As most people should know by now, The Way I Am and The Real Slim Shady were the last 2 songs he did before handing in Marshall Mathers LP to his label. Eminem had gave them the album without those 2 songs, and he thought the album was complete. But, Jimmy Iovine had told Eminem that he felt that the album was missing a big first single to introduce the album. Jimmy had told him to create something along the lines of My Name Is. Eminem started to feel so much pressure that he felt like he couldn't top My Name Is. He felt so much pressure that he kind of created an anti single, to let out how must frustration he was feeling because of his label. That song ended up becoming The Way I Am, which actually turned out to be my favorite Eminem song to date. After he let out some steam with that song, he went back to the drawing board to try and create a first single, and he eventually succeeded. To this day, The Real Slim Shady is arguably the best first single he's ever done. It's funny to me how Eminem didn't feel like he could top My Name Is, and IMO ended up succeeding with The Real Slim Shady.
My question here is: Would MM LP have turned out to be the classic it was, without The Way I Am and The Real Slim Shady making it on to the album? Truthfully, I don't think it would of been a classic. It still would of been a good album, but I don't think I would have liked it as much without those 2 songs on there. With those 2 songs appearing on the album, it topped The Slim Shady LP for me. If those 2 songs hadn't made the album, I would of felt like his first album was the better one.
What do you think?






