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The Marshall Mathers LP

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The Marshall Mathers LP is the sophomore major-label album from American rapper Eminem.

The Music

Lyrical Content

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 on-again, off-again wife. The album is considerably darker than his debut; its famous "The Real Slim Shady" single is the only upbeat and comical track. It was written shortly before the final copy of the album was due, in order for it to have a radio-friendly single.

Production

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 only outside producer on the album is The 45 King, who provides a haunting beat for the famous "Stan" single that samples Dido's "Thank You" with the addition of a slow bassline.

Reception & Controversy

During the first week, it sold 1,760,000 copies, becoming the fastest-selling rap album in history, more than doubling the previous record held by Snoop Dogg's 1993 debut Doggystyle, and topping Britney Spears' record for highest one-week sales by any solo artist. [1]. The Marshall Mathers LP is still Eminem's best-selling album. It finished out the year 2000 as the second highest selling album of the year with over 7.9 million sold. It would eventually be certified 9x platinum for shipments of over 9 million copies.

While the album received a great deal of praise from most music critics, its enormous popularity also provoked a backlash from gay-rights activists (primarily GLAAD), feminist groups, and socially conservative political figures such as Lynne Cheney, who all claimed that many of the album's lyrics were extremely misogynistic, homophobic, and vulgar. Unlike his previous album, Eminem uses the words "fag" and "faggot" multiple times throughout The Marshall Mathers LP, and the tracks "Kill You" and "Kim" were commonly cited as examples of hateful lyrics against women.

Protests against the album's content reached a climax when it was nominated for four Grammy awards in 2001 including Album of the Year, marking the first time a hardcore rap album was ever nominated in this category. At the ceremony, Eminem performed "Stan" in a duet with famous homosexual artist Elton John playing piano and singing the chorus, in an attempt to silence GLAAD and others who claimed his lyrics were homophobic, though GLAAD did not change its position and spoke out against Elton John's decision. Despite significant protests and debate, 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.

Censorship

Parts of the album are censored even on its explicit version, namely the lines "your attorney Fred Gibson's a faggot!" on "Marshall Mathers", "I take seven kids from Columbine" on "I'm Back" and "there's a four year old little boy laying dead with a slit throat" on "Kim".

The 'clean' version of the album is only moderately censored and leaves the words "shit", "ass", "bitch", and "damn" uncensored. The only content significantly edited were offensive and violent parts that were aimed at police, women, gays, and schools such as Columbine. On many copies of it, however, it does shorten the opening track from a 25-second "Public Service Announcement" much like the one on The Slim Shady LP to just two seconds of silence. On other copies though, the track is still left fully intact.

As well, "Drug Ballad" (track 13) was shortened to just "Ballad" for the edited version of the album, and "Kim" (track 16) was replaced with a South Park themed song entitled "The Kids".

Track listing

# Title Featured guest(s) Producer(s) Time
01. "Public Service Announcement 2000" Performed by Jeff Bass - 0:26
02. "Kill You" - Dr. Dre and Mel-Man 4:24
03. "Stan" Dido The 45 King and Eminem (co-producer) 6:44
04. "Paul" (skit) Performed by Paul "Bunyan" Rosenberg - 0:11
05. "Who Knew" - Dr. Dre and Mel-Man 3:48
06. "Steve Berman" (skit) Steve Berman - 0:54
07. "The Way I Am" - Eminem 4:50
08. "The Real Slim Shady" - Dr. Dre and Mel-Man 4:44
09. "Remember Me?" Sticky Fingaz and RBX Dr. Dre and Mel-Man 3:39
10. "I'm Back" - Dr. Dre and Mel-Man 5:10
11. "Marshall Mathers" - F.B.T. and Eminem 5:21
12. "Ken Kaniff" (skit) Performed by Eminem - 1:02
13. "Drug Ballad" * - F.B.T. and Eminem 5:00
14. "Amityville" Bizarre from D-12 F.B.T. 4:15
15. "Bitch Please II" ** Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and Nate Dogg Richard "Segal" Huredia 4:48
16. "Kim" *** - F.B.T. 6:18
17. "Under the Influence" D-12 F.B.T. and Eminem 5:22
18. "Criminal" - F.B.T. and Eminem 5:19

* - Known as just "Ballad" on the censored version of the album. Although Dina Rae sings some parts in this song, she is not credited in the track listing. Though she is mentioned in the CD booklet.
** - The cover of both the censored and the uncensored album refer to this track as "B**** Please II".
*** - This song is replaced by "The Kids" on the censored version of the album.

