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And Curtain Call, an inevitable and adequate document of his hitmaking, allows him the opportunity to remain in the spotlight while also receding from it. He's still a star, but he no longer seems nearly as fascinating as we've been made to think. The fact that Em stands toe-to-toe in the face of two potent Biggie verses was a sort of unofficial "okay, we can all fuck with this dude" moment for hardcore fans.Įminem was a battle rapper first, then a backpacker, then a hook-slinger, now a tortured artiste- the last bastion of the overexposed. The other, Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumous "Dead Wrong", is about as vicious and beguiling a thing as I've ever heard, featuring both men pulling the razors out from under their tongues. It's also a rare occasion in which Eminem's funeral dirge production doesn't sound overwrought.
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Also featured are tracks he recorded with two giants: The first, "Renagade", comes from Jay-Z's The Blueprint, and finds each MC handling two liquid verses apiece. "Kill You", from his second LP, is psychotic mania but it's also hilarious and paramount to his dichotomy. Included are two incredible album cuts from his debut, "Role Model" and "Just Don't Give a Fuck", one of his earliest, funniest thrillers. That's partly alleviated by Curtain Call's seven-track bonus CD, which contains five of the 10 best songs he's recorded. He still comes across as uncomfortable with both stardom and his standing as a white rapper, and in a recent MTV interview seemed unhappy with this compilation's tracklist. Its inclusion is pointless.Įminem has always had a self-loathing streak.
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The final new track is the live version of "Stan", performed with Elton John at the 2001 Grammys. "Gone" is the worst offender, yet another love letter from Em to daughter Hailie, it, like Encore's "Mockingbird", is heavy-handed and saccharine. Which leaves the compilation's four new throw-ins: the Nate Dogg collaboration "Shake That", the ridiculously inane "FACK", and new single "When I'm Gone" are all desolate placeholders- lesser versions of Eminem songs that already piss me off. Third album The Eminem Show is repped here by two songs: "Without Me", and the underrated "Cleanin' Out My Closet", which contributed as much to the confusing Freudian glints in Em's persona as anything else he's done.
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All didn't end well, though: Dido has a career now. Overplayed as it may sound today, it remains a cultural milestone- throngs of people, fans and not, flipped upon first hearing it, essentially forcing the label to release it as a single. "Stan", however, still stands out as an exception. "The Real Slim Shady" made him profitable songs like "Kim" and "Kill You" made him interesting. The songs Curtain Call culls from that album are fine, but had little to do with the outrage he caught from parents, GLAAD, and the conservative right. Dre, also holds up, especially when Em puts his producer on blast as "somebody who slapped Dee Barnes." Eminem's strengths- verbal elasticity, the ability to write thunderous hooks, chameleon-ism, being white- have hamstrung him psychologically, but in these early days, before fame, 65 million albums sold, and media persecution, his joy for rapping shone hard.įrom the moment Dre and Interscope CEO Jimmy Iovine forced Eminem back into the booth to record "The Real Slim Shady", the cake icing on his colossally important second album, his fate was sealed. "Guilty Conscience", the role-playing jaunt between Eminem and mentor Dr. "My Name Is" remains blissful and more complex than the novelty it was written off as- it's funny and bizarre, and each punchline could have been a chorus. Only two songs from that album are included here: the hits. But his 1999 debut The Slim Shady LP marked his creative zenith. For all intents and purposes, Eminem's position as globo-mega-star and intriguing personality began to wane after the release of his second album, The Marshall Mathers LP, a record regarded by most as his masterpiece.