Album of the Week #5: Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
This is Album of the Week #5 ~ This week's album is Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
Year of Release: 2000
Genre(s): Hip Hop
Country: United States
Length: 72 minutes
Album.Link
Excerpt from Pitchfork:
But the anger and trauma he conjured from his childhood of abuse and bullying felt uncomfortably real in all his performances. On The Marshall Mathers LP, he suits the action to the word and the word to the action. He picks the right tone for the right mood, the horrorcore of “Remember Me?,” the beleaguered artist on “The Way I Am,” the impish malevolence of “Criminal,” or the tortured, regretful, loving, deranged, murderous everything-all-at-once feeling of “Kim.” We don’t really believe it, but we believe Eminem really believes it.
Discussion points:
Have you heard this artist/album before? Is this your first time hearing?
Do you enjoy this genre? Is this an album you would have chosen?
Does this album remind you of something you've heard before?
What were the album's strengths or weaknesses?
Was there a standout track for you?
How did you hear the album? Where were you? What was your setup?
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I love Eminem and I think he's like a hybrid of Shakespeare and Elvis. One living artist who I truly believe will go down in history. Apparently, he also saw the Elvis connection himself (a discussion about a song from a different Eminem album, but still relevant).
Back to this album, I think that songs like Kim, while brilliant and terrifying, will be a stain on his legacy, particularly as we come to reckon with misogyny in rap music. Kim's suicide attempt after he played that song live will probably be talked about the same way people talk about John Lennon hitting women.
In spite of that, or perhaps because of things like that, Eminem is also a bit of a free speech pioneer. If I had more time, I would go into even more detail, but one of the most interesting papers I wrote in college was about how Eminem pushed the envelope on free speech in music.
He's had contact with the secret service not once but twice (I don't rap for dead presidents / I'd rather see the president dead / it's never been said / but I set precedents), He successfully argued in court that you're allowed to exaggerate a true story about a real person in your art for comedic effect (his song about his high school bully D'Angelo Bailey beating him into a coma - he jokes in the song that his brain fell out of his head and the principal came in and started stomping him too), he defended his music against his mother, who successfully sued him for calling her out for her abuse in various songs (she had Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome and used to drug him to receive sympathy from others), and much more.
The irony is that, for a joker who spent most of his career saying "fuck the system," Eminem is actually a very political artist who deserves to be taken seriously.
Edit: One last thing I'll add about Eminem in general. Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever successfully ruined as many music careers as Eminem. His diss tracks are unparalleled in their savagery and wit.
Eminem Diss Tracks of note:
Bump Heads
Killshot
The Warning
Nail in the Coffin
So many more too. Hard to even choose.
The "pushing free speech" part is an interesting aspect I definitely hadn't considered before.
Including his own, no? I don't really listen to his music – maybe I should –, but to my understanding, his past few albums in the 2010s weren't as critically acclaimed anymore, or am I remembering that wrong?
This is pretty tough to answer. But I'll try.
The quantitative perspective is that Eminem is still one of the most popular artists in the world. For every streaming service, he is in the top 5, 10, or 20 most listened to artists depending on how you count that number (all time streams, monthly streams, etc.). He is far from his peak, sure, but his peak was so insanely high that even a dramatic decline puts him consistently above most popular artists who are currently at their own peaks.
From a qualitative perspective, well, it depends who you ask. Personally, I think the textbooks will remember it this way: After his overdose and subsequent recovery from drugs, Eminem experimented with new styles for a bit while his fame faded (slightly). A lot of these albums were not well received by critics in the same way as his older music. It seems like he eventually came to grips with this and stopped trying to recapture that old spark. Afterward, he made his most brilliant music yet, even if it's less appealing to the ear.
A lot of casual listeners don't appreciate this yet, but in recent years Eminem has released albums full of the most intricate wordplay that he (or maybe anyone) has ever made. He admits that he "stopped counting bars" (which in practice means he favors complex wordplay over the flow or mass appeal of a song). Pretty much every line in his new music is double or triple entendre with callbacks to previous lines or songs. There are hordes of people who analyze his new music and keep finding insanely clever things. Eminem is at the point where his genius is showing and he doesn't care if it costs him record sales.
Thousands of examples and while this one isn't my favorite, a lot of people like it:
So, not a king with a crown but just a person with a baseball cap.
Teeth, fillings, crowns, caps.
And of course, the other meaning of "capped" being "getting shot."
It's at least triple entendre and use of a homophone/slant rhyme. Some argue that it's quadruple entendre because when you finish or limit something you're "capping it" or "putting a cap on it." I think that's a weaker association but it shows that there is something there to analyze.
I suppose I would say he's still relevant and his career is far from over, even if his newer albums don't reach his previous peaks. Eminem will probably be remembered long after he's gone and I could even see his music being analyzed the same way we analyze Shakespeare now. Eminem is an English teacher's dream, except for the profanity I guess.
