Eminem — The Slim Shady LP

The release of "Slim Shady EP" received some critical acclaim and sold a couple hundred more copies than "Infinite", but it did not help Eminem out of his precarious financial situation and he was fired and evicted from his home. The boy traveled to Los Angeles to participate in the Rap Olympics, a nationwide battle rap competition where he placed second, attracting the attention of an Interscope Records intern, Dean Geistlinger, who asked him for a copy of his EP. The copy reached Jimmy Iovine and the tape was also listened to by Dr. Dre, who went crazy. Despite the resistance of the executives towards Mathers, Dr. Dre insisted on wanting to work with him and they both began to build Eminem's second studio album, which he signed with Dre's Interscope Records.

The CD was almost entirely produced by the Bass Brothers and Eminem, Dr. Dre wrote three songs, Mel-Man was credited on one song. The guests are Dre himself, Dina Rae and Royce da 5'9".

After an introductory skit, the first piece of the album is the iconic "My Name Is", the first song recorded by Dr. Dre and Eminem. Fat bass line taken (interpolated) from "I Got The..." by Labi Siffre, calm midtempo drum, spoken hook by Slim Shady, who introduces himself. Eminem makes a spoken entrance in the track addressing an audience of children, but reciting increasingly more violent and daring lines starting from the first. Then the author goes into rapping with a soft, light and carefree style like the rhythm, which contrasts with the heaviness of his lyrics, accompanied by splendid keyboards and functional g-funk synths that escort him to the hook. In the second verse, the boy has fun with alliteration and infiltrates some personal bars, maintaining an underlying heaviness in his pen and a calm rapping style, almost spoken, fluid, suitable for the rhythm. He maintains a similar lyricism and execution even in the third verse, closing the piece in a pretty violent way. The cut, chosen as the lead single of the album, launches his career in the mainstream industry.

"Guilty Conscience" is produced by Eminem and Dr. Dre. The rhythm is based on a sample (interpolated) from Ronald Stein's "Pigs Go Home". Thematically, the piece deals with the good and bad conscience of Slim Shady, interpreted respectively by Dr. Dre, in his only credited appearance as a guest, and by Eminem. Dry uptempo drums, pressing piano, wonderful violins in support. The two rappers engage in a detailed back and forth in which the two parts of the conscience fight for the actions of three different people who are about to commit violent and criminal actions. Classic cut that sees Dre in one of his best moments alongside the best Eminem. The main producers of the album, the Bass Brothers, arrive at the number four choice, "Brain Damage": simplistic rhythm, sufficient, dry drum midtempo harsh rough, soft bass line, oriental instruments. This minimal sound carpet is the background to a personal cut of the author who drops bars with a flowing style, performing a suffering hook in spoken and an extra-verse to close the piece.

A skit takes the listener to the first of several tracks taken from his EP, "If I Had", where the Bass Brothers build a solid boom bap, cool calm bass line, dry midtempo drum, good vocal sample, regular rapping by Eminem. The author in this rare case plays the role of Marshall Mathers, while in the rest of the album he is Slim Shady. The following track is also taken from the same EP, "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" is the same track as "Just the Two of Us" with a different title that refers to the song "Me and My Girlfriend" by 2Pac released a year earlier. From this piece we also have the iconic cover of this album in which the author and his daughter look at the lake water down from the pier while the man is about to go and unload the body of his recently killed partner, which is still dangling out of the trunk of the car on a full moon night.

Skit, then "Role Model": lethal metallic harsh drum, fat bass, obsessive loop, West Coast rhythm that bounces massacred by an Eminem freestyle. Skit, then the author blames himself after having given mushrooms to his girlfriend, on a simplistic rhythm of the Bass Brothers in "My Fault". Yet another skit, "Ken Kaniff", one of the funniest ever: the underground rapper Aristotle plays Ken Kaniff who harasses Eminem by phone. Dina Rae croons in the next cut, a freestyle where the rapper decides to create a track that is basically an effective parody of a dance song supported by a bouncy beat realized by Bass Brothers. The same guys stay behind the keyboards to make "Rock Bottom": magnetic sample from "Summertime" by Big Brother & the Holding Company, sparse uptempo drum, robust bass vibrating in the background, graceful rhythm to support Eminem's calm subdued delivery in a song that addresses the problems caused by poverty. This track is the second and last in which Eminem leaves room for Marshall Mathers' point of view in what is literally Slim Shady's LP.

"Just Don't Give a Fuck" is the third and final track taken from his EP. And a Bass Brothers masterpiece too. A fraction of T-Ski Valley's "Catch the Beat" is used as the basis for the entire Eminem track. Phat bass line fantastic, intro by rapper Frogg Dogg, uncredited and raised with Mathers. Dry midtempo drums, sweet keyboards, dusted cymbals, the track has a bipolar mood, rhythm layered brilliantly by the Bass Brothers, here in one of their finest works ever to support Eminem in one of his tightest and toughest tracks. The Bass Brothers provide a solid and effective boom bap for "As the World Turns" in which the author varies his delivery having fun for five minutes in a track inspired by the soap opera of the same name.

"I'm Shady" boasts another solid production as the author introduces the character of Slim Shady, singing a hook inspired by "Pusherman" by Curtis Mayfield. "Bad Meets Evil" is a duet between Eminem and Royce da 5'9". Rhythmic, raw and rusty boom bap by the Bass brothers to support the back n forth delivery of the two Detroit emcees: dry midtempo drum, guitar riff, soft bass, light acoustic guitar, keyboards, good rhythm. The cut then gives the duo their name. To conclude his studio album, Slim Shady says he still doesn't care about nothing on a dark and melancholic rhythm by Bass Brothers, with a determined, inspired, energetic delivery.

Final Thoughts

After releasing the cassette "Infinite" (1996) and "The Slim Shady EP" (1997), Eminem recorded "The Slim Shady LP" between 1997 and 1998 and released it in early 1999. Musically, it relies heavily on West Coast sounds with soft grooves, liquid synthesizers, melodic boom bap beats, there are no mistakes in the production offered by the Bass Brothers and curated by Dr. Dre, however, there's nothing really memorable in the choices of these twenty tracks. Lyrically, the author offers a series of texts from the perspective of his alter ego Slim Shady, created a few years earlier for the recording of his EP: the album varies on several themes, focusing on the troubled life of the author up to this point, in most cases, peppering the tracks with graphic details, gratuitous violence, surreal extremism, sudden comedy and criminal fantasies. The result is horror enough to stir controversy and pulp enough to be praised and appreciated by most specialized critics.

Published by Aftermath, Interscope and Web Entertainment, with major distribution by Universal, the album sold 283,000 copies in its first week, surpassed only by TLC's effort. Driven by three singles of great radio and television success ("My Name Is...", "Role Model", "Guilty Conscience"), it remained in the pop chart for 100 weeks (in the rap chart for 92, where it reached the top), certified double platinum two months after its release, triple at the end of the year and four times at the end of 2000. The album ended up in the charts of four continents, first among hip-hop products also in the UK, platinum record in Canada. "My Name Is..." is the best solo rap performance at the Grammys and the LP is awarded as best rap album. In retrospect, it's considered one of the best albums in history.

Rating: 7.5/10.