Pros: Best beats Eminem ever got; brilliant satirical pieces and conceptual songs; high-level lyrical skills
Cons: Skits; pop filler; lukewarm guest spots; sometimes Slim Shady gets out of control
The Bottom Line: Although it is a few notches away from the "classic" berth it could have attained, The Marshall Mathers LP is nevertheless Eminem's best album
balogun's Full Review: The Marshall Mathers Lp [PA] by Eminem
As commercially successful as The Slim Shady LP was when it was released in 1999, even Eminem himself could not anticipate the monumental way the next record, 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP, would eclipse it. In fact, compared to it, The Slim Shady LP looked like a flop. But for all the nine million records sold, people, even to this day, differ greatly on the artistic value of The Marshall Mathers LP. It is the album that made Eminem, for a brief period, the most popular and the most reviled emcee around.
Many of Em’s youngest and least discerning fans, the people most responsible for making him a pop icon and the Great White Hope of hip-hop, hail this as a classic album. The Marshall Mathers LP, a classic? I dunno, it comes close, maybe? Those stupid skits with Paul Rosenberg and Ken Kaniff – the latter who gets his knob slobbed by Em rivals Insane Clown Posee – show up again, as well as two others, including the intro. Well, at least they are funnier, but ultimately the album could have done without them. MMLP also marks the debut of D12, but obviously Em’s homeboys care a lot more about spitting shocking lyrics for shock’s sake than anything else. The world is introduced to Bizarre’s trademark off-beat flow in “Amityville”; and apart from the late Proof and Swifty McVeigh, the rest of the gang prove indistinguishable in “Under the Influence”, which is what I can say for the rest of the guest appearances in this album. Perhaps it is partly because of Eminem’s high-caliber skills, but he kind of renders the guest spots as borderline unnecessary. Sometimes I can’t help but chuckle with disbelief at Sticky Fingaz’s declaration in “Remember Me” that he’s “the illest n***a eva!” when Eminem is about to outgun him in the third verse. And as for “The Real Slim Shady”, well, we all know it functions as merely the first single, with its repetitive but light-hearted beat and insubstantial but insanely hilarious lyrics aimed to sell the album; otherwise it has no place in it.
*Tsk-tsk*! That Slim Shady character! At least there is a reason why the album bears Eminem’s government name. “The Way I Am” and “Marshall Mathers”, two pretty remarkable songs, show the after-effects of Eminem’s success after his major-label debut. He struggles to deal with the almost sudden fame and wealth in the former, and previously nasty family members who suddenly become nice as a result in the latter. But, of course that crazy Shady dude is still around, more outrageous than ever before. Eminem is not the first emcee to yell anti-gay slurs on record, but never in recent memory have there been so many of them hurled in such a reckless manner. It also does not help that he answers to any would-be charges, "Homophobic? Naw, you're just heterophobic!" in "Criminal", making it easier to conclude that he was indeed using the slurs for gays, and not wimps, his later performance with Elton John at the Grammys notwithstanding.
This is the increasing problem with the Slim Shady alter ego. The Marshall Mathers LP finds Slim Shady growing more uncontrollable, doing all sorts of drugs and poking fun at damn near everyone, some somewhat deserved due to their lack of talent and a desperate effort to distance himself for being categorized as “pop” (e.g. N’Sync and Britney Spears), while others are not (if not for Will Smith, rappers like him would not have multimedia careers, like he did with 8 Mile two years later). A few are just downright heartless – of what purpose is there to ridicule a paralyzed Christopher Reeve? And let me not get started with yet another blood-curdling fantasy of killing his wife (“Kim”) or committing parental incest (“Kill You” and “I’m Back”). It’s so bad that certain lines are edited out, like the Columbine High School shooting reference in “I’m Back”. There is a much lesser level of constraint with this album than its predecessor. Sometimes, you can’t help but feel that the people who denounced this album as extremely misogynist, homophobic and vulgar - like conservative pundits and gay-rights activists - did have a valid point.