Just so my cards are on the table: I'm an Eminem skeptic. I think he's proven himself to be a talented wordsmith, but based on my (short) time studying literature, it isn't usually enough to be clever with wordplay if there isn't a broader intention to evoke a feeling, or time, or place, or worldview.
Eminem has always sat with me as a bit of a novelty. He's good at talking quickly, making words sound like other words, and rhyming words with 'Orange', but I can never shake the feeling that he falls short as an artist. Not to say Eminem is 'trying too hard' or being verbose, I think it all comes very naturally to him, but that his talent often ran parallel to his self expression (and his recent album's failings are largely because of them parting ways).
'Stan' on this album is often pointed to as one of his strongest songs, and I would agree - but the technicality of the wordplay is actually very simple on that particular track. I think it's successful less so because of the writing, but how it's able to use the structure of a song to reveal a story that lingers in your head.
Funnily enough - I've written a dissertation in-part about why Hip Hop should be taught in English classes, that is to say I'm fully behind the genre getting the recognition it deserves (I know I risk coming off as aloof).
I've often encountered fans of Eminem who limit the genre to him and only him - usually due to a feeling that 'he's the best, so why bother'. I know for a lot of folk he's their introduction to Hip Hop, but through his fans he's sort of carved out his own pool where he's the only fish. There's so much colour and variety of writing across the genre to enjoy, it seems like a real shame.
Anyway, any examples to change my mind are more than welcome!
I don't know if this album would win over many Eminem skeptics today. It reeks of the time it was released and it was so much less about word play and more about shocking and offensive slant rhymes - which, by the way, were pretty revolutionary for a general audience at the time. This was the first time parents really heard this stuff in white America. Until then, Wu-Tang was probably the closest thing to Eminem, and their CDs weren't being discovered in Walkmans across America by angry parents in the same way Eminem's would be.
If you want to become an Eminem fan, I would actually suggest listening to a couple of his "easier on the ear" songs. Songs with flow rather than technicality or shock value.
We As Americans is a good jumping off point. Previously unreleased, don't even know if I agree with whatever message he's trying to share, but his flow is incredible.
Another song with great flow is Soldier
If you want to hear something a little emotional, I recommend Hailie's song and maybe reading up on the situation behind the song a bit.
If you want more technical word play, you'll have to listen to his more recent-ish music that came out after he got sober.
People usually suggest Rap God or Stay Wide Awake. I won't post lyrics because I don't even know where to start. These songs are really dense and you kind of have to Google the clever word play people have discovered collaboratively.
I do think that, with Eminem, there is a tradeoff. You can have sincerity, flow, and technical word play/humor. But you have to pick two. I don't know that he really nails all three simultaneously in any one song.
I agree that too many people see Eminem as the only rapper worth listening to. Hip Hop is such an incredible genre with some relatively unknown artists doing absolutely incredible things. Freddie Gibbs for gangster rap, Aesop Rock for conscious rap with insane technicality, etc. There is just too much good rap to solely listen to Em.
That said, his unique blend of shocking humor, his horrific upbringing, his support for progressive politics, his flow, his mainstream appeal, his level of introspection, his impact on free speech in music, and a million other things might actually cement him as the "greatest" rapper to do it so far. Even if people have surpassed him in specific skills, it's the sum of the parts that make him hard to beat.
I loved Eminem when I was younger and still listen to his older music fairly frequently. However I've never really listened to any of his newer work, this thread has definitely piqued my interest. Will have to check it out today!
Also, love the username Wolf 359 is awesome
Have I heard this artist/album before? Yes, actually. In fact, in my middle teens, before I learned of the glory to be found within the music of OutKast, I'd have said this was my favourite album. In general, as much as it's an exemplar of crossover hip-hop, it's doing something distinct from most of its siblings in the radio-friendly genre: personal intimacy. Now, I'm no Post Malone, hip-hop is a beautiful subculture and the music that comes out of it can be remarkably emotionally precise, no matter how many aged rocksters and wrong generationers seem to believe that lyrics' only value is as a means of conveyance of melody. The radio stuff, though? With uncommon exception, the closest to intimacy found there is going to be... XO TOUR Llif3, or something very "persona"ish.
With this album, Eminem took the flashes of himself he'd strewn about The Slim Shady LP, like Brain Damage, toned down the absurdism, but turned the anger all the way up. Do I particularly empathize with "Kim"? Obviously not, and I'm sure the author has more nuanced feelings today than that song contains. I'm sure he left at least a single sincere emotion on the table during the writing. However, it is a remarkable work of rage. Not righteous fury, not character development, it feels real, and awful, and despicable, and downright evil. And that is an incredible talent, to be able to take your own seething, bigoted, personal hatred, and distill it into a 6 minute track in the middle of an eleven-time platinum-certified album. Troubling that it attained that success? yes. Possibly harmful? probably. But at the same time, ignoring the skill that underlies that misogyny is a mistake, even if it means you can't stand the music.
