Featured Album
- 12 JUL 2024
- 26 Songs
- THE FORCE · 2024
- The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce): Expanded Mourner’s Edition · 2024
- The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) · 2024
- The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) · 2024
- The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) · 2024
- The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) · 2024
- The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) · 2024
- The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) · 2024
- The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) · 2024
- The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) · 2024
Essential Albums
- Of all the complaints and concerns that greeted the 1999 release of Eminem’s The Slim Shady LP, the most interesting response might’ve been an editorial written by Billboard magazine’s then-editor-in-chief, Timothy White. The expected gripes with Eminem’s music are all there: It’s violent; it’s unrepentant; it makes money by “exploiting the world’s misery.” But White also spends a lot of time laying out statistics about domestic violence, and interviews the executive director of one of the country’s oldest domestic-violence-related agencies. “What is the message?” she asks. “What is he mad at?” Funny you should ask, as Eminem lists the causes of his rage throughout The Slim Shady LP. There’s the minimum-wage job as a grill cook (“If I Had”) and the bully who terrorized him as a kid (“Brain Damage”). There’s the mother who didn’t provide for him and the teachers who didn’t care, either (“My Name Is”). There’s the humiliation of being so poor that you can’t afford diapers for your daughter (“Rock Bottom”). And there’s Eminmen himself, of course (“Guilty Conscience”). But Eminem’s rage is also driven by the hypocrisy of the culture as a whole. After all, the media has long profited off violence and the denigration of women—and yet, here were powerful scolds telling Eminem that he was the problem, ignoring their own complicity (“Role Model”). Asked about the editorial in an early interview, Eminem smirked and said, “I think it hit a soft spot for Timothy White.” Being funny was one thing (though Eminem could be really funny). The problem with Eminem was that he was smart and wrote catchy songs—and that he had nothing to lose. He’d even bite the hand that fed him, if he thought the moral justification was there for it (he even took jabs at mentor Dr Dre on “Guilty Conscience”). “How the fuck can I be white?” he asks at one point on The Slim Shady LP, “I don’t even exist.” What’s that old saying? Hurt people hurt people. Slim Shady was the sound of someone climbing off Dr Phil’s Couch for Troubled Teens and grabbing America by the throat.
Artist Playlists
- The best of the era-defining MC.
- Dive into the rapper's cheeky, controversial clips.
- The notorious rapper gets even darker and more political.
- From hits to deep cuts, breaking down the samples that inspired one of rap’s most vital artists.
Appears On
- Saluting the music of Slim Shady.
- A superbly crafted reflection of society’s shortcomings.
- Wishing Eminem a happy 50th birthday.
- Eminem vs. Everybody.
- The artist on hip-hop classics and influential artists.
- Lil Wayne is back for episode 3 with special guests.
More To See
About Eminem
On 1999's “My Name Is”, Eminem entered the public imagination with a mandate: “God sent me to piss the world off.” From his provocative early work to the redemption narratives of 8 Mile and beyond, he’s more or less stayed true to form, holding a mirror to the American psyche—and his own—with an incisiveness rarely matched before or since. Raised in working-class Detroit, the artist born Marshall Mathers in 1972 got his start as a battle rapper, reaching the ears of the then-CEO of Interscope Records, Jimmy Iovine, and future mentor Dr. Dre; only months before, he had been fired from his job as a cook, where he worked nearly 60 hours a week to support his infant daughter—an origin story that set the tone for his career. Dark, funny and frequently violent, his breakthrough albums (1999’s The Slim Shady LP and 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP) established him as pop culture’s premier bogeyman, a bleach-blond devil traumatised by circumstance who rapped about killing everyone from his mentor to his mother with such ferocity and wit that you’d almost forget he had the wrong idea. The result was a sound that reached beyond hip-hop into the heart of suburban America: rap not as social reportage but as primal-scream therapy; punk for a generation addled by reality TV. Even as he's matured—fame, stability, sobriety, an Oscar (for the 8 Mile centrepiece, “Lose Yourself”)—he's retained his edge, taking shots at politics and society (2017’s Revival) with a frustration that's bordered on relentless. Still, however tough he's been on the world, Em has also tended to reserve his harshest words for himself, refracting his insecurities—about his family, his music, his cultural relevance—into verses that have only made him seem more human. Kamikaze saw him once again embracing his dark humour and knack for piling syllables. With production from Tay Keith and collaborations with Royce Da 5'9" ("Not Alike") and Joyner Lucas ("Lucky You"), the 2018 LP lives at the intersection of the new school and the retro. Em continued embracing the new generation with 2020's Music To Be Murdered By, an album featuring appearances from the late Juice WRLD, Young M.A and Don Toliver, cementing his status as a rap elder statesman who still had the tenacity of an up-and-comer.
- HOMETOWN
- St. Joseph, MO, United States
- BORN
- 17 October 1972
- GENRE
- Hip-Hop/Rap