'Just Don't Give a F-' (from 'The Slim Shady LP') Some frighteningly indefensible homophobic lyrics aside, Slim Shady is in top form here, switching rapidly between characters - he plays Gianni Versace, a record exec and a philandering Southern preacher all within a few lines - while gleefully playing up his bad boy persona, even stopping to rob a bank mid-song.Īfter the mixed reaction to 2017's "Revival" album, Eminem comes back, barrels loaded, and unleashes lyrical warfare on fellow rappers, the media, even President Trump, on the smoldering opening track of his surprise-released "Kamikaze" LP, setting the tone for the entire album to follow.Įm addresses his overdose, its cover up, his struggles with sobriety and the death of his best friend Proof on this harrowing, almost uncomfortably honest chronicle, which tackles his depression, drug abuse and lethargy better and more succinctly than the similar "Beautiful," which was released as a single. 'Criminal' (from 'The Marshall Mathers LP') The skills were always there, and here's the evidence.Ĥ6. Porter beat and comes off sounding like Nas or Souls of Mischief with his pure love of the mechanics of '90s hip-hop. Dre, pre-fame Eminem steadily flows over a midtempo Mr. Over a looped sample of the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" theme, Em piles up a dizzying number of references and metaphors ("got me sitting on numbers, like a pocket dial"), at one point stopping to sing "Happy Birthday" in the mirror and checking his own notes to make sure he's still able to keep up with himself.įrom his 1996 debut album, a pre-Dr. 'Alfred's Theme' (from 'Music to Be Murdered By - Side B') Tackling the absurdity which his life had become, Em wrestles with the notion of going from broke and dreaming of going gold to "living in a house with a f-ing elevator."Ĥ8. So we have every reason to believe we'll be updating this list again in 10 years, when Slim Shady turns 60.īut for now, at his half-century mark, here are Eminem's 50 best songs on the occasion of his 50th birthday. There are no leaks, mixtape tracks or underground songs here, and there is a separate tally of his 10 best collaborations sprinkled throughout the list.Įminem has amassed an impressive body of work over the course of his career, and age 50 is no longer the barrier for rappers that it once was. These are his 50 best, the criteria being they had to be commercially released on an Eminem project with Eminem credited as the lead artist. He's since released 10 additional studio albums, scores of collaborations and hundreds of songs. Em got in on his first year of eligibility, 25 years after the release of his debut album, the scrappy, locally distributed "Infinite." Next month, Eminem will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside a 2022 class that includes Duran Duran, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Pat Benatar, Carly Simon and the Eurythmics. He's also been a controversy magnet and a cultural lightning rod, although his days of stirring up picketers and protests have mostly subsided. He does so as an Oscar winner, a 15-time Grammy winner and one of the best-selling artists of all time. Marshall Mathers, the rapper who set the world on fire when he stepped onto the scene with his major label debut album "The Slim Shady LP" back in 1999, turns 50 on Monday.
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