What People Were Saying About Em 15 Years Ago

[Elision]

there's still people saying this shit. what's your point?

[PAINKILLƎR]

LOL the Cage shit always kills me

[StanBase]

Lot of truth here tbh. Example:

Point blank, this ain’t your average cat. This Motor City kid is a one-of-a-kind talent and he’s about to blow past the competition, leaving many melted microphones in the dust.

If you seek to play a leadership role in making money by exploiting the world’s misery, the music industry remains an easy place to start.

And a lot of the opposite:

When Eminem's in obnoxious Itchy 'n Scratchy meets Benny Hill mode (like on the opening 'Public Service Announcement') he's hilarious (misogynist and homophobic but undeniably hilarious). But when he gets all pious and whining and develops a social conscience (like on 'If I Had'), then - ugh! He fucken' SUCKS!

You can't take all the blame off him, but you also got to put the blame on a society that, in America at least, raises boys to be sexist, to be homophobic, to be knuckleheads - that's the American way. Eminem, the shit that he says, is ‘Fight For Your Right To Party 2000.’ It’s ignorant (but) it gives me hope people can change.

[Elision]

ah word

[EminemBase]

Nah I don't agree.

The reaction to all of the classic three was overwhelmingly positive and acknowledging them as landmark albums in some way, right from the release of them.

SSLP was immediately called bold and inventive, recognized as something new and important.

MMLP was immediately basically called a masterpiece, and one of my favourite reviews which was right when it came out referred to it as an immense work of art and analyzed it brilliantly.

TES was immediately referred to / thought of as a very consistent and compelling '''personal theatre'' of an album.

All of them were close to universal acclaim on release. If you're referring to morons who were upset about the content of the lyrics... that's just a misunderstanding of irony by dumb asses, and not a critical view. Those people always exist - but that wasn't a critical or public view of the album.

MMLP2 on the other hand... it's good, definitely not a classic or close to it though, because there isn't a musical or visual identity or anything, if you can't sum an album up with a vibe or a feel then I don't think it can ever be a classic... every classic has an identity which makes it unique and solid.

[kkaniff]

The MMLP
Positive: 14 out of 21
Mixed: 6 out of 21
Negative: 1 out of 21
The MMLP2
Positive: 21 out of 33
Mixed: 11 out of 33
Negative: 1 out of 33

From Metacritic.
So, pretty similar.

[yoda you can call me]

^This

[EminemBase]

The MMLP
Positive: 14 out of 21
Mixed: 6 out of 21
Negative: 1 out of 21
The MMLP2
Positive: 21 out of 33
Mixed: 11 out of 33
Negative: 1 out of 33

From Metacritic.
So, pretty similar.

Not really.

In terms of positive reactions, ratio-wise - MMLP has nearly twice as many (7 not vs. 12 not)

Also, the positive reactions of MMLP are more significant - with some referring to it as an immense work of art, a masterwork, culturally significant etc. compared to even the best of MMLP2 pretty much just saying it doesn't entirely gel but that Em's rapping is out of this world.

[kkaniff]

14 out of 21 is 66%
21 out of 33 is 63%
if I didn't fudge the math.
And the best of MMLP2 says:
"It is no mere rehash. If anything, the
sequel is more intense than the
original."
and
" The jokes, in places offensive, are
relentless and ribald. There is no
apology, though, no concession; just
a considered, virtuoso application of
talent."
I'm not saying MMLP2 > MMLP or anything, but you seem to want to bash it for some reason.

[EminemBase]

14 out of 21 is 66%
21 out of 33 is 63%
if I didn't fudge the math.
And the best of MMLP2 says:
"It is no mere rehash. If anything, the
sequel is more intense than the
original."
and
" The jokes, in places offensive, are
relentless and ribald. There is no
apology, though, no concession; just
a considered, virtuoso application of
talent."
I'm not saying MMLP2 > MMLP or anything, but you seem to want to bash it for some reason.

Fair enough @ %'s, but the public/fan reaction is nowhere near the same, and even though the positives of MMLP2 are saying things like that - it's much less significant. Nobody is claiming this is a masterwork.