Album singles

Single cover Single information
"The Real Slim Shady"
  • Released: May 16, 2000
  • B-side: "My Fault" & "Bad Influence"
 "The Way I Am"
  • Released: October 17, 2000
  • B-side: "Kids", "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" & "Steve Berman"
 "Stan"


Accolades

  • Template:RS500 In its book format, the album was moved up to #298.
  • In 2006, the album was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time. [2]
  • Byron Crawford and IGN ranked it 17th and 24th, respectively, on their own lists of the greatest rap albums of all time in 2004. [3] [4]
  • DigitalDreamDoor named it the 19th greatest hip-hop album of all time and the number 1 greatest album of the 2000s so far. [5]
  • In 2005 Pitchfork Media and Stylus Magazine named the album #93 and #24, respectively, in their list of the best albums released between 2000 and 2004.
  • It is one of the few albums ever to receive the top ranking of "XXL" from XXL Magazine. It was Eminem's first album to be rated by the magazine.[6]


Personnel

  • Dr. Dre - Executive producer/Producer/Performer/mixing
  • Eminem - Vocals, Producer, Mixing
  • DJ Mark the 45 King - Producer
  • Snoop Dogg - Performer
  • Jeff Bass - Producer/Performer
  • Steve Berman - Performer
  • John Bigham - Guitar
  • Chris Conway - Engineer, Mixing
  • Steven King - Engineer
  • Joe Martin - Production Coordination
  • Lance Pierre - Engineer
  • Michelle Lynn Forbes - Engineer, Mixing
  • Xzibit - Performer
  • Tom Coster, Jr. - Keyboards
  • Mark Bass - Producer
  • Mike Elizondo - Bass, Guitar, Keyboards
  • Larry Chatman - Project Coordinator
  • Aaron Lepley - Engineer
  • Camara Kambon - Keyboards
  • Rick Behrens - Engineer, Mixing
  • Sticky Fingaz - Performer
  • RBX - Performer
  • Bizarre - Performer
  • D12 - Performers
  • Les Scurry - Production Coordination
  • Kirdis Tucker - Project Coordinator
  • Jason Noto - Art Direction, Design
  • James McCrone - Engineer
  • Mike Butler - Engineer, Mixing
  • Rob Ebeling - Engineer, Mixing
  • Akane Nakamura - Engineer, Mixing
  • Jeff Bass - Producer

Album chart positions

Year Album Chart positions
Billboard 200 Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums Top Canadian Albums Top Internet Albums
2000 The Marshall Mathers LP #1 #1 #1 #1

Singles chart positions

Year Song Chart positions
Billboard Hot 100 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks Hot Rap Singles Modern Rock Tracks Rhythmic Top 40 Top 40 Mainstream Top 40 Tracks Canadian Singles Chart Latin Pop Airplay Latin Tropical/Salsa Airplay
2000 Bitch Please II - #61 - - - - - - - -
2000 Stan #51 #26 - - #9 #33 #34 - - -
2000 The Real Slim Shady #4 #11 #7 #19 #1 #13 #9 #15 #28 #23
2000 The Way I Am #58 #26 - - #5 - #36 - - -
2001 Drug Ballad - #71 - - - - - - - -

Trivia

  • The Marshall Mathers LP features a number of lines mimicking songs from Eric B. & Rakim's album Paid in Full. The chorus to "The Way I Am" resembles lines from the song "As the Rhyme Goes On", and the first two lines from the third verse of "I'm Back" are based on lines from "My Melody".
  • In 2002 a French pianist named Jacques Loussier filed a $10 million lawsuit against Eminem, claiming the beat for "Kill You" was stolen from his song "Pulsion." [7]. He unsuccessfully demanded that all sales of the album be halted and any remaining copies destroyed.
  • Dr. Dre's "What's the Difference" from his album 2001 is the instrumental playing in the background of "Steve Berman (skit)".
  • The chorus to the song "Remember Me?" is performed once by each of the three rappers in the song (Eminem, RBX, and Sticky Fingaz), and each one features lines taken from one of their previous songs. RBX's lines come from "High Powered" on Dr Dre's 1992 album The Chronic, Sticky Fingaz' lines come from Onyx's debut album Bacdafucup, while Eminem's lines come from his previous albums, The Slim Shady EP and The Slim Shady LP.
Preceded by Billboard 200 Number-one Album
June 10, 2000 - August 4, 2000 		Succeeded by
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