Actors - The Marshall Mathers LP

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	Actors - The Marshall Mathers LP

The Marshall Mathers LP is the sophomore major-label album from American rapper Eminem. The bulk of the album was written in Amsterdam, with producer Dr. Dre holding a telephone to his speakers so Eminem could hear the beats. "The Real Slim Shady," the first single and a huge hit, was written back in the United States, as the deadline neared and no radio-friendly singles were yet written.

In the week following its release, it sold 1.7 million copies, becoming the fastest-selling rap album in history. While it received a great deal of critical praise, its enormous success also provoked a backlash from dissenting critics and social activists, most notably GLAAD, who protested Eminem's use of the word "fag" in several songs. Others claimed that the rapper's lyrics were extremely misogynistic, an allegation that generally centered around the songs "Kill You" and "Kim."

Such protests reached a climax when the album was nominated for four Grammy awards in 2001, including Album of the Year. At the ceremony, Eminem performed "Stan" with famous homosexual artist Elton John on piano in an attempt to silence GLAAD and others who claimed his lyrics were homophobic. The Marshall Mathers LP went on to win Best Rap Album of the Year, but lost to Steely Dan's Two Against Nature for Album of the Year.

As evidenced by Eminem's decision to include his real name in the album's title, this is a more serious and personal album than his major-label debut, The Slim Shady LP
, which predominantly featured his exaggerated Slim Shady persona. Much of the CD is spent addressing his rise to fame and attacking those who criticized his first album. Other themes include his relationship with his family, most notably his mother and Kim Mathers, his wife who he subsequently divorced but has remarried as of 2006. The album is considerably darker than his debut; its famous "The Real Slim Shady" single is one of the only upbeat and comical tracks.

Much of the first half of the album is produced by Dr. Dre and Mel-Man, who typically employ sparse, stripped-down beats, allowing Eminem's rapping to take center-stage. F.B.T. Productions and Eminem produced most of the second half, which ranges from the laid-back guitars of "Marshall Mathers" to the gritty atmosphere of "Amityville."

The album is widely considered by fans to be Eminem's best work, and was also his most commercially successful, going 9x platinum in the U.S. Despite its controversy, it is considered by many fans to be a hip-hop classic, though there is a great deal of disagreement within the hip-hop community over this.

Intro

The first track is a skit called "Public Announcement 2000". Jeff Bass speaks (with whispered prompts from Eminem), telling the listener that Eminem doesn't "give a fuck what you think" and that "if you don't like it, you can suck his fucking cock." Furthermore, "Eminem is going to kill you" and "you can kiss his ass". In Eminem's previous album, The Slim Shady LP
began with a similar skit that ended with Eminem's pronouncement "don't do drugs." This one ends with Eminem saying "sue me."

In the clean version, this track is just two seconds of silence.

"Kill You"

"Kill You" was one of the most often-attacked songs on the album. According to Eminem in his book Angry Blonde, the lyrics don't have any particular point but to present Slim Shady as an unstable character; he dismisses the idea that the whole song is about his mother, claiming that the lyrics mentioning her are unrelated to the rest of the song.

Critics blasted the song as misogynistic and homophobic, citing lines in the chorus ("Bitch I'ma kill you! You don't wanna fuck with me/Girls leave -- you ain't nothin' but a slut to me") and in the final verse ("You faggots keep eggin' me on/'Til I have you at knifepoint then you beg me to stop?/Shut up! Gimme your hands and feet/I said shut up when I'm talkin' to you, you hear me? Answer me!"), though the latter could be construed as a vulgar reference to his detractors. Another example of Eminem's distinctive climactic, suggestive rhymes: "Blood, guts, guns, cuts/Knives, lives, wives, nuns, sluts" with each word progressively shouted with more and more intensity; "nuns" being placed at the climax is an example of Eminem's macabre and irreverent humor, placed between "wives" and "sluts".

Like several other songs on the album, the lyrics here also insult the American media; this song was frequently cited as containing gratuitous violence and references to drug use. For example, an imitation of his critics says "Oh, now he's raping his own mother, abusing a whore/snorting coke, and we gave him the Rolling Stone cover?", delivered with derision. He also insults radio announcers who "...want me to come on their radio shows/just to argue with 'em cause their ratings stink?". The song includes references to cocaine ("They said I can't rap about bein broke no more/They ain't say I can't rap about coke no more"), taking LSD ("I ain't 'acid rap,' but I rap on acid/Got a new blow-up doll and just had a strap-on added"), taking Vicodin ("I invented violence, you vile venomous volatile bitches/vain Vicodin (sound of chainsaw)"), smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol ("Fuck shots! I hope the weed'll outweigh these drinks").

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