25.EMINƎMTHE EMINEM SHOW
Rapreleased May 26th, 2002
via Aftermath
1. Curtains Up (skit) [0:30]
2. White America [5:24]
3. Business [4:11]
4. Cleanin’ Out My Closet [4:57]
5. Square Dance [5:23]
6. The Kiss (skit) [1:15]
7. Soldier [3:46]
8. Say Goodbye Hollywood [4:32]
9. Drips (feat. Obie Trice) [4:45]
10. Without Me [4:50]
11. Paul Rosenberg (skit) [:22]
12. Sing for the Moment [5:39]
13. Superman (feat. Dina Rae) [5:50]
14. Hailie’s Song [5:20]
15. Steve Berman (skit) [:33]
16. When the Music Stops (feat. D12) [4:29]
17. Say What You Say (feat. Dr. Dre) [5:09]
18. ‘Till I Collapse (feat. Nate Dogg) [4:57]
19. My Dad’s Gone Crazy (feat. Hailie Jade) [4:27]
20. Curtains Close (skit) [1:01]
THE EMINEM SHOW is
Marshall Mathers as
Eminem (All vocals and lyrics / Production on all tracks except 3, 17, 20)
Dr. Dre (Producer on 3, 17, 20
Jeff Bass (Co-producer on 2, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13)
DJ Head (Co-producer on 10
Denaun Porter (Co-producer on 16)
WITHa bunch of other rappers and producers ya’ll don’t care about Hear me out… This is one of the best selling albums of the 2000s, and Eminem himself was the best-selling artist of the decade. There's some good shit here, please don't dismiss it straight out the gate.
I love this album. I got into it before I really got big on rock and metal. I will always love this album and know almost every song by heart. But why? Amazing (if a little dated) beats. Raw vocal energy from Eminem. Awesome rhymes, awesome lyrics, just some really cool lyrical shenanigans throughout the whole album. Yes it’s offensive, yes it’s mean, yes it’s angry – that’s a big reason I love it. I appreciate learning a lot about who Eminem is as a person (Mathers) and artist (Eminem/Slim Shady) through this record, as well as what he was going through around this time. And although it’s super dated now, the political lyrics in songs like “White America” and “Square Dance” are cool as hell in my opinion.
Before I go on, there are a couple low points. “Drips” and “My Dad’s Gone Crazy” aren’t good. They’re pretty horrible actually. I don’t listen to them often, if ever (especially “Drips” which is just gnarly).
The lines on this album might not be as rhythmically advanced or strong as the chopper-style flows Eminem developed later in his career, but the rhymes are strong all the same, and there’s a lot of the foundation here for the wordplay he’d continue to grow over the years. Some say his lyrics were harder and stronger on Infinite and The Marshall Mathers LP but I disagree; the lyrics on The Eminem Show are more creative, flow better, they’re smarter, and Eminem’s delivery is much stronger and sounds a lot less hokey than on a lot of the MMLP stuff. Oh, and Aerosmith is sampled on “Sing for the Moment” which is huge. Another one of the album’s highlights, discussing the effect rappers and hip-hop culture on kids. Great song, great use of sampling with a classic rock song.
I guess it's also because I was only 10 when 9/11 happened, and I discovered this album shortly afterwards, that this album has stuck with me. Songs like "Square Dance" and "White America" and "Without Me" all bring me back to my childhood, strangely, to life-altering events at that young age. And then just getting into the rest of the record after that cemented it as really influential and powerful for me. At the time I thought I shouldn't be listening to such offensive stuff, but later on I realized there's a whole lot of rock and metal about drugs and violence soooo, y'know, art and all that.
In Summary: I’m not a rap fan, generally speaking. I only like a very few select rap albums. But I grew up with this, and I still listen to it a lot, and Eminem as an artist is just incredible and I really respect and admire his work. These are just really fun songs to listen to and several of them are pretty awesome gym tunes. Don’t bother listening if you are easily offended or aren’t open to rap. Thankfully there’s only one song on this record which has Eminem singing, but at least it’s not autotuned to hell like his later attempts at singing are.
Katt’s Favorites: White America,
Business,
Cleanin’ Out My Closet (music video),
Square Dance,
When the Music Stops,
Say What You Say,
‘Till I CollapseListen to “The Eminem Show” by Eminem on Spotify