Eminem - The Eminem Show Review
Posted by Tom Cocozza on 09.03.2002
I refuse to use “Guess who’s back, back again…”, I’ve only written one review before this. This one is much better. I guess the better the album…
The Eminem Show is Eminem (Marshall Mathers) third major album, and the culmination of a three record arc. With The Slim Shady LP, he burst onto the national scene, trying to make a name for himself and prove to the world that a young white man can rap. With The Marshall Mathers LP, he went to make headlines, to cause controversy, and to have his name on everyone’s lips. The words he spread about his mother, about Christina Aguilera, and his wife, both on the album and in the media hailstorm that followed caused Eminem to rise from a promising young rapper to a national phenomenon. Now with The Eminem Show, he completes the arc, with a grown-up album that discusses his feelings about the country, the state of rap, his ex-wife, his press, his fans. And the one unifying theme through the entire album: The love of a father for a daughter.
The first track on the album is “White America” an angry and poking diatribe against the censorship that most of America, in Eminem’s view at least, hypocritically pushes on artists. He talks about he is the most dangerous rapper to those type of White Americans, because he looks like their kids, and so therefore their kids will like him more. An interesting song, with a lot of points to discuss, but Eminem kind of takes it all back at the end of the track by apologizing to America, and saying he was only kidding and loves the country.
This is a theme that plays throughout the whole album, and one that is actually addressed totally in “When The Music Stops.” Eminem is really not like this, in fact, he’s really just some guy named Marshall who is having a hard time dealing with who his success has made him. The whole rap scene is an act, a pretense, and for Marshall Mathers specifically, kind of a joke. He very rarely means the things he says, and unfortunately can’t handle it when people don’t realize it. At least Mr. Mathers realizes he has anger issues….
The album proper begins with the third track, “Business” and lasts through track twenty, “Curtain Close.” He talks about his mother Debbie, ex-wife Kim, and daughter Hallie frequently, how he hates his ex-wife for never being there for him when he needed help adjusting to fame, and then cheating on him. He addresses the infamous pistol-whipping incident in both skit and song (for those who don’t know, he beat his wife’s lover with a gun). In “The Kiss” and “Soldier”, he tells us what “really” happened, telling us the little publicized fact that he never had bullets in the gun, which kind of changes the situation, in his mind at least.
He also talks about his daughter Hallie, how he basically is living his life now for here, and swears to himself, to her, and in this album, to America, that he will be a better father than Kim, and both his parents. He basically let’s all of us know that she is his hope of redemption, while his mother Debbie is constantly hanging over his shoulder reminding him of his bad past and all the evil he’s seen and done.
He addresses how he attempts to deal with these issues in “Cleaning My Closet” and “Hallie’s Song”. In the first song, he talks about how he is sorry for being himself, and disappointing his mother because of it. But now she is no longer part of is life. In the latter, he actually sings to Hallie, how he loves her and will always be there for her, and how she is saving him from possible madness, and definitely from living a life of anger.
Speaking of anger, this is the other theme that is pervasive throughout the whole album. Whether or not Marshall Mathers means all the things he says (he seems to want you to think he doesn’t), he sounds like an angry, angry, young man. And as he talks more and more about his mother, and his ex-wife, and the press, and groupies, and his fears, Eminem is getting more and more pissed. Until finally he flips and can’t take anymore, and the dark side of Mathers’ rapping persona, Slim Shady, comes out. “Without Me”, besides being a smash single, is the start of Mathers’ flipping out on the album, attacking all of his targets with unabated energy and anger, and holding no punches. It is a slow build to Eminem losing the battle to Shady, and Mathers pulls off the change perfectly, actually structuring the pre- and post-Shady raps to sound different, and his interaction with Dr. Dre (who is pervasive through the whole album, moving from previous albums as a mentor, to this album as a friend) to be different. He can’t control his rage, and doesn’t want to, until the aforementioned “Hallie’s Song” brings him back from the dark side and back to good ol’ Eminem, the rapper we know and love. Unless our name is Moby. Or Christina Aguliera. Or anyone who approves censorship.
With leaves me with one last theme to bring up. Eminem makes it quite clear what he thinks about censorship. It has no place here in America, that this is the land of the free, and that the freedom of speech and ideas is very important to him. But he also stresses that his album is not for kids, he always addresses adults in his songs, and goes so far as to say he wouldn’t let his daughter hear his album, even the song that’s about her, because of the language and themes. He suggests that censorship should start and end in the home, and not in Washington.
As for the content, the rapping, and the catchiness of the songs, well, this may be the best rap album I’ve heard in the last ten years. All controversy aside, Eminem may be the best rapper out there in terms of talent and skill. He also talks about things other than ho’s and cappin’ asses, which is refreshing. Now if he can only stop getting into fights at the MTV Video Music Awards.
The 411: With a mixture of catchy beats, impressive rhymes, and interesting and controversial subject matter, as well as a surprising amount of heart, Marshall Mathers may have hit the watershed mark with The Eminem Show. Watch for the language though!
