

He was also, and remains, a homophobe, a misogynist, a confessed domestic abuser. Dre-who got Eminem’s demo tape in the late ’90s and co-signed this twentysomething, lemon-faced, twiggy, vociferously self-proclaimed son of a bitch from the East side of Detroit born Marshall Bruce Mathers III. Dre- N.W.A., The Chronic, Aftermath Records, kingpin of West Coast rap-Dr. He killed JAY-Z on his own track, thus spoke Nas. He blew a young Kendrick Lamar’s mind, teaching him things about narrative clarity that he wouldn’t learn elsewhere. Whatever he’s become since, there can be no question that Eminem was one of the greatest to ever do it. By virtue of his whiteness and talent in almost equal measure, Eminem would come to rule pop culture in America by becoming this century’s prototypical troll. Congress, add a word to the dictionary, and incite protests from no small number of social justice groups.


He would cross over from rap to pop and rock radio, sell out arenas, win Grammys, rankle Lynne Cheney in front of the U.S. It’s still the best-selling rap record of all time. What I thought, instead, was: This guy is really fucking good at rapping.Īfter the release of The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem would shatter sales records with 1.7 million copies sold in the first week alone, 6.5 million in the first month, and eventually, over 35 million sold worldwide. As he stormed the theater with about a hundred carbon copies of himself, countless sociopolitical minefields were being set up around me.
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I was Eminem’s audience, a teen from Middle America, one of millions. Long before I ever started thinking critically about music, I sat watching Eminem’s VMA performance from my rural Wisconsin couch, a 10th grader with no social media, no cell phone. This was 18 years ago, two or three epochs in music-industry time, back when “Total Request Live” held sway while boy bands and newly crowned pop stars like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera filled the airwaves. He knew it before many: People like the stuff they recognize.
#Eminem marshall mathers lp full album you tube tv#
As reality TV gained traction, Eminem’s dressing-down of celebrities endeared him to a generation who would soon find “drama” to be the coin of the entertainment realm. It was an echo-chamber of MTV-watchers, a real-time “Beavis and Butt-Head” for those who would be later be crowned millennials. Specifically, what was on television at that very moment. The decade also witnessed a resurrection of boy/girl bands format with NSYNC and Backstreet Boys leading its movement.įrom OutKast's magnum opus to the album that cemented Eminem's place as the worst enemy of American parents, wear your seatbelt cause we're taking a train of time to honor some of the best iconic albums that turn 20 this year.”The Real Slim Shady” wasn’t rap about what was happening on the streets of Brooklyn or Compton or Atlanta or even Detroit. With their respective projects, Radiohead and Linkin Park brought the collision of hard rock and hip-hop to its commercial and aesthetic peak. The early 2000s saw a great success of pop heavyweights Britney Spears, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, and many others. 480 miles away from New York, vanilla rapper Eminem cemented his place in hip-hop at somewhere near the top with his polarizing masterpiece project, The Marshall Mathers LP. Still from The Empire State, Jay-Z built his Roc-A-Fella dynasty by releasing a compilation album of some of the best acts from his label. Since being released on February 6, 2003, the album has been certified nine-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Up in New York City, 50 Cent cheated death and announced his lifetime mantra, Get Rich or Die Tryin,' as his debut album. The 2000s was a monumental decade for music.
