Word: eminem
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...rapper, Eminem has always shown a talent for wordplay, but on his previous work, the lines between his characters--and those characters' broader meanings--were pretty fuzzy. On The Eminem Show, however, the three personalities fit together like a set of Russian nesting dolls. Slim Shady is the raging fantasy id, a nightmare projection of overprotective parents and the devil on the shoulder of teenage rebels. Eminem, meanwhile, functions as the voice of present-tense reality. He's the rapper who has run-ins with the law, an unraveling marriage and a nose for politics. At the wounded core...
...Eminem Show's first single, Without Me, is a Slim song that starts, "I've created a monster/ 'Cause nobody wants to see Marshall no more/ They want Shady/ I'm chopped liver." Once summoned, Shady delivers the funniest diatribe in recent rap history. Over an upbeat snare reminiscent of Billie Jean and a woolly sax torn from the Coasters' playbook, Shady sums up his appeal: "Little hellions/ Kids feeling rebellious/ Embarrassed their parents still listen to Elvis/ They start feeling like prisoners, helpless." He says this at top speed with the clarity of Henry Higgins, over music that makes...
...Eminem voice gets the majority of play on The Eminem Show, and he's sharpest on White America. Eminem is disingenuous when he says he can't understand why people are always talking about him, but he doesn't mind using the culture's fascination with him to point out its own bankruptcy. "White America/ I could be one of your kids/ Little Eric looks just like this/ Erica loves my s___/ I go to TRL; look how many hugs...
...Eminem's great shtick is to be simultaneously inside and outside himself. Several tracks re-enact his 2000 arrest for assaulting a man he saw kissing his now ex-wife. He describes his uncontrollable feelings on Say Goodbye Hollywood while bringing in expert witnesses to comment on his stupidity. A voice-mail message from his manager becomes a spoken interlude in which Eminem is scolded like an impulsive child: "I told you not to f_____ bring your gun around like an idiot outside of your home...
...persona of Marshall Mathers, Eminem's gift for self-scrutiny turns insufferably narcissistic. Marshall is deeply wounded, hates his parents but loves his daughter. About his dad, who left him when he was a baby, Marshall says, "I wonder if he even kissed me goodbye/ No I don't; on second thought, I just f_____ wish he would die." On Hailie's Song, he sings in a surprising falsetto, "My baby girl keeps getting older, I watch her grow up with pride/ People make jokes, 'cause they don't understand me/ They just don't see my real side." Mathers...