Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
So here I am, getting ready to write a review on a Sunday morning about an album that took a boy who thought "Beastie Boys and Wu-Tang Clan are cool, but that's really all I like" when it came to hip-hop, and helped form my never-ending love for the genre, and then all of a sudden, I'm browsing my Facebook newsfeed and I see someone comment one of those "IF LIFE SUDDENLY GOT HARDER FOR YOU, IT MEANS YOU LEVELED UP" and while it's as cringeworthy as still saying "LIKE A BOSS" almost ten years after that song fucking came out, I think it applies to this album: Eminem's life suddenly got pretty hard in the way that he was constantly being stalked and stopped in public ("But at least have the decency in you to leave me alone when you freaks see me out n the streets, when I'm eating or feeding my daughter, to not come and speak to me. I don't know you, and no, I don't owe you a mothafuckin' thing. I'm not Mr. N'Sync, I'm not what your friends think, I'm not Mr. Friendly, I can be a prick if you tempt me" he raps on the angry "The Way I Am") and suddenly he abandoned his high, nasally flow for a much more normal (although fuckin' pissed) vocal delivery, and became what many people consider to be one of the absolute best rappers of all fucking time.
This is honestly one of those reviews that's so intimidating to write, because I honestly believe that even if you gave me an hour to write this, I wouldn't be able to fully get across everything I -love- about this album, so I guess I'll have to break it down a bit, starting with the lyrics: Remember how Eminem was saying tons of shit on "The Slim Shady LP" that would probably make your parents take your CD away if you came home with it after a day at school? Y'know, Eminem even said in "Cum On Everybody" that "I only curse to make your mom upset", so he knew how he looked and sounded, but here? Eminem is here to fully take advantage of that this time around. Whereas before, his boasts and threats were pretty cartoonish, it sounds like this dude is pretty genuinely fucking angry on this album. To put it into perspective: The previous album contained occasional horrific references to women, along with calling his own mother a "cunt" at one point, and this album (after the opening PSA track) kicks off with "Kill You", which, if "The Slim Shady LP" had a few occasional insults towards a few specific women, this track is an all-out violent, gorey threat to literally every woman in the fucking world, with him even referencing raping his own mother. Straight out the gate, the Eminem on this album puts the Eminem before to shame, making the old one look almost family-friendly in comparison to this one that just wants to ruthlessly tear women apart limb-from-limb in a forest in order to paint the trees in their blood, laughing all the while.
Part of the reason I love the lyrics so much on this album is just like with the previous album: He's not just saying edgy shit, he's saying it WELL. There are multi and internal rhymes coming out the ass in every single fucking line that it's fucking INCREDIBLE to sit back and analyze just how many rhymes he can stick into a single 16 bar verse, which brings me to another thing I adore about this album: Eminem can say the most complicated shit and drop the most insane verses, but his flow is so fucking fluid that it sounds like it doesn't take any effort whatsoever, and it's just child's play to him, nothing more. He even goes toe-to-toe with other rappers on this album, such as the entirety of D12, Xzibit, and Dr. Dre, but no one can evenly match his skill or just how fucking effortlessly badass he is on this album. The only one who can even come close is Onyx's Sticky Fingaz on "Remember Me? (feat. RBX & Sticky Fingaz)" who has the distinct ability to boast that he's the only rapper Eminem's really done a collaboration with that's close to his level. "But what about Bad Mee-" we'll cross that bridge when we fucking get to it, alright?
The beats on this album are also LEAGUES ahead of the last album, and it's fucking crazy because "The Slim Shady LP" only came out the year before! Everything on this album just has a nice, crisp, even sometimes atmospheric ("Amityville (feat. Bizarre)" is incredible, especially when Eminem flies off of the fuckin' handle for the final verse), leaving the cartoonish boom-bap beats of yesterday behind for some new and improved shit that's ultimately aged a whole fuckin' lot better, especially in the case of "Bitch Please II (Ft. Dr. Dre, Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit)" in which Eminem fucking slaughters every single person on the track, which is actually saying a fair bit considering they're all great on this track, but perhaps the biggest departure for Eminem on the entire album is.. You already know it, "Kim", the track that serves as the prequel for "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" in which Eminem isn't even barely rapping: He's just screaming at his wife and simulating her murder in the woods as he fucking loses his mind. This is one of those tracks that takes the whole "ooh, spooky" thing about horrorcore and cranks it up to 11 to actually deliver an unnerving track that'll make you feel uncomfortable, and hey! My brother listened to it a lot during his divorce. How about that?
I keep on taking a moment to just stop and think "This fuckin' album" while I'm writing it, and that really should say something: This album is just simply fucking incredible. It's a masterpiece, with every single song serving a direct purpose in getting across how little Eminem thinks of the controversy he's been given, almost as if to throw this album at the people who point their index fingers at him, as he lifts up a finger of a different kind. I could go on and on about this album, with how catchy it is, how insane the lyrics/rhyme schemes are, and how it's the perfect soundtrack to being an angry young man, but where's the fun in any of that shit? If it's been a while since you listened to this album, turn it on. If you just finished listening to the album, turn it back on. If you've somehow never heard this album before, then brace yourself, because Slim Shady is going to motherfucking murder you with intense lyrical gymnastics and not feel a Goddamn bit of remorse for it. This album being a classic is completely indisputable, and fuck you if you disagree. Okay, I didn't mean that, but this album makes you wanna stay up and drink Mountain Dew past 8 PM because fuck whatever the hell your mom has to say.
"The mother did drugs, hard liquor, cigarettes and speed. The baby came out, disfigured ligaments, indeed. It was a seed who would grow up just as crazy as she, don't dare make fun of that baby, ‘cause that baby was me. [...] And if it's not a rapper that I make it as, I'mma be a fuckin' rapist in a Jason mask!!"
10/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