And how am I bashing it? Lmao - people on here seem to think in black and white... either you say something is utter genius or you automatically hate it. I like MMLP2 and enjoy the songs a lot, but saying the reaction to it has been like MMLP1 is just clearly untrue.

"''The Marshall Mathers LP'' is indefensible and critic-proof, hypocritical and heartbreaking, unlistenable and undeniable; it's a disposable shock-rap session, and the first great pop record of the 21st century.""

This kind of instant hyperbole is not how people have reacted to MMLP2. There's plenty of great praise of Em's rapping but it's almost entirely about his skill. Where as critics reacted to MMLP as a concept... like it had an effect on them which they have to describe, as apposed to ''wow, nice rapping''.

Because the ideas all come together, and they're powerful, and at the end of the CD - you've been through an experience... not just listened to some songs in a row and been impressed by his rhyming or how cool his jokes are. It's the result of songs coming together to form ''one thought''.

MMLP was a magic-effect album. A vision which simply worked in a powerful way... MMLP2 is not that at all. It's Em showing every kind of rap he can make... some sad, some angry, some silly... some rock, some pop, some funk... some fast, some slow... it's a showcase album. MMLP1 had one aim, one purpose - it carries it out start to finish and it had that effect on the public, critics and fans.

MMLP2 may be getting praise for Em's rapping talents, even if some do think it's more intense - nobody feels it's a landmark, a masterpiece and it doesn't have a pure artistic purpose which it achieves, and it's not musically consistent. It's just a good album of good songs, with great rapping.

[yoda you can call me]

Em will never replicate the same public reaction he got with the MMLP. They where other factors at play that made the public go fucking mental, and them factors are no longer relevant at this stage in his career

[Elision]

Em will never replicate the same public reaction he got with the MMLP. They where other factors at play that made the public go fucking mental, and them factors are no longer relevant at this stage in his career

One simply being he was new. Now people act like liking Eminem isn't "cool" anymore. It's white people music, he's overrated...etc. I blame the internet for that tbh. Em has to put in 1000x the work just to get half the praise other "cool" rappers do on the internet.

Well also the fact that aside from maybe Marilyn Manson, the shock value tree was still ripe for the picking back in 99/2000. the mainstream was flooded with nothing but sissy pushover artists, so when em hit the scene it blew everyone's dick off and nobody knew how to react.

[EminemBase]

Em will never replicate the same public reaction he got with the MMLP. They where other factors at play that made the public go fucking mental, and them factors are no longer relevant at this stage in his career

One simply being he was new. Now people act like liking Eminem isn't "cool" anymore. It's white people music, he's overrated...etc. I blame the internet for that tbh. Em has to put in 1000x the work just to get half the praise other "cool" rappers do on the internet.

No but I'm not on about outrage.

If Em made another masterpiece... it would be called a masterpiece. I'm not on about if people got offended or not, who cares about that. The work speaks for itself.

The reaction to Em's work critically has nothing to do with how new he is, it has to do with the fact he's making more inconsistent albums with bigger flaws.

[EminemInsider]

--Jim DeRogatis, Chicago writer
Date: Date unknown, 1999

Veteran music journalist Jim DeRogatis was not pleased with Eminem's arrival upon mainstream culture, going far enough to say that not only is Shady highly offensive, but also tasteless and tacky in the way he goes about it.

"He's a charlatan and a fraud, who is as bad musically as he is content-wise. There is talent there, but he could be doing so much more with it... There is Psycho, which is one of the best films ever made about a serial killer, and
then there's Friday the 13th Part 8."

Translation: A multi? What's that?

In Dan Browne's Entertainment Weekly review of The Slim Shady LP, he paints Eminem as a regressive force who threatens to destroy the progression that hip-hop was making.

"It was bound to happen, wasn't it? What with Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu leading the charge of hip-hip soul positivity, reformed reprobates the Beastie Boys singing the praises of adulthood and Tibetan boys in hoods, and a new generation of bands like OutKast and the Roots aiming to broaden rap's musical and cranial focus, it was only a matter of time before someone applied the brakes to the new hip-hop consciousness."

Translation: I am a racist, pretentious, hipster black-penis-sucking leftist who doesn't know what "socially conscious" means.

