West – College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation are all contenders. I would argue that he had as much of a grip on the latter half of the decade as Eminem did on the first half, from media attention, to strange (albeit, less criminal) behavior, to critical acclaim for the only thing that should matter: the music. Along comes auto-tune to make my cutting process easier…
El-P – I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead is the coolest album name on here. El Producto drops a post-apocalypse Mad Max soundtrack and packages it as a hip hop album. Great stuff, although in the impact area, it made far less of one than the album I ultimately chose.
Strokes – Is This It? has the best album cover of the bunch, but part of what makes it great is bringing back something that’s been done before as opposed to blazing a new trail.”