Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP

This is his magnum opus, as messed up as it is. Great review though.

 

Kim will always be my favorite Eminem song. Its insanely messed up but I can't think of another song I've ever heard with such raw passion and emotion.

 

Ugh I’m going to get banned for this comment but I’m drinking tonight so here goes. I feel like this review is really bandwagony and a result of the influence of droll Ronald McDonald twitter discourse. Yes, “Kim” is absolutely a despicable song. Does it