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The Slim Shady LP

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The Slim Shady LP is the commercial debut studio album from American rapper Eminem, released in 1999. It was Eminem's first album released under Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment.

The album was met with critical and commercial success. It debuted at #2 on the charts behind TLC's FanMail with 283,000 sold in its opening week. The album went on to be certified 5x platinum by the RIAA. To date, it has moved over 9 million units worldwide. "Just Don't Give a Fuck" was the first and only underground single from the album.[citation needed] The first official single was "My Name Is".

In 2003, the album was ranked number 273 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It placed higher than Eminem's second album The Marshall Mathers LP on the list, despite the fact that it originally received 3.5/5 stars compared to Marshall Mathers's 4/5 star rating.

Background

Upon its release, there were several complaints about The Slim Shady LP's lyrical content. The song "Guilty Conscience" (the album's second single) ends with Eminem and Dr. Dre apparently succeeding in encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover. In "97' Bonnie & Clyde", Eminem raps about disposing of his wife's body while his baby daughter rides along in his car, which the album cover alludes to.

The introduction of the CD "Public Service Announcement" is a disclaimer saying that the CD has a lot of violent and drug references, as well as numerous swearing and some sexual references.

Most songs feature substantial amounts of swearing, numerous references to sex and drugs, and over-the-top, cartoonish descriptions of violence. It even contains numerous references to the occult and Satanic ritual abuse. Fans of the album have generally defended it by saying that the lyrics are not to be taken seriously. Eminem himself has referenced "Slim Shady" as an exaggerated persona. In several songs, it is clear that the Slim Shady persona does not accurately represent Eminem's real life and many lyrics are meant as a joke, in contrast to his more serious second effort The Marshall Mathers LP. On the "clean" version of the album, "shit", "ass", and sometimes "bitch" are left uncensored while drug, sexual and violent references are edited out through backmasking, muting, or are replaced by sound effects [glass breaking, screaming, banging, etc.] The album edit of "Guilty Conscience" is much different from the video version, being less censored and with slightly different lyrics, as well as having a different narrator.

The songs "Just Don't Give a Fuck", "If I Had" and "97' Bonnie & Clyde" previously appeared on Eminem's independent album, The Slim Shady EP, in 1997. Dr. Dre was so impressed by the EP that he wanted to use some of the tracks on The Slim Shady LP. "Just Don't Give a Fuck" was given sharper and more impressive production, with additional instruments and sound effects, as well as cuts by Kid Rock. "97' Bonnie & Clyde" was given new keylines. The EP version, which was originally called "Just the Two of Us", featured a sample from a song of the same name by Grover Washington, Jr.

Production

In addition to executive-producing the album, Dr. Dre produced both of its singles ("My Name Is" and "Guilty Conscience") and also produced "Role Model" with Aftermath co-producer Mel-Man. The rest of the album was produced by the Bass Brothers for the Detroit-based FBT Productions, who had been close collaborators with Eminem since Infinite.

Track listing

No.TitleProducer(s)Length
1."Public Service Announcement" (feat. Jeff Bass) 0:33
2."My Name Is"Dr. Dre4:28
3."Guilty Conscience" (feat. Dr. Dre)Dr. Dre3:19
4."Brain Damage"F.B.T., Eminem (co)3:46
5."Paul" (Performed by Paul Rosenberg) 0:15
6."If I Had" (feat. Kristie Abete)F.B.T., Eminem (co)4:05
7."97' Bonnie & Clyde"F.B.T., Eminem (co)5:16
8."Bitch" (Performed by Zoe Winkler) 0:19
9."Role Model"Dr. Dre, Mel-Man3:25
10."Lounge" (feat. Marky Bass) 0:46
11."My Fault"F.B.T., Eminem4:01
12."Ken Kaniff" (feat. Marky Bass) 1:16
13."Cum on Everybody" (feat. Dina Rae)F.B.T., Eminem (co)3:39
14."Rock Bottom"F.B.T.3:34
15."Just Don't Give a Fuck"F.B.T., Eminem (co)4:02
16."Soap" 0:34
17."As the World Turns"F.B.T., Eminem (co)4:25
18."I'm Shady"F.B.T., Eminem (co)3:32
19."Bad Meets Evil" (feat. Royce da 5'9")F.B.T., Eminem (co)4:13
20."Still Don't Give a Fuck"F.B.T., Eminem (co)4:12
Bonus tracks
No.TitleProducer(s)Length
21."Hazardous Youth" (Acapella version) 6:01
22."Get You Made" (feat. King Tech)Sway & King Tech5:16
23."Greg" (Acapella version) 0:54
24."Video CD-ROM"  


Note: In the clean version of the album, "Bitch (Skit)", "Cum on Everybody", "Just Don't Give a Fuck" and "Still Don't Give a Fuck" are titled "Zoe", "Come on Everybody", "Just Don't Give" and "Still Don't Give" respectively.

Samples

Chart history

Chart Peak
position
Billboard 200 2
Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums 1
Top Canadian Albums 9

References

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