Įminem, born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, began rapping at age fourteen. Spin later included it in their list of "The 300 Best Albums of 1985–2014". Despite this, the album has since been included in several publications' lists of the greatest albums of all time. While The Slim Shady LP's success turned Eminem from an underground rapper into a high-profile celebrity, he became a highly controversial figure due to his lyrical content, which some perceived to be misogynistic and a negative influence on U.S. In 2000, The Slim Shady LP was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album won Best Rap Album at the 2000 Grammy Awards, while "My Name Is" won Best Rap Solo Performance. The first single, " My Name Is", became Eminem's first entry on the Billboard Hot 100.
It received commercial and critical success, with critics praising Eminem for his unique lyrical style, dark humor lyrics, and eccentric personality. The Slim Shady LP debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, just below TLC's FanMail, and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Although many of the lyrics on the album are considered to be satirical, Eminem also depicts his frustrations of living in poverty. The Slim Shady LP contains cartoonish depictions of violence and heavy use of profanity, which Eminem described as horror film-esque, in that it is solely for entertainment value. Dre, Bass Brothers, and Eminem himself.įeaturing West Coast hip hop, G-funk and horrorcore musical styles, the majority of The Slim Shady LP 's lyrical content is written from the perspective of Eminem's alter ego, named Slim Shady, whom he created on the Slim Shady EP (1997). Dre and Jimmy Iovine, the album features production from Dr. Recorded in Ferndale, Michigan following Eminem's recruitment by Dr. It was released on February 23, 1999, by Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. Years later, as the shock has faded, it's those lyrical skills and the subtle mastery of the music that still resonate, and they're what make The Slim Shady LP one of the great debuts in both hip-hop and modern pop music.The Slim Shady LP is the second studio album by American rapper Eminem. At a time when many rappers were stuck in the stultifying swamp of gangsta clichés, Eminem broke through the hardcore murk by abandoning the genre's familiar themes and flaunting a style with more verbal muscle and imagination than any of his contemporaries. As well they should be - there are few rappers as wildly gifted verbally as Eminem. Dre but also helmed in large doses by Marky and Jeff Bass, along with Marshall himself - mirrors his rhymes, with their spare, intricately layered arrangements enhancing his narratives, which are always at the forefront. Eminem's supreme gifts are an expansive vocabulary and vivid imagination, which he unleashes with wicked humor and unsparing anger in equal measure. There have been more violent songs in rap, but few more disturbing, and it's not because of what it describes, it's how he describes it - how the perfectly modulated phrasing enhances the horror and black humor of his words. Of course, nowhere is this more true than on "97 Bonnie and Clyde," a notorious track where he imagines killing his wife and then disposing of the body with his baby daughter in tow.
This was unsettling in 1999, when nobody knew his back-story, and years later, when his personal turmoil is public knowledge, it still can be unsettling, because his words and delivery are that powerful. The Slim Shady LP bristles with this tension, since it's never always clear when Marshall Mathers is joking and when he's dead serious. Then, it wasn't clear to every listener that Eminem was, as they say, an unreliable narrator, somebody who slung satire, lies, uncomfortable truths, and lacerating insights with vigor and venom, blurring the line between reality and parody, all seemingly without effort.
Given his subsequent superstardom, culminating in no less than an Academy Award, it may be easy to overlook exactly how demonized Eminem was once his mainstream debut album, The Slim Shady LP, grabbed the attention of pop music upon its release in 1999.