The Marshall Mathers LP
The Marshall Mathers LP is the third studio album by rapper Eminem. It was released on May 23, 2000, by Interscope Records, Aftermath Entertainment and his newly founded label, Shady Records.
The album sold more than 1.76 million copies in the US in the first week alone, becoming the fastest-selling studio album by any solo artist in American music history.
Eminem considered naming the album Amsterdam after a trip to the city shortly after the release of The Slim Shady LP, in which he and his friends engaged in heavy drug use. The "free" use of drugs Eminem observed during his time in Amsterdam greatly influenced his desire to openly discuss drug use in his music and inspired some of the content on the album.
The Marshall Mathers LP was released with two different album covers. The original features Eminem sitting on the porch of the house he lived in during his teenage years. He reflected on the photo shoot by saying, "I had mixed feelings because I had a lot of good and bad memories in that house. But to go back to where I grew up and finally say, 'I've made it', is the greatest feeling in the world to me." The other cover features the rapper seated in a fetal position beneath a loading dock with alcohol and prescription pill bottles at his feet.
The Marshall Mathers LP is the third studio album by rapper Eminem. It was released on May 23, 2000, by Interscope Records, Aftermath Entertainment and his newly founded label, Shady Records.
The album sold more than 1.76 million copies in the US in the first week alone, becoming the fastest-selling studio album by any solo artist in American music history.
Eminem considered naming the album Amsterdam after a trip to the city shortly after the release of The Slim Shady LP, in which he and his friends engaged in heavy drug use. The "free" use of drugs Eminem observed during his time in Amsterdam greatly influenced his desire to openly discuss drug use in his music and inspired some of the content on the album.
The Marshall Mathers LP was released with two different album covers. The original features Eminem sitting on the porch of the house he lived in during his teenage years. He reflected on the photo shoot by saying, "I had mixed feelings because I had a lot of good and bad memories in that house. But to go back to where I grew up and finally say, 'I've made it', is the greatest feeling in the world to me." The other cover features the rapper seated in a fetal position beneath a loading dock with alcohol and prescription pill bottles at his feet.
Tracks:
1.Public Service Announcement 2000:
Em’s follow-up Public Service Announcement to the Slim Shady LP version mocks censorship and prepares the listener for the next 72 minutes of offensive lyrical acrobatics.
2.Kill You:
The opening track to the album, and is a lyrical tirade against Kim, Debbie Mathers, girlish rappers and women in general. Em wrote: I wanted to start the album with that song because everybody in the press was like ‘'what’s he gonna rap about? He’s not miserable anymore. … The whole idea of this song was to say some of the most fucked-up shit. Just to let people know that I’m back. That I didn’t lose it. That I wasn’t compromising nothing and I didn’t change. If anything…I got worse.”
3.Stan: ft Dido
“Stan,” a fictional story depicting a series of letters from an increasingly unhinged Eminem fan, is one of Em’s best received songs of all time. This has since become one of the most influential songs in hip-hop’s history as now obsessive fans are often termed as “Stans”. On Eminem’s eighth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, the opening track “Bad Guy” is a sequel to the song which features Stan’s younger brother, Matthew taking revenge on Eminem.
4.Paul(skit):
The classic call from Paul Rosenberg, Em’s manager/agent, attempting his “can you tone it down a little ?” and then just giving it up, seeing how Slim Shady wouldn’t soften his text content.
5.Who Knew:
This song is Eminem’s way of ridiculing those who believe his music causes fans to commit ridiculous acts. This was intended to be the lead single from the album, but Interscope wanted something more radio-friendly, so Em penned “The Real Slim Shady” for that purpose.
6.Steve Berman: (skit)
Steve Berman is the President of Sales and Marketing at Interscope Records. Eminem would often include these skits on albums to showcase and exaggerate the pressure he faces from his record label to sell records.
7.The Way I Am:
The second single from Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP. In the tradition of most of Eminem’s follow-up singles, “The Way I Am” features a much darker and emotionally driven sound than the album’s lead single, in this case “The Real Slim Shady”. However, “The Way I Am” was actually recorded before “The Real Slim Shady”, as a direct result of the record company putting pressure on Em to create a poppy first single for the album.
