Are you ready to feel old again? Well, here you go: it was 18 years ago today that Eminem released The Marshall Mathers LP. It sold 1.78 million copies in its first week to become the fastest selling studio album by a solo artist in American music history.
While it's often thought to be the Detroit rapper's second album, it was actually his third, after 1996's Infinite and then 1999's The Slim Shady LP. Infinite, however, was a commercial flop so tends to be overlooked. Besides, we're not talking about that album.
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Produced mostly by Eminem and his mentor, hip-hop legend Dr Dre, The Marshall Mathers LP was, largely, a response to Eminem's sudden rise to fame off the back of The Slim Shady LP and the pressure that Eminem - whose real name, of course, is Marshall Bruce Mathers III - felt as a result.
On 'The Way I Am', Eminem expressed the discomfort he felt at his record label demanding that he write a poppy first single for the album. In the third verse, her sings: "I'm so sick and tired of being admired/That I wish that I would just die or get fired/And dropped from my label, let's stop with the fables/I'm not gonna be able to top on 'My Name Is.'
To be fair, though he did top it. Not only was the album an immediate commercial success - to date, it's sold over 22 million copies, more than twice the amount of The Slim Shady LP - but it was almost universally acclaimed by critics around the world, despite controversy about the album's violent and misogynistic lyrics.
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Recorded over the course of two months during a 'creative binge' that would often involve 20 hour days, the record went on to win a Grammy for Best Rap Album and was also nominated for Album Of The Year at the 2000 awards. The Slim Shady LP had won Best Rap Album the year before.
While it gave birth to a slew of hits, including 'The Way I Am' and 'The Real Slim Shady', perhaps its most famous track is 'Stan' - a compelling narrative about a fan's obsession with Eminem that ultimately leads him to murder his wife and kill himself - that featured a sample of Dido's 'Thank You'.
In celebration of the album's birthday, many of his fan's have been paying tribute to it online:
Now old enough to drink legally (in the UK, at least), The Marshall Mathers LP remains a powerful artistic statement about the trappings of fame and fortune today, and demonstrates Eminem's uncanny ability to use characters - as well as exaggerated versions of himself - in his music.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Entertainment, Music, Eminem, album
