ursting on the scene with his underground single "I Just Don't Give A Fuck", Marshall "Eminem" Mathers quickly was signed to deal with Dr. Dre's Aftermath label. Using his first single "My Name Is" to revitalize Dre's credibility as a producer, Eminem became popular for three main reasons: his often humorous lyrics, his original flow and rhyme schemes, and his white skin. After selling a few million copies of his debut LP, The Slim Shady LP, Eminem found himself met with controversy everywhere. His songs featured graphic descriptions of killing people, including, but not limited to, his wife. Everyone hated him, which just made him more popular to kids and rebels everywhere. This fact was duly noted on his second LP, The Marshall Mathers LP, where Eminem moved forward with his killing descriptions, making them even more graphic, and it was obvious he was becoming infatuated with his own celebrity. The material on MMLP was boderline, where masterpieces like "Stan" featuring Eminem playing an obsessed fan, were mixed with misses like "Drug Ballad", a slow bubblegum description of his drug habits, and "Marshall Mathers", an extended diss to ICP, 'NSync, and pop music in general. MMLP was a decent LP, but showed signs of Em's premature decline. Does The Eminem Show stop his drop, or does Eminem continue on this path towards mediocrity?


This LP has some major problems. To begin, Eminem's lyrics are still pretty good in some places, but, for the first time ever, they aren't very good in others. He is getting lazier and lazier. His flow remains top-notch, and his ability to perform "sleight" rhymes, those which don't rhyme perfectly, is unmatched. The problem is, on The Slim Shady LP, and to a lesser extent, The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem had the ability to shock you, both from humor and his ability to cross the line like no other. On The Eminem Show, he simply doesn't do that. He tries everywhere, but fails. The songs all have concepts, and some of them are thought out really well, but almost every song boils down to the same theme: "Hey, I'm a celebrity, I make controversy, hate me, but you'd miss me". "White America", "Say What You Say", "Without Me", and "Sing for the Moment" tackle every angle of Eminem's celebrity, from his many detractors to the fact that people don't care about rap music until it becomes really popular. The problem is, Eminem thinks he's a figurehead for every person who is hated and he represents them. In a few songs on the album, he seems to take the side and defend homosexuals, who he previously insulted. Is this a cheap ploy to gain even more controversy like it seems? Looking deeper, Eminem has started to lose his controversial edge, partially because when the homosexuals organized against him, churches who denounced him started to back off. Is he appearing to side with them so that the church, creators of his biggest controversy, will come back against him? I don't know his motives. However, I just know it seems like that's what he's doing.


The concepts on the album, for the most part, are derivative of Eminem's previous works. Besides the "Hey, I'm Controversial!" angle, Eminem assaults dirty women on "Drips", his parents on "Cleaning Out My Closet", and relates himself to soldiers on, well, "Soldier". Some of the songs are carried by a newfound ability for Em to show his feelings. "Cleaning Out My Closet" has Eminem singing on the hook, and he shows a surprising ability to express himself previously unseen. The haunting piano like beat provide a great backdrop for Em's sad tale about his relationship with his parents, and makes us feel even more sad for him. "Sing for the Moment" samples Aerosmith's "Dream On", providing a rock-flavored destructive track that Eminem sounds perfect over, still keeping his hip-hop sensibilites without becoming the dreaded rap/rock. Finally, "White America" features the same type of rock influenced with powerful electrical guitar that Eminem previously produced on Xzibit's "Don't Approach Me" and Jay-Z's "Renegade". The lyrical content on the song, an attack on America's ability to ignore things until they reach the suburbs, is fairly derivative and exactly what we expect from Em on this CD, rambling about his influence on the world. This is a definite skip every time, and it's the second track on the album after a pointless introduction, which means the album doesn't really start until the third track, which is a big waste. After song ten, "Without Me", there are only two good tracks, "Say What You Say" and "Till I Collapse". In fact, out of the 16 tracks, not including skits, only six of the songs are good, a terrible ratio. The CD is much too long, and much too boring and slow to be revered like his previous two.


The beats on the album are, for the most part, really good. "Square Dance", "Without Me", and "Business" all would sound great on one of the best produced albums of all time, Dre 2001. While Eminem handles the majority of the production, his beats sound like Dre mixed with rock, strong, but at the same time, with just the right amount of subtlety. The manic snares and pounds on "Say What You Say" have a sense of urgency that back Dre and Eminem's biting diss to Jermaine Dupri that make the diss even more acidic. Even songs like "Sing for the Moment" and "White America" with their rock guitar main riffs stay relevant without becoming rap-rock combinations. The hidden gem "Till I Collapse" features sharp hand claps as the drum riff, and Nate Dogg comes in at a perfect time. The LP is still filled with too many songs that sound like cast offs from the Dre's sessions for Dre 2001. The featuring of guitar like riff beats, like "Drips", "Superman", and the insanely surreal "My Dads Gone Crazy" (featuring Eminem's daughter) are not bad beats but for an LP executive produced by Dr. Dre? They don't belong.


If I could talk to Eminem for five minutes, I'd say "Stop the namedropping! On SSLP it was funny and cute, on MMLP it was a bit better, because you were angry and you had actual problems with the people you dissed. Now? It's downright frustrating". You can't skip through a song on the Eminem without hearing a diss to one of his detractors, three different songs have references to Canibus. Canibus, who, dissed Eminem on his mess C: True Hollywood Stories, was believed to be below the range of people Eminem would diss back. Hell, Beanie Sigel is above dissing him back. Britney Spears gets dissed, 'NSync, Moby, Jermaine Dupri, Lynn Cheney, the guy that kissed his wife, etc, etc.... Eminem gives props to Nelly, Nas, Missy Elliot, Biggie, Pac, and it seems now like he is trying to appease certain people. Eminem die-hards will be pleased with The Eminem Show. Eminem does more of the same as he kills people, swears, and namechecks celebrities. Non-Eminem fans will be dissapointed, and he will continue to fade quickly in fans minds. Eventually, he will most likely end up with a core group of a million or two fans who will continue to buy his albums, but if he releases stuff like this he is going to lose fans like me, who don't love his albums just because it's him.