As often as I wish his Eminem-side, Marshall Mathers' Slim Shady persona is invariably that folly in which I find no guilt about listening. Both sides of Em are equally talented but are intended to provide the listener two vastly different experiences. While Eminem is the man himself, one who has a lot of issues and is subject of recording deep, beautiful, introspective songs like "If I Had" and "Stan," Slim Shady is a hyper-polarized, cartoonish parody of new American culture.
It's actually the champion of Mathers, not just is one of the top-five wordsmiths in hip hop's history, but the world of these two distinct personas allows him the power to be two different emcees and have about any case of song instead of being pigeonholed into one type or the other. This song, as with all of his vintage-Slim Shady songs, is alleged to give you cringe. It's grim and perverted and you're supposed to make a guttural reaction when they hear absurd lines like, It's a crazy world we go in these days/ "Slim for Pete's sake, put down Christopher Reeve's legs!
But what I find incredible about these songs is that Mathers doesn't say these things but to say them or show off his dumbfounding delivery. Mathers, like most great artists, uses his controversy to critique society. Americans seem more preoccupied with the faux-world displayed in materiality television than the real world. Em lets out some direct comment on his own life-this song, aside from displaying vintage-Slim Shady, gives the listener insight into a the spirit of a man trying desperately to deal with the stress brought on by overnight success-but he also amplifies the attributes of reality T.V.America, demonstrating the flaws in supporting such a culture.
This song, off his sophomore Marshall Mathers LP, is one of the many examples of why I suffer trouble listening to Recovery. It's not the overproduction or level that he's lost a tone on his rhyme schemes. What saddens me is that the Slim Shady-persona, which formerly seemed to do so born to Mathers, now seems forced. On an album that's supposed to show a more mature Mathers, and does at many points, the times when he steps into the Shady persona seem jarring and out of place. Instead of both personas contrasting one another and adding something to the bigger whole, the contrast seems to now detract from both sides. It's inevitable that artists grow and change, but it hardly seems weird that Mathers is stressful to develop while simultaneously holding onto the past.
I'm no one to critique Eminem. He's one of my top-two emcees of all time and I'm a writer who alone gets about 100 hits/day on his blog. But I think I'm only a fan who loves and misses his old material like this classic.
Peace, Love, & Shady,
VoodooChild
Eminem - "I'm Back" (prod. Dr. Dre & Mel-Man) Previous: Eminem - "Not Afraid"
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