The Marshall Mathers LP
The Marshall Mathers LP is the third studio album by the American rapper Eminem, released on May 23, 2000, by Aftermath Entertainment, WEB and Interscope Records. Production on the album was handled by Dr. Dre, Mel-Man, F.B.T., Eminem, and the 45 King. The album features guest appearances from Dido, RBX, Sticky Fingaz, Dina Rae, Bizarre, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Nate Dogg, Paul Rosenberg and D12. Recorded over a 10-month period in several studios around Detroit, the album delivers introspective lyricism reflecting Eminem's thoughts on his rise to fame, criticism of his music, and estrangement from his family. As a transgressive work, it incorporates hardcore hip-hop, satirical hip-hop, and horrorcore.
The Marshall Mathers LP produced the singles "The Real Slim Shady", "The Way I Am", and "Stan", with "The Real Slim Shady" becoming Eminem's biggest hit up to that point. Like its predecessor, the album was surrounded by significant controversy upon release, while also propelling Eminem to the forefront of American pop culture. Criticism centered on lyrics that were considered violent, homophobic, and misogynistic, as well as references to the Columbine High School massacre in the songs "The Way I Am" and "I'm Back". Future second lady Lynne Cheney criticized the lyrics at a United States Senate hearing, as misogynistic and violent against women, while the Canadian government considered refusing Eminem's entry into the country.
Despite the controversies, The Marshall Mathers LP received positive reviews upon release; in the years since, it has received even greater critical acclaim. Rolling Stone, among other publications, named it the best album of 2000. Critics praised Eminem's lyrical ability and considered the album to have emotional depth. The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, staying atop for eight consecutive weeks. A significant commercial success compared to the release of The Slim Shady LP just the previous year, the album sold 1.76 million copies in its first week, which was the second-most first week sales in the United States at the time.
Widely regarded as Eminem's best album, The Marshall Mathers LP was included in Rolling Stone
Background
Inspired by the disappointment and failure of his debut album, Infinite, Eminem created the alter ego Slim Shady, whom he introduced on the Slim Shady EP. After placing second in the annual Rap Olympics, Eminem was noticed by the staff at Interscope Records and eventually CEO Jimmy Iovine, who played the Slim Shady EP for hip-hop producer Dr. Dre. Eminem and Dr. Dre then met and recorded The Slim Shady LP, which was noted for its over-the-top lyrical depictions of drugs and violence. The Slim Shady LP was a critical and commercial success, debuting at number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and selling 283,000 copies in its first week. At the 42nd Grammy Awards in 2000, the record won Best Rap Album, while the album's lead single "My Name Is" won Best Rap Solo Performance.The Slim Shady LP turned Eminem from an underground rapper into a high-profile celebrity. The rapper, who had previously struggled to provide for his daughter Hailie, noted a drastic change in his lifestyle. In June 1999, he married his girlfriend Kimberly Ann "Kim" Scott, the mother of Hailie, despite the fact that the song "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" from The Slim Shady LP contains references to killing her. The rapper became uncomfortable with the level of fame he had achieved, and said, "I don't trust nobody now because everybody I meet is meeting me as Eminem...I don't know if they are hanging with me 'cause they like me or because I'm a celebrity or because they think they can get something from me." Eminem also became a highly controversial figure due to his lyrical content. He was labeled as "misogynist, a nihilist and an advocate of domestic violence", and in an editorial, Billboard editor in chief Timothy White accused Eminem of "making money by exploiting the world's misery".
Eminem considered naming his third 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.
Recording
The Marshall Mathers LP was recorded in a two-month-long "creative binge", which often involved 20-hour-long studio sessions. Eminem hoped to keep publicity down during the recording in order to stay focused on working and figuring out how to "map out" each song. He described himself as a "studio rat" who benefited creatively from the isolated environment of the studio. Much of the album was written spontaneously in the studio; Dr. Dre noted, "We don't wake up at two in the morning, call each other, and say, 'I have an idea. We gotta get to the studio.' We just wait and see what happens when we get there." Eminem observed that much of his favorite material on the album evolved from "fucking around" in the studio; "Marshall Mathers" developed from the rapper watching Jeff Bass casually strumming a guitar, while "Criminal" was based on a piano riff Eminem overheard Bass playing in studio next door. "Kill You" was written when Eminem heard the track playing in the background while talking to Dr. Dre on the phone and developed an interest in using it for a song. He then wrote the lyrics at home and met up with Dr. Dre and the two recorded the song together."Kim" was the first song the rapper recorded for the album, shortly after finishing work on The Slim Shady LP. Eminem wrote "Kim" at a time in which he and his wife were separated, and he had just watched a romantic movie alone at a theater. Originally intending to write a love song for her while using ecstasy, the rapper hoped to avoid overt sentimentality and thus began writing a song of hate. With the track, the rapper aimed to create a short horror story in the form of a song. Once the couple reconciled, Eminem recalls, "I asked her to tell me what she thought of it. I remember my dumb ass saying, 'I know this is a fucked-up song, but it shows how much I care about you. To even think about you this much. To even put you on a song like this'." The song "Stan" was produced by The 45 King. Eminem's manager, Paul Rosenberg, sent Eminem a tape of the producer's beats, and the second track featured a sample of English singer-songwriter Dido's "Thank You". Upon hearing the song's lyrics, Eminem felt they described an obsessed fan, which became the inspiration for the song. The writing process for "Stan" differed greatly from Eminem's usual strategy, in which song concepts form during the writing: Stan' was one of the few songs that I actually sat down and had everything mapped out for. I knew what it was going to be about." Dido later heard "Stan" and enjoyed it, and observed, "I got this letter out of the blue one day. It said, 'We like your album, we've used this track. Hope you don't mind, and hope you like it.' When they sent to me and I played it in my hotel room, I was like, 'Wow! This track's amazing.
