'' is the second
Studio Album from
American Rapper Eminem , released in 2000.
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. Along with ''The Slim Shady LP'' it also contains several references to the
Occult . 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".
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.
During the first week, it sold 1,760,049 copies, becoming the fastest-selling rap album in history, more than doubling the previous record held by , and 1.54 million through BMG Music Club by 2003, making it their 5th biggest seller.
BMG List of top 100 Selling Albums
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 the 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.
The album spent an amazing 13 weeks at the top of the Canadian Album Chart.
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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, stand 'em all in line" 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,
African American s,
Protestant Christian s,
FBI , 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.
In addition, "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".
- - 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.
- --- - On the edited album, "Amityville" is 13-14 seconds shorter than the explicit version.
-- - The cover of both the censored and the uncensored album refer to this track as "B
Please II".
- - "Kim" is replaced by The Kids on the censored version of the album.
For a limited time, there was a special import version of '', containing the original album and an
Enhanced bonus disc featuring the instrumental versions of the three singles, the explicit version of "The Kids", originally only found in its censored state on the clean version of the album, and a remix to
The Way I Am , with
Alternative Metal rocker
Marilyn Manson in place of Eminem in the chorus. In addition, the enhanced CD portion contained the uncensored music videos for the album's singles.
- US - Diamond (10 Million+)
- Mexico - Platinum (150,000+)
- Australia 4x Platinum (280,000+)
- Norway - 2x Platinum
- Canada - 8x Platinum (800,000)
- Austria - 2x Platinum (70,000+)
- Sweden - 4x Platinum (240,000+)
- Brazil - Gold (100,000+)
- Hungary - Gold
- Germany - 2x Platinum (600,000+)
- Europe - 5x Platinum (5 Million+)
- Switzerland - 4x Platinum
- New Zealand - 5x Platinum (75,000+)
- Netherlands - 2x Platinum
- France - 2x platinum (600,000+)
- UK - 5x platinum (1.5 Million+)
- Finland -Platinum
- Belgium - 2x Platinum
- Japan - Gold (100,000+)
- Korea - 3x Platinum
- 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
- ''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 French jazz pianist Jacques Loussier filed a $10 million lawsuit against Eminem, claiming the beat for "Kill You" was stolen from his song "Pulsion." {Link without Title} . 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 ''.
- Pacewon & Young Zee (of the Outsidaz ) were supposed to have verses on Amityville. Eminem and Pacewon fought over Pace's verse, so their verses ended up getting cut.