8.The Real Slim Shady:
The quintessential early Eminem song - funny and serious simultaneously, with crazy rhyme schemes and devices. In this song Em imitates Christina Aguilera saying “yeah he’s cute but I think he’s married to Kim” which was something she said about him on MTV. Em was upset about her revealing parts of his personal life so he used these lines to get back to her. Deciding “Whatever. That’s cool. But you said something about me, so I’m going to voice some rumors that I heard about you.”
9.Remember Me?: ft RBX and Sticky Fingaz
The name of this track is quite appropriate: most people who bought the album would’ve had to rack their brains to remember RBX (best known for his contributions to The Chronic) and Sticky Fingaz (best known as a member of the early gangsta rap group Onyx). In all three hooks, previously used quotes and ad-libs are sampled. RBX sampled words from his 1995 song “A.W.O.L.” and, conversely, “High Powered” Sticky’s hook is a small compilation of his rap career with rap group Onyx. Onyx’s two biggest hits from their debut album Bacdafucup were “Throw Ya Gunz” and “Slam” Em sampled quotes and ad-libs from “Just Don’t Give a Fuck”, “Still Don’t Give a Fuck”, “Low Down, Dirty”, and “I’m Shady”.
10.I’m Back:
After The Slim Shady LP, Eminem’s alter-ego (Slim Shady) is back for more. The first line in verse 3 goes “ I take seven (kids) from (Columbine) stand ‘em all in a line” This album dropped a year after the shooting, so Columbine and gun control were still very controversial topics in America. Accordingly, even in the explicit version of the album, “Columbine” and “kids” had to be censored.
11.Marshall Mathers:
This song is a direct reaction to the turmoil his life went in to after the release and runaway success of The Slim Shady LP. Eminem wanted the chorus to just be about him and his opinions. He said “I touched on everything the newest trends in hip-hop,to ICP, to my mother, to my family members who don’t know me and always wanna come around. I wanted to just spit fire in each verse and have the soft-ass innocent chorus. I think it captures the whole “front porch” feel despite on the album’s cover. When I recorded this I decided to call the album The Marshall Mathers LP.”
12.Ken Kaniff (skit):
A skit featuring Eminem’s fictional gay character, Ken Kaniff, and his rivals at the time, Insane Clown Posse. This has been ranked as one of the most sexually explicit hip-hop tracks of all time by RapGenius.
13.Drug Ballad: ft Dina Rae
Eminem: “This song is just another one of those tracks that we did one day just fucking around. I wrote the rhyme in about twenty minutes. All three verses. The hook was simple. I hummed Jeff the bass line. I wanted to touch on how last year I was always fucked up. Life was like a big party for me. It was the first year that I blew up and I did a lot of celebrating.”
14.Amityville: ft Bizarre
“Amityville” is the name of a town in Suffolk County, NY — also the setting for The Amityville Horror. Pretty sick place, but Em claims that Detroit( his hometown) is sicker.
15.Bitch Please II: ft Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, and Nate Dogg
It’s a sequel to a Snoop Dogg track (featuring Xzibit and Nate Dogg) that appeared on his 1999 album No Limit Top Dogg. The line “Gimmie the Mic, let me recite till Timothy White pickets outside the Interscope offices every night” is a reference to Timothy White who was a rock music journalist in charge of Billboard magazine who wrote an article opposing Eminem’s crude lyrics on The Slim Shady LP.
16.Kim:
Written in 1998, this is the prequel to 1997’s “97' Bonnie & Clyde”. This is hands down Eminem’s most controversial song. Eminem said about the orgins: “I wrote this song when Kim and I weren’t together. We were broken up at the time. This was the end of 98. I remember I was watching a movie one day that inspired me to write a love song, but I didn’t want to make a corny love song. It had to be some bugged-out shit. I remember feeling the frustration of us breaking up and having a daughter all in the mix. I really wanted to pour my heart out, but yet I wanted to scream.” “I did the vocals in one take. The mood I wanted to capture was that of an argument that me and her would have, and judging from the attention the media has given this song, you can see that’s exactly what I did… and then some.” This track was deemed too explicit for the clean version of the album, and was replaced with a South Park-themed track titled “The Kids”.
