Public Service Announcement 2000 0:25

Kill You 4:24

Stan 6:44

Paul (Skit) 0:10

Who Knew 3:47

Steve Berman 0:53

The Way I Am 4:50

The Real Slim Shady 4:44

Remember Me? 3:38

I'm Back 5:10

Marshall Mathers 5:20

Ken Kaniff (Skit) 1:01

Drug Ballad 5:00

Amityville 4:14

Bitch Please II 4:48

Kim 6:17

Under The Influence 5:22

Criminal 5:21

The Kids

 

Released in May 2000, this was the moment that Eminem exploded as an artist. His second album was released in the UK before any of the singles from it and ended the year as the third best seller behind only the Beatles and Robbie Williams. In addition to this album reaching no.1 it also spawned two no.1 singles in the form of The Real Slim Shady and Stan, a song about an obsessive fan that actually coined the term ‘stan’ for crazed fans. The Way I Am was also released as a single and peaked at no.8.

 

As a preteen who started secondary school in September 2000, life was dominated by Eminem. Literally all my friends played this album to death and we all got copies made of our friends albums because 12 year olds couldn’t afford albums back then and that’s if our parents would have let us have an Eminem album! I do recall there was a lot of hype around the amount of swearing on the album as such a thing was still pretty controversial in 2000. There are some particularly humorous and dark moments in equal measure in the album and I’m not sure how it’d be received today. Stan is my absolute highlight-the song that introduced me to Dido. I remember needing to know everything about her just from that chorus.

 

The singles:

 

 

 

"Kill You" and "Kim" are definitely tracks I skip on repeat listens for reasons that they haven't aged well, just too off colour and violent to be pleasant listening.

 

It's a shame because outside of that this is his best album, 'Stan' and 'The Real Slim Shady' are two of his best and most inspired songs ever - there's a reason they're both still widely referenced to this day. And there's a load of topical references and lyrical turns outside of those two 'Who Knew' and 'Marshall Mathers' are great tracks for thinking about the impact of the lyrics - how Eminem got the way he is and the criticism he's receiving, 'The Way I Am' has some gorgeous dark atmosphere and is quite ironic given he writes it like he's just going to be flavour of the month, "Remember Me" is almost scary to listen to, and so on.

 

I think the reason why this stands out above the rest of the Eminem albums probably is that pathos and lack of filter that he toned down slightly later on and that makes the fact that he does cross the line sometimes in fact somewhat to be expected. The rest of this outside of those two tracks walks the line of feeding the listener 'fear and apprehension' really well.

I listened to this as part of my 100 albums bucket list, it really was quite the memorable listen although not always in the best ways. I can see how it had an impact and remains iconic, this really did show him as totally unfiltered, provocative and it really pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in music and to be fair he does have some seriously good flow as well.

 

It's not always easy though, he really is exactly aware of how uncomfortable he's making you through all the homophobia, misogyny, desires to kill his family members and references to Columbine, it's almost like he's trolling us before trolling really became a thing (weird to think this predated social media). Kim is easily the hardest thing to listen to and I never want to do again as it's straight out unpleasant in how it literally walks you through him screaming about killing his clearly terrified girlfriend. The singles are classics though, Stan and The Real Slim Shady have him doing serious and goofy really well and The Way I Am and Who Knew? are actually quite meaningful tracks of his anger at being misrepresented by the media.

 

I think this was when he did shock value right, I can see he's still trying (going by his recent album with a track referencing the recent Manchester terror attack), but the reaction I think shows that it's not really working anymore, he'll never get on the same level as this.

Brilliant album and easily his best.

 

Have all Em's CD's but he's the only rap that I remotely like and I have tried others.

Edited September 18, 20213 yr by common sense

Always remember my mum turning over ‘The Way I Am’ when it was on radio 1 when I was younger saying I can’t listen to that!