Eminem

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Amazon

+ another review of The Marshall Mathers LP by Cynthia Fuchs

I love this CD. I picked it up because I thought it might be “decent"-I had “The Real Slim Shady” stuck in my head, playin’ over and over, after watching the video on good ole MTV. So...I took the plunge...handed over my 15 bucks…and headed home to spin it. Little did I know what was in store. I’m a latecomer to the whole Eminem craze. I didn’t expect the sporadic genius of The Marshall Mathers LP, that’s for sure.

The Marshall Mathers LP is certainly not for the squeamish or the young, and well deserves the “Explicit Content” sticker on its front. Unlike most rap artists who talk about gangs and cars and guns and bitches, Eminem talks more about domestic violence, gays, crime and himself (okay, the latter is certainly integral to the music of any rap artist). Much of the material is based on his life, and his abuse at the hands of his father, and some none-too-pleasant remarks about his mother, who is even now suing him for something like $10 million. The album is riddled with profanity. From “Puffy” Combs to Britney Spears to boy bands, no one is safe under the scrutiny of Eminem’s pen. There’s been much controversy over the lyrics since the album was released, especially concerning Eminem’s apparent hatred of gays, and the controversy is certainly warranted, but for my two cents his lyrics hardly detract from the album more than the derogatory lyrics about bitches and such do from any other rap album. It’s expected.

The beats are awesome, taken from both the Dr. Dre camp and Eminem’s own. They provide a different background for each track and avoid sounding as though they’re all in the same vein. This is good-we’re going to hear this album on every street this summer, so diversity of rhythm is certainly a good thing. The rhythm of Slim Shady’s delivery is also diverse. Every song has him switching up and sounding entirely different. From the talking/rhyming of “Stan” to the relentless rhyme of “The Way I Am,” Eminem is anything but boring. His rhythms are smart and interesting.

The most disturbing track is “Kim,” a song about his wife and the mother of his child, Hallie. The song is a six-minute tirade, Eminem screaming at his wife as she cries and pleas with him-a brutal glance into the dark halls of domestic violence that never fails to give chills.

The album is brilliant, for the most part, and I’ve been spinning it continuously for weeks, just as I listened to Dr. Dre’s 2001 for weeks straight last year. The content may be disturbing, and Eminem may be dangerous, but the album as a whole is a major work from a skinny boy from Detroit.