17.Under the Influence:
A D12 collaboration describes the classic antics of the Dirty Dozen. D12 is a hip hop group consisting of Eminem, Bizzare, Swifty McVay, Kon Artis (Mr. Porter), Kuniva, and Proof.
18.Criminal:
Em explained in Angry Blonde: “Criminal” was my new “Still Don’t Give A Fuck” for The Marshall Mathers LP. That’s why I did the same intro as I did on the ‘'Still Don’t Give A Fuck’‘. That’s why—just like ’‘Still Don’t Give A Fuck’‘ it’s the last song on the record. It sums up the whole album. The ‘Criminal!’ part is of an A Tribe Called Quest song called Scenario. Eminem is a noted A Tribe Called Quest fan.
19.The Kids (Bonus Track):
Included on the deluxe edition of The Marshall Mathers LP. Mr.Shady gives the students at South Park Elementary a lecture about drugs. And he does it with spot on Mr. Mackey, Cartman, and Wendy Testaburger impersonations. Eminem is a known “South Park” fan.
1.Public Service Announcement 2000:
Em’s follow-up Public Service Announcement to the Slim Shady LP version mocks censorship and prepares the listener for the next 72 minutes of offensive lyrical acrobatics.
2.Kill You:
The opening track to the album, and is a lyrical tirade against Kim, Debbie Mathers, girlish rappers and women in general. Em wrote: I wanted to start the album with that song because everybody in the press was like ‘'what’s he gonna rap about? He’s not miserable anymore. … The whole idea of this song was to say some of the most fucked-up shit. Just to let people know that I’m back. That I didn’t lose it. That I wasn’t compromising nothing and I didn’t change. If anything…I got worse.”
3.Stan: ft Dido
“Stan,” a fictional story depicting a series of letters from an increasingly unhinged Eminem fan, is one of Em’s best received songs of all time. This has since become one of the most influential songs in hip-hop’s history as now obsessive fans are often termed as “Stans”. On Eminem’s eighth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, the opening track “Bad Guy” is a sequel to the song which features Stan’s younger brother, Matthew taking revenge on Eminem.
4.Paul(skit):
The classic call from Paul Rosenberg, Em’s manager/agent, attempting his “can you tone it down a little ?” and then just giving it up, seeing how Slim Shady wouldn’t soften his text content.
5.Who Knew:
This song is Eminem’s way of ridiculing those who believe his music causes fans to commit ridiculous acts. This was intended to be the lead single from the album, but Interscope wanted something more radio-friendly, so Em penned “The Real Slim Shady” for that purpose.
6.Steve Berman: (skit)
Steve Berman is the President of Sales and Marketing at Interscope Records. Eminem would often include these skits on albums to showcase and exaggerate the pressure he faces from his record label to sell records.
7.The Way I Am:
The second single from Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP. In the tradition of most of Eminem’s follow-up singles, “The Way I Am” features a much darker and emotionally driven sound than the album’s lead single, in this case “The Real Slim Shady”. However, “The Way I Am” was actually recorded before “The Real Slim Shady”, as a direct result of the record company putting pressure on Em to create a poppy first single for the album.
8.The Real Slim Shady:
The quintessential early Eminem song - funny and serious simultaneously, with crazy rhyme schemes and devices. In this song Em imitates Christina Aguilera saying “yeah he’s cute but I think he’s married to Kim” which was something she said about him on MTV. Em was upset about her revealing parts of his personal life so he used these lines to get back to her. Deciding “Whatever. That’s cool. But you said something about me, so I’m going to voice some rumors that I heard about you.”
9.Remember Me?: ft RBX and Sticky Fingaz
The name of this track is quite appropriate: most people who bought the album would’ve had to rack their brains to remember RBX (best known for his contributions to The Chronic) and Sticky Fingaz (best known as a member of the early gangsta rap group Onyx). In all three hooks, previously used quotes and ad-libs are sampled. RBX sampled words from his 1995 song “A.W.O.L.” and, conversely, “High Powered” Sticky’s hook is a small compilation of his rap career with rap group Onyx. Onyx’s two biggest hits from their debut album Bacdafucup were “Throw Ya Gunz” and “Slam” Em sampled quotes and ad-libs from “Just Don’t Give a Fuck”, “Still Don’t Give a Fuck”, “Low Down, Dirty”, and “I’m Shady”.