Kill You is one of the greatest trolls in history. It's a good song, too, but come on, it's great that anyone took that song personally, and genius marketing to disarm sensitive listeners. Stan is a good story, well told, and has kept the voice of Dido in the ears of future generations who couldn't make it to Lilith Faire. And it's far from entirely coated in misogyny, even if it's...palpable throughout. From Who Knew, to The Way I Am, to Marshall Mathers, and Drug Ballad, the record is full of pain. Over half the tracklist might be jokes and horrorcore, but the rest is honest memoir of the painful life of a child from an abusive and unstable home. And Every. Single. Line. is technically excellent.
On Remember Me?, Eminem takes aim at the broader, accepted culture's misdirection tactics:
And for those who don't know, Eminem's own verse is not the best in the song, as Onyx legend Sticky Fingaz precedes it with some dazzling horrorcore lyricism. Throughout the entire album, words are perfectly placed to alert and to prick up the ear, but nearly none of them exist purely for wordplay's sake. Criminal may be one of the best-written songs ever, and somehow the delivery takes it to another level entirely. On paper, it scans clean, but to actually perform it takes a lot of practice, even compared to similarly tongue-twisting rap verses, and Eminem makes it sound effortless. Try to imagine coming up with that flow, people. That is a gift.
It's clear that, as much as Eminem is a flawed individual, he saw his success and platform as placing responsibility on him. From here on, outside of horrorcore singles, he was essentially a political artist. Not a terribly insightful one, certainly not a voice of much authority, but he does care, and it's on that basis that I find it hard to come back to this album with as much joy as it brought me when I was young enough to ignore the bigotry that's unavoidable. The man has his demons, and I'm more gracious than most with the line of reasoning that art should be sincere before it should be pleasant. Still.
Criminal, like I said, is a tour de force. I cannot play it around anybody who isn't already a fan, for very good reason. It is satire. It is also satire that delivers a fairly toxic message. In 2023, it's safe to say that as much as he threw the f-slur around, Eminem as an adult never felt more homophobia than general discomfort with the subject. That still doesn't mean that, while the point in the first verse of that song is clear to me and unobjectionable, I think it does a good job handling its subject matter. As much as he's trying to say "I'm literally only saying these things to point out the hypocrisy of cultural critique that would rather draw down rage on musicians than actual instances of violence", he's also saying "I literally couldn't care less how hurtful my words are, and the best way to make a point about real pain is to mock it".
But when the final verse is just this good, and I can't be honest and say that all those harmful attitudes ruin the album for me. I'm privileged in that way, but also...
...sheesh.
Without Eminem, we wouldn't have gotten Kendrick Lamar, Earl Sweatshirt, or Mac Miller. Even Juice WRLD. That's something that the younger folks today don't get. As much as he's completely given up on accessibility, and basically created his own subgenre that even most hardcore fans of lyricism find tough to enjoy, and as much as his voice may have hurt women and people within GSM, directly and indirectly, he changed the world as much as a musician could in the late 90s.
I'm glad some people enjoyed this album, and I appreciate that people have high opinions of the wordplay and the style... but I hated this. I remember hearing some of the songs on this back when this came out in 2000 and I thought it was catchy and the beats were fun. But then, as now, I'm pretty bad at picking up lyrics while listening so I'm not sure I had any thoughts on those as a kid.
So this time I read along as I listened. And this is an album I'm confident in saying I will not be listening to again any time soon. The rampant misogyny and homophobia is over the top - and the half tongue-in-cheek, half serious lyricism just makes me think of an abusive partner who turns around after berating their target by saying they were just joking or the like. Anyway this was awfully not for me.
I hope you all have a nice afternoon.
I love to hear well-reasoned opinions against Eminem because, while I absolutely love a ton of his music, there is just no escaping the truth in what you're saying.
I think he's a very flawed person. I find that I have to listen to his music in the context of the time in which it was made (you'll notice his newer music is far more progressive and inclusive, though he still says shocking and offensive things). I try to remember that society as a whole thought calling people gay and using the f slur was harmless and hilarious. Watch some old comedy Central shows - yikes. The hip hop community was even further behind society in this regard. And while Eminem used these words (which are gross and inexcusable today for sure), he walked the walk and came out in favor of gay rights at a time when America was still against it. He was openly good friends with Elton John, who was actually his AA sponsor. I also try to remember where Eminem came from. We are talking about a boy who grew up in a rough part of Detroit, was horribly abused by his mother, and who reached super stardom while he was still young and immature.
I realize this might sound like a laundry list of excuses and I don't intend that. I do think context is important though. And if this album gets thrown in the bin for many people because it's too homophobic, I could understand that.