After witnessing the Chi-Town leg of Eminem's first nationwide tour in April of 1999, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune described how Shady is much like a certain chaotic daytime talk show and how his voice sounds like an '80s TV icon's.

"Eminem is like a whole week of Springer shows, with slightly better beats and fewer exposed body parts... [He] drops rhymes like Pee-wee Herman with a nasal Midwestern accent over tepid, almost inconsequential mid-tempo beats."

Translation: By "rhymes," I am showing you how little value I place on actual rap lyricism/rhyme schemes, because I am a dolt who just listens to music for the sound/melody, and nothing else.

Over at The Observer, Eric Weisbard likened Shady to a fifty foot tall Ghostbusters villain, a Looney Toon, a '50s children's television staple, and a psychotic Jim Carey character.

"He’s the grinning demon seed on the Coney Island T-shirts. He’s Alfred E. Newman and Howdy Doody. He’s Bob’s Big Boy and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters, wrecking buildings. He’s the cable guy but he raps like Bugs Bunny."

Translation: I don't like his voice and playfulness, I needz a serious badazz masculine sound because I was bullied in school and fear looking vulnerable in any way.

Nathan Rabin's review of The Slim Shady LP touched upon the early connection between Shady and acts like Marilyn Manson, who represented the disfranchised and outcasted youth of Middle America.

"Like Marilyn Manson and Insane Clown Posse, Eminem represents a new musical sub-genre of ostracized Midwestern geeks re-inventing themselves as subcultural icons."

Translation: I grew up a nerd and resent the fact that fellow nerds found a way to grow up and gain respect.

During the beginning years of Eminem's success, Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys was both a strong critic and advocate of his controversial content. In this excerpt, Ad-Rock explains how Shady's work is much like the Beastie Boys' early material, and that despite its lack of enlightenment, it gives Ad-Rock hope for a better tomorrow.

"You can't take all the blame off him, but you also got to put the blame on a society that, in America at least, raises boys to be sexist, to be homophobic, to be knuckleheads - that's the American way. Eminem, the shit that he says, is ‘Fight For Your Right To Party 2000.’ It’s ignorant (but) it gives me hope people can change."

Translation: The Beastie Boys sucked ass, and we don't have any understanding of rappers who are actual song writers rather than trying to make silly rock-inspired party songs.

In response to witnessing a brawl during Eminem's San Francisco leg of the Slim Shady tour, Bay Area radio personality and DJ Davey D wrote a review of the show on his website, expressing his disappointment in the immature behavior Shady displayed.

"What Slim Shady did do, was live up to all the speculation about him being a marketing tool for a music industry that is bent on finding a white rap sensation who can appeal to its large white fan base. He lived up to all the speculation that white rappers in spite being minorities in a predominantly Black field can be granted unprecedented privileges. Slim lived up to the speculation that he's a more of a gimmick as opposed to a dope emcee."

Translation: I don't like Eminem's sense of humor, I want hip hawp to always be taken uber-seriously no matter what.

A contributor to radio personality Davey D's website made an almost spot on prediction of how Eminem would surpass many black emcees in mainstream popularity. Shady never became the next House of Pain though.

"Don't be surprised when Eminem comes out and he just blows up because the majority of this country has more in common with him than they do with Rass Kass. Then the black folks who couldn't relate to Em in the first place are gonna dis him and his fans citing a racist society and media. Eminem will then loose [sic] his props and become the next House of Pain."

Translation: I'm a race-baiter.

Noah Callahan-Bever, Editor-in-Chief at Complex, first met Eminem back in 1998. At that time, Noah was a teenager working at BLAZE Magazine. He knew Em had something special, but he probably wouldn't have guessed that 15 years later the two would be doing stuff like this.

"Only a year into my career as a music journalist, I couldn’t articulate what made Em so compelling. Obviously, his music was strong but there was something else. From the moment we exchanged pounds I knew he had something. For lack of a better term, it was a star-charisma, unlike any other artist I’d interviewed. It’s why I bought a disposable camera and documented the trip (see inset photos). I have never taken a picture of an artist before and I haven’t done it since... So when I came back to NYC, naturally, I regaled everyone that would listen about how I’d heard the future of rap."

Translation: This guy is just saying Eminem had something extra special in terms of charisma, so why include this?

