Alexander Russell Mr. Terrell UCA Writing 28 April 2015 Marshall Mather s Evaluation Beginning with his smash hit My Name Is in 1999 Eminem burst onto the music scene and people quickly decided to love him or love to hate him. His wanna be like appearance and careless attitude partnered with his over the top lyrics and subject matter made him the talk of the universe. Whether it was coming from the second lady of the United States mouth or the hosts of TRL s, people were convicted about their opinions about the Slim Shady. This album was the one that really seemed to put a ceiling to Eminem s unsurpassable impact on everything. He became not only the best rapper alive next to Jay Z but he became a household name. He had the youth captivated remembering each line of his ever so fast raps, and had parents and grandparents loving to hate him more than the kids loved him. Whatever side you were on, you knew who Eminem was. He made hip hop as whole less underground. No matter how legendary Tupac was seen, the majority of the public just saw him as a thug, mainly because his skin color. Even Dr. Dre didn t realize Eminem wasn t black when he first heard him over a beat. But this factor might be the reason Eminem had the impact he had. Not to take away from his exceptional talent, the fact that he was white and also was attractive to teen girls made his sound even more appealing. No matter the reason, Eminem was in the
news. His extreme graphics in his lyrics and don t give a fuck attitude made him a favorite for people to hate. This combined with his millions and millions of listeners, most young, made him receive exceptional amount of criticism. He was blamed for everything from school shootings, to violence in teens and drug use by teens. Something that can connect with all audiences no matter age or race is the way a song makes you feel according to the beat and the sound, the most heavily weighted criteria I used to evaluate this album. The record consists of simple stripped down beats with liquid baselines and gives Eminem plenty of room to be heard and not be drowned out. Toward the end of the project more familiar sounds are used like laid back guitar strums and gritty boom bap sounds. No man better at making classic hip hop beats than Dr. Dre who handled most of the production on this record. Dr. Dre first saw fame as a member of N.W.A in the early 90 s, a rap group out of Compton California who popularized gangsta rap and really hip hop in general. This group inspired a classic movie called Boyz in the Hood just to show their impact on the culture. In 1992 he released his solo project the Chronic and won a Grammy for the single Let Me Ride, an album he produced himself. Later on he came out with a record with an up and coming underground artist also out of Compton by the name of Snoop Doggy Dogg. This whole project was also produced by Dre and went quadruple platinum also causing a lot of controversy within the media and mainly people who weren t fans of the music. Now Dr. Dre is most known for his hugely popular headphone and speaker line Beats and has possibly secured himself billionaire status. Another producer on the track is Mel Man, owner of Big Cat Records, who sold 1.5 million copies of a record he
produced by Mel man called Da Dip by Freak Nasty. Lastly, huge influencers on Eminem s career as whole are the Bass Brothers (Mark & Jeff) who also helped with the production of this record. They both had hands on experience with Eminem and helped groom him to be the star he was destined to be. They both have received Grammy s for their work with Eminem not only on this record but also The Eminem Show and Encore, Slim s third and fourth official studio albums. The second most important check to be marked when making a classic hip hop album is the MC s lyrical ability. Not only could Eminem make your jaw drop with metaphors and wordplay, he can tell story s as good as famous authors and make you feel more emotion than you have felt in your own life. On track 3 titled Stan he tells the story of a crazy fan who interacts with Eminem and gets enraged when he doesn t get a response to letters he sends the famous rapper. In the last verse before Eminem takes the role of himself, he explains how he drives off a bridge killing himself and his girlfriend in a drugged drunken rage fueled by Eminem s lyrics and terrible life. I can remember this record being played by my older brother and even as a young boy I could feel the emotion and get the message of this one, even if I didn t relate to any of the other tracks this one stuck with me and is still one of my favorites. Another lyrical characteristic Eminem has is he isn t scared to call out others who he feels disrespect him or don t deserve the credit they receive as an artist. On the track The Real Slim Shady he manages to call out Christina Aguilera, Carson Daily, Will Smith, Britney Spears, N Sync, and Backstreet Boys. Let me remind you all the people were essentially the top dog s of the era of MTV and here is the trailer trash kid from Detroit
slandering them in every sense of the word and is praised for it. Lastly, the subject matter contained his lyrics were not only groundbreaking but they were violent, demented, vile, and every other word imaginable, but it was appropriate somehow. On the track Kill You he sends his mother screaming as he threatens to kill her and even mentions bending her over implies rapeing with his own mother. He also mentions killing Dr. Dre and having him hog tied so it s easy to tell he isn t completely sincere in all of his bars but they still have an huge impression on the listener. The next most important factor in making this his best work is the universal acclaim received. Will Termes of Entertainment Weekly called it, indefensible and critic proof, hypocritical and heartbreaking, unlistenable and undeniable. In 2003 The Rolling Stone ranked this album 302 out of 500 greatest albums of all time and in 2006 Time magazine picked it as one of the top 100 albums of all time. This shows that over time the album is getting received better and better and illustrates how timeless this record is. The first week on Metacritic reviews it only received an average rating of 78 out of 100. Not terrible bad but this record is much better than a C+. The New Musical Express Magazine out of the U.K. put it as grueling assault course of lyrical genius. Oh yea he also won the Grammy for best rap album with this word and did the same 3 years in a row with his following projects, an amazing feat for someone who could give a damn about a Grammy, half of you critics can t even stomach me, let alone stand me. Another factor to show Eminem s dominance is his impact on people after him. He has had 710 people sample his work, 61 artists cover his tracks, and 47 people interpret his work and make it their own with a remix. This album also kick started his
actor career where he essentially played himself in a movie called 8 mile, a film based on his years after school up to his rise discovery as an MC. A decade after the movie was release Time magazine called it a hip hop movie masterpiece and the song Lose Yourself off the film received an academy award for best original song, the first time a rap song was even nominated. He also rode his wave off success to create his own record label called Shady Records with his mentor and manager Paul Rosenberg. This label has signed many artists but most notably was 50 cent who put out his first official album under the label in 2004 called Get Rich or Die Tryin which sold 872,000 copies the first week of its release. Some may argue this but I believe this album gave Dr. Dre his extended career in the hip hop world which gave him a lot of publicity as well. This contributed to him being able to create this giant company known as Beats and keep himself relevant and rich in this young hip hop scene of today. One obvious downfall of this project would be the extreme subject matter that put many up in arms and wanted Eminem to not be allowed and radio and career ruined. Lynne Cheney, the second lady of the United States, publicly criticized him for promoting violent of the most degrading kind and against women and said he was a rap singer who advocated murder and rape. She also drew a link between the columbine massacre and his violent music which Eminem already anticipated from his critics. On the track The Way I Am he questions why his influences these teens more than the actual people who see them like their parents and even criticizes the media for not focusing on inner city crime at all and just reporting on violence when it happens in nice suburbs to white people. Jim Flaherty, Attorney General of Ontario Canada in 2000
tried to stop Eminem from crossing the border to come perform a show in October. He said I personally don t want anyone coming to Canada who will come here and advocated violence against women. Long story short, Slim had his show to the audience of thousands of adoring fans. With 32 million albums sold worldwide and 11 million sold in the United States alone this is his best selling project. The never ending flows over liquid baselines from the best producer of all time make this a great album but the timing of the release combined with his subject matter, appearance, and publicity make this one of the best albums of all times and personally my favorite record of his.
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