No wonder why other songs in The Marshall Mathers LP fare much better because Eminem channels Shady’s energy into a narrower focus to achieve relative constraint and conceptual brilliance. Everyone has heard, or at least heard of “Stan” - by far the best song in this album and one of the best in rap, period. The guy changes the tone and pitch of his voice over the course of four verses as he first plays the part of an obsessive letter-writing fan who increasingly gets upset with Em’s elusiveness, then returns to his normal voice as he finally replies to him with words of advice, by which time it’s way too late. It reveals Em’s gift for writing captivating pieces of satire, and it continues with “Who Knew”, in which Eminem rebukes parents avoiding their main job by looking for someone to blame for their poor parenting (“But don't blame me when little Eric jumps off of the terrace/You should’ve been watching him - apparently you ain't parents!”); scoffs at his music being taken too seriously (“Get aware, wake up, get a sense of humor/Quit trying to censor music, this is for your kid's amusement”); and shakes his head at perceived double standards:
So who's bringing the guns in this country? (Hmm?) I couldn't sneak a plastic pellet gun through customs over in London And last week, I seen a Schwarzeneggar movie Where he's shooting all sorts of these m***********s with an uzi I see three little kids, up in the front row Screamin "Go!" with their seventeen year-old uncle I'm like, "Guidance? “Ain't they got the same moms and dads who got mad when I asked if they liked violence?"
No offense to songs like “B***h Please II” – which is a nice collabo piece with Dre, Snoop and Xzibit – or “Kill You” or “Kim”, which are actually good songs in general, but the above discussed songs make them sound pale in comparison.
And, oh, the beats – those annoying occasional bland spots that showed up in The Slim Shady LP are gone. Dre not only did a better job with the executive production job; he does better with the beats he produces himself. Whether you find the hate-filled lyrics of “Kill You” amusing or disgusting, he and his co-producer Mel-Man create a sparse beat of quick-rolling keyboard notes and sharp drum kicks that accentuates Shady’s barbs. And the sparseness also helps in the same manner with the satirical lyrics of “Who Knew”. Moreover, the smooth alt-rock feel of “Marshall Mathers” is unlike anything Dre had ever done up to that point. The Bass Brothers are also on deck as usual, with the slow, thick and dark drum ‘n’ bass of “Amityville”; or the heavy-metal raucousness to assist in the venom-filled “Kim”. Even Em himself jumps in. This is where he begins some production of his own, and for a first time, the piano-roll and the stuttering drum kit of “The Way I Am” is outstanding. But the highlight has to be “Stan”, where Mark the 45 King emerges out of nowhere after a decade of obscurity to craft a beautifully gritty and somber beat out of Dido’s “Thank You.” Sonically The Marshall Mathers LP is a brilliantly consistent affair – the best it ever got for Eminem as far as beats is concerned.
But for as much as I can laud this album’s strengths, it is these same strengths that make The Marshall Mathers LP somewhat frustrating. Granted, it is a very good album, better than most of the rap albums that were coming out circa 2000, or even that has come out in the last ten years. Some of the most astounding displays of lyrical technical skills, best conceptual songs and wittiest lines ever in rap history can be found in this album. Surely some of the nine million-plus people who bought this record knew why they did so. Moreover, this is Eminem’s best album. However, you will never see a lot of hip-hop fans herald it as a classic, in the same breath as what his peers like Nas or Jay-Z have produced, like an Illmatic or a Reasonable Doubt. The main reason for that is because he let the gimmickry of his alter ego get the best of him, resulting in juvenile and disjointed couplets that now sound stale and dated today after the initial shock has long worn off. For all the reasons above, the sale value of used copies of The Marshall Mathers LP is shockingly low (particularly on Amazon). Yep, this is the best that it ever got for the white boy wonder critically and commercially; and sadly, from this point on, it never would quite be the same again.
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***h Please II 16. Kim 17. Under the Influence 18. Criminal
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