One of the articles that started it all. In March of 1998, Riggs Morales formally introduced the world to Marshall Mathers via The Source's Unsigned Hype series. In an interesting turn of events, Eminem would become the sworn nemesis of the magazine (under different management) a few years later.

"Point blank, this ain’t your average cat. This Motor City kid is a one-of-a-kind talent and he’s about to blow past the competition, leaving many melted microphones in the dust."

Translation: ....more pure praise.

For Rolling Stone's review of The Slim Shady LP—coincidentally published on April Fool's Day, 1999—Rob Sheffield made an interesting suggestion of who Eminem is a direct descendant of on the white rapper family tree.

"If Eminem has a white-rap precedent, it's Rodney Dangerfield in his strictly-for-tha-hardcore 1983 hit, 'Rappin' Rodney,' in which R-Boogie busted rhymes like, 'Steak and sex, my favorite pair/I have them both the same way: very rare.' Eminem is on some serious Dangerfield shit in loser anthems like 'My Name Is,' 'Brain Damage' and 'I'm Shady.'"

Translation: Eminem is self-deprecating.

An anonymous critic on NME preferred the comedic side of Slim Shady over the more serious subject matter he tackled on his debut album.

"When Eminem's in obnoxious Itchy 'n Scratchy meets Benny Hill mode (like on the opening 'Public Service Announcement') he's hilarious (misogynist and homophobic but undeniably hilarious). But when he gets all pious and whining and develops a social conscience (like on 'If I Had'), then - ugh! He fucken' SUCKS!"

Translation: I ate paint chips as a baby. Misogynist and homophobic..."fucken'"...I'm an "anonymous critic," yo.

"I honestly didn't think he was gonna become a superstar. Even though I heard 'My Name Is,' I didn't think it was gonna blow up as big as it did. And I didn't think he was gonna have that huge pop appeal. I thought 'My Name Is' was novelty. But lyrically and his flow both were very good. I didn't think he was like one of those Young Black Teenagers, 'Tap the bottle and twist the cap' type of rappers. I didn't think he was a flash in the pan."

Translation: I noticed he didn't sound like a pop rapper. His songs had actual content.

SPIN writer Charles Aaron chimed in about Marshall's... openness. He also, perhaps unintentionally, predicted the amount of media coverage Eminem would end up getting throughout his career.

"Give this kid a magazine rack, because he's got a lot of issues."

Translation: Eminem writes some dark material. Because he writes dark material, this makes him troubled, because writing dark material means one's personal issues must be worse than those of people who don't write dark material.

After the release of The Slim Shady EP, fellow white rapper Cage accused Eminem of stealing his lyrics. Over the next year, the two would exchange bars, and in an interview on the first day of 1999, Cage revealed that his feelings for Shady hadn't changed much. Responding to the question, 'How did the beef between Em and Cage start, and where does it stand now?' Cage stated:

"It started because he is a bitch ass nigga! Right now it stands with me kicking in his fucking face, real horrorshow, I ain’t lettin’ all the shit he said slide."

Translation: I'm jealous. I'm a w-gger and my life sucks ass, and this other local white rapper just blew up instead of me.

On the heels of the release of The Slim Shady LP, the most scathing backlash came from Timothy White, who at the time was the Editor-in-Chief of Billboard magazine. White felt that the violent and misogynistic content on the album was not only irresponsible on Shady's behalf, but also a destructive move on the label's (Aftermath/Interscope) part.

"If you seek to play a leadership role in making money by exploiting the world’s misery, the music industry remains an easy place to start."

Translation: I'm an idiot who thinks that music should somehow be sacred and free from any kind of negativity that we see on TV and in movies.

[kkaniff]

"If Em made another masterpiece... it
would be called a masterpiece."
Like Relapse, which was almost universally panned?
You're giving these critics waaay too much credit.
Almost every review of the MMLP2 that I read made mention of the homophobia and misogyny, one of such reviews (AbsolutePunk) was almost solely responsible for dragging the MMLP2 down from an 80 on Metacritic.
Look at the reviews of Yeezus or MBDTF, for example, and look at the reviews for the original MMLP. Then tell me that the critical reaction to Em's albums have nothing to do with him as a person.