Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP

BY NICHOLAS WEBB

The man's a jaw-droppingly deft rapper and a walking lesson in all the big questions of pop aesthetics. He's also an unforgivable homophobe and misogynist. The Marshall Mathers LP, a 70-minute battery of gay-bashing and wife-beating, is impossible to listen to straight through, and, like the roadside accident that's been the favorite metaphor of just about every critic to tackle the Eminem phenomenon, impossible to entirely turn away from.

When called out, Eminem has claimed that his on-record persona is just a character, but that's bull, and I think he knows it. It's the queasy authenticity of The Marshall Mathers LP which gives it the power to disturb jaded listeners. His pop-shock peers are cartoon figures of commodified rebellion, hollow icons that only junior high students can take seriously—Marilyn Manson, anyone? Eminem is the real deal, laying violent spew on his abusive mother, his absent father, and his estranged wife. The reality of the man behind the mask is what makes Eminem such a compelling figure.

This doesn't make him any less disgusting. Eminem's ingenuous claim that "half the shit I say/I just make it up to make you mad" can't excuse the virulence of his lyrics, which contain some of the most offensive homophobia and misogyny ever penned. In what may be a step forward (or a publicity stunt), Eminem will be performing a duet at the Grammys with Elton John, but the damage is already done.

So where does the music fit in to all of this? Is The Marshall Mathers LP a classic album? No. As a hip-hop production job, it's utterly undistinguished, splattering Dr. Dre keyboard blips over standard Summer of 2000 club choruses; even "Stan," the critical-pick single, relies on a sampled vocal hook to give it its emotional weight. And one has to question the famously stodgy Grammy judges' nomination of Eminem for Best Album. Would such a controversial release even be considered if it hadn't sold over eight million copies? (Interscope) 

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