Detroit-born rapper Eminem (born Marshall Mathers) knew he had a
\ntough mountain to climb when it came to releasing his second album.
\nI mean, how do you top the surprising success of your debut record,<\/p>\n
The Slim Shady L.P.<\/i>, which earned you two Grammy Awards (not
\nto mention a world of controversy)?<\/p>\n
The answer: Repeat the same formula you used on your first
\nalbum, only making it more timely and less original. The end
\nresult,
\nThe Marshall Mathers L.P.<\/i>, has some moments that proves
\nEminem was no fluke — but it is a bit of a letdown.<\/p>\n
Many people didn’t get the joke the first time, and took
\neverything that Mathers was saying at face value. Others, like
\nmyself, laughed their asses off and wondered how anyone could take
\nsome of this stuff seriously. Unfortunately, on two of the tracks,
\nI’m not laughing anymore.<\/p>\n
The first track, “Stan,” is a portrait of how a fan’s love of an
\nartist can turn into obsession, and is meant to be a serious song
\n(although there are moments of dark humor). I don’t know whether
\nthis is partially rooted in reality, but it portrays Mathers as
\nsomeone who does care about his fans, though realizing he can’t
\ncater to their every whim at the drop of a dime. This is a track
\nthat is supposed to make you think — and it works perfectly.<\/p>\n
The second track, “Kim,” is not funny — it scares the hell out
\nof me. The “prequel” to “Bonnie & Clyde ’97” off
\nThe Slim Shady L.P.<\/i>, this track chronicles the events
\nleading up to the body dump on “Bonnie & Clyde ’97”: a violent
\nargument between Eminem and his wife, eventually leading to her
\ndeath. Part of me wants to keep saying that this is just a goof,
\nbut this one just sounds a little
\ntoo<\/i> real. Mathers sounds genuinely angry on this track, so
\nit’s real hard for me to write this off as fiction… especially
\nafter events of this past week (I’m writing this on June 7, 2000),
\nwhere Mathers and his wife were involved in a scuffle outside a
\nDetroit nightclub. I’m sorry, Marshall, I’ve been one of your most
\nvocal supporters… but if I never hear this song again, it will be
\ntoo soon.<\/p>\n
There is still some great material on
\nThe Marshall Mathers L.P.<\/i> to justify the early success
\nEminem had. Tracks like “Kill You” (another song that people won’t
\nget the humor in), “Who Knew,” “The Real Slim Shady” and “I’m Back”
\nall are just as much fun as the material from album number one was
\nto listen to, and they hold up well to repeat listenings.<\/p>\n
But there are cracks in the plaster on this one. Some of the
\nskits get real tired, real quick — including the repeat of “Paul”
\n(featuring Mathers’s real-life manager) who gives up on trying to
\noffer advice to his client, and “Ken Kaniff,” which seems to
\nfeature the lead character getting, aah, serviced. The less said
\nabout this one, the better.<\/p>\n
Some of the full-length material at the tail end of this disc
\ndoes tend to disappoint. Tracks like “Amityville,” “B**** Please
\nII” (not my censoring) and “Under The Influence” all fail to live
\nup to the expectations that Mathers has created for himself. Maybe
\nit was the additional guests on some of these tracks – but then
\nagain, Dr. Dre added some of the best moments on
\nThe Slim Shady L.P.<\/i>,. and even he and Snoop Dogg can’t save
\n“B**** Please II.”<\/p>\n
\nThe Marshall Mathers L.P.<\/i> was going to be a tough disc for
\nanyone, including Mathers, to make, seeing the expectations he had
\nto live up to. For the most part, though, he does — though there
\nare signs that Slim Shady is starting to run a little low on ideas.
\nAfter all, the shock can’t always stay fresh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6341],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36638","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-eminem","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36638"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36638"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}