Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP: The Controversial Sensation. A thread.

After the critical and commercial success of The Slim Shady LP in 1999, Eminem had to be quick to release his sophomore album to prove he wasn’t a one album wonder. Eminem fans did not have to wait long.

On May 19 2000, just over a year after the release of SSLP, he released the lead single and music video to his new album, titled ‘The Real Slim Shady’. This was a mainstream song aside from the lyrics, and made fun of pop stars at the time.

The single hit Number 1 in the UK and Number 4 in USA, making it his biggest hit at that point. It is still one of his most popular songs to this day. It was also surprisingly popular with critics at the time.

Release: On May 23rd, Eminem released his second album; The Marshall Mathers LP. Critics and more so fans loved this album. It sold 1.78 million copies in the first week, which made it the fastest selling album in the US for 15 years.

The album is also certified Diamond in the US and 8x Platinum in the UK, making it the highest selling hip-hop single album of all time, a landmark achievement.

Lyrically, the album addressed his relationship with his wife and mother, his rise to fame and much more and did it all with impressive rhyme schemes, flows and vocal tones. In true Shady fashion though, the album was very controversial…

Even on the explicit version of the album, the infamous ‘I’m Back’ “take seven [kids] from [Columbine]” line was censored, which Eminem said he disagreed with and said it without it being censored on ‘Rap God’, 13 years later.

On ‘Marshall Mathers’, the lyric “it doesn’t matter [your attorney Fred Gibson’s a] f****t” was censored too, referring to his mother’s lawsuit against him because of lyrics on ‘My Name Is’. That case was settled in 2001.

Politicians such as Lynne Cheney criticised the album, calling Eminem ‘a rap singer who advocates murder and rape’ as well as drawing links between the Columbine shooting and violent music.

Anger Management Tour: This was a tour with many metal and rap artists including Eminem. This was the closest thing to a MMLP tour. It ran from October ‘00 to February ‘01 and toured North America & Europe.

Eminem met more controversy on tour as he was nearly barred from entering Canada by Jim Flaherty because Em ‘advocated violence against women’. He was tried for violating hate-crime laws, despite there being none for violence against women.

Music videos: These were released for The Real Slim Shady, The Way I Am and Stan, which featured Final Destination actor Devon Sawa and singer Dido. Stan was also directed by Dr Dre.

Grammy’s: Eminem easily took every rap award at the 2001 awards with MMLP getting Best Rap Album, The Real Slim Shady getting Best Rap Solo Performance and Forgot About Dre (feat Em) with Best Rap Duo/Group Performance.

He also performed Stan with Elton John that night, partly to rebuke the homophobia claims made by critics. The performance is still iconic to this day.

This is my personal favourite album of all time. It has brilliant production, catchy hooks and amazing lyricism that is technically amazing while shocking with funny twists. He also opens up about personal issues or tells vivid stories.

It would take a lot to show my love for this album but here I go into slightly more detail.

Eminem beat the common sophomore slump in music and proved himself as a rapper to respect. He outdid SSLP in so many ways, did what he does best and sold millions doing it. Happy 20th birthday MMLP! #MMLP20

Thank you for reading this long thread! Retweets and likes are really appreciated and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did making it.