Some label executives speculated that Eminem would be the first artist to sell one million copies in an album's first week of release. These expectations placed a large burden on Eminem, who recalled, "I was scared to death. I wanted to be successful, but before anything, I want respect." After the album was finished, executives felt that there were no songs that had potential to be a lead single. Feeling pressured, Eminem returned to the studio and wrote "The Way I Am" as his way of saying, "Look, this is the best I can do. I can't give you another 'My Name Is.' I can't just sit in there and make that magic happen." However, after the song was added to the album, Eminem felt the urge to write another song, and gave a hook to Dr. Dre for him to create a beat, and went home to write new lyrics; the song eventually became "The Real Slim Shady". The song also discusses Eminem killing Dr. Dre. The producer stated, "It was funny to me. As long as it's hot, let's roll with it... in my opinion, the crazier it is the better. Let's have fun with it and excite people."
Music and lyrics
Considered both a horrorcore and a hardcore hip-hop album, much of the album's first half was produced by Dr. Dre and Mel-Man, who employed their typical sparse, stripped-down beats, to put more focus on Eminem's vocals. The background music on the record employs "liquid basslines, stuttering rhythms, slight sound effects, and spacious soundscapes". Bass Brothers and Eminem produced most of the second half, which ranges from the laid-back guitars of "Marshall Mathers" to the atmosphere of "Amityville". The only outside producer on the album was The 45 King, who sampled a verse from Dido's song "Thank You" for "Stan", while adding a slow bass line.The Marshall Mathers LP is considered a transgressive work, and contains more autobiographical themes in comparison to The Slim Shady LP. Much of the album is spent addressing his rise to fame and attacking those who criticized his previous album. Other themes include his relationship with his family, including his mother and Kim Mathers, his ex-wife. Unlike Eminem's major-label debut, The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP is more introspective in its lyrics and uses less of the Slim Shady persona, with it used in only two songs with music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine writing that the album's lyrics " the distinction between reality and fiction, humor and horror, satire and documentary". The record showcases a variety of moods, ranging from irreverent and humorous to "dark and unsettling enough to make you want to enlarge the parental warning stickers on the album." According to Neil Strauss of The New York Times, "Eminem never makes it clear which character—Slim Shady or Marshall Mathers—is the mask and which is the real person, because there is no clear-cut answer, except that there's a little bit of each character in all of us."
Most songs cover Eminem's childhood struggles and family issues, involving his mother, the relationship struggles with his wife, his struggles with his superstardom and expectations, his return and effect on the music industry, his drug use, his effect on the American youth and society, and reactionary barbs to critical response of his vulgarity and dark themes. Despite the large amount of controversy regarding the lyrics, the lyrics on the album were overwhelmingly well received among critics and the hip-hop community, many praising Eminem's verbal energy and dense rhyme patterns.
The record also contains lyrics that have been considered to be homophobic. The song "Criminal" features the line "My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge/That'll stab you in the head whether you're a fag or les or a homosex, hermaph, or a transavest, pants or dress, Hate fags?/The answer's yes". The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation condemned his lyrics and criticized the album for "encourag violence against gay men and lesbians". However, writing for the LGBT interest magazine The Advocate, editor Dave White writes, "If he has gay-bashed you or me, then it logically follows that he has also raped his own mother, killed his wife, and murdered his producer, Dr. Dre. If he's to be taken literally, then so is Britney Spears' invitation to 'hit me baby, one more time'." Eminem noted that he began using the word "faggot" more frequently when "people got all up in arms about it...to piss them off worse", but added, "I think it's hard for some people to understand that for me the word 'faggot' has nothing to do with sexual preference. I meant something more like assholes or dickheads." Evangelical Christian religious figure James Dobson also heavily criticized Eminem.