10.I’m Back:
After The Slim Shady LP, Eminem’s alter-ego (Slim Shady) is back for more. The first line in verse 3 goes “ I take seven (kids) from (Columbine) stand ‘em all in a line” This album dropped a year after the shooting, so Columbine and gun control were still very controversial topics in America. Accordingly, even in the explicit version of the album, “Columbine” and “kids” had to be censored.
11.Marshall Mathers:
This song is a direct reaction to the turmoil his life went in to after the release and runaway success of The Slim Shady LP. Eminem wanted the chorus to just be about him and his opinions. He said “I touched on everything the newest trends in hip-hop,to ICP, to my mother, to my family members who don’t know me and always wanna come around. I wanted to just spit fire in each verse and have the soft-ass innocent chorus. I think it captures the whole “front porch” feel despite on the album’s cover. When I recorded this I decided to call the album The Marshall Mathers LP.”
12.Ken Kaniff (skit):
A skit featuring Eminem’s fictional gay character, Ken Kaniff, and his rivals at the time, Insane Clown Posse. This has been ranked as one of the most sexually explicit hip-hop tracks of all time by RapGenius.
13.Drug Ballad: ft Dina Rae
Eminem: “This song is just another one of those tracks that we did one day just fucking around. I wrote the rhyme in about twenty minutes. All three verses. The hook was simple. I hummed Jeff the bass line. I wanted to touch on how last year I was always fucked up. Life was like a big party for me. It was the first year that I blew up and I did a lot of celebrating.”
14.Amityville: ft Bizarre
“Amityville” is the name of a town in Suffolk County, NY — also the setting for The Amityville Horror. Pretty sick place, but Em claims that Detroit( his hometown) is sicker.
15.Bitch Please II: ft Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, and Nate Dogg
It’s a sequel to a Snoop Dogg track (featuring Xzibit and Nate Dogg) that appeared on his 1999 album No Limit Top Dogg. The line “Gimmie the Mic, let me recite till Timothy White pickets outside the Interscope offices every night” is a reference to Timothy White who was a rock music journalist in charge of Billboard magazine who wrote an article opposing Eminem’s crude lyrics on The Slim Shady LP.
16.Kim:
Written in 1998, this is the prequel to 1997’s “97' Bonnie & Clyde”. This is hands down Eminem’s most controversial song. Eminem said about the orgins: “I wrote this song when Kim and I weren’t together. We were broken up at the time. This was the end of 98. I remember I was watching a movie one day that inspired me to write a love song, but I didn’t want to make a corny love song. It had to be some bugged-out shit. I remember feeling the frustration of us breaking up and having a daughter all in the mix. I really wanted to pour my heart out, but yet I wanted to scream.” “I did the vocals in one take. The mood I wanted to capture was that of an argument that me and her would have, and judging from the attention the media has given this song, you can see that’s exactly what I did… and then some.” This track was deemed too explicit for the clean version of the album, and was replaced with a South Park-themed track titled “The Kids”.
17.Under the Influence:
A D12 collaboration describes the classic antics of the Dirty Dozen. D12 is a hip hop group consisting of Eminem, Bizzare, Swifty McVay, Kon Artis (Mr. Porter), Kuniva, and Proof.
18.Criminal:
Em explained in Angry Blonde: “Criminal” was my new “Still Don’t Give A Fuck” for The Marshall Mathers LP. That’s why I did the same intro as I did on the ‘'Still Don’t Give A Fuck’‘. That’s why—just like ’‘Still Don’t Give A Fuck’‘ it’s the last song on the record. It sums up the whole album. The ‘Criminal!’ part is of an A Tribe Called Quest song called Scenario. Eminem is a noted A Tribe Called Quest fan.
19.The Kids (Bonus Track):
Included on the deluxe edition of The Marshall Mathers LP. Mr.Shady gives the students at South Park Elementary a lecture about drugs. And he does it with spot on Mr. Mackey, Cartman, and Wendy Testaburger impersonations. Eminem is a known “South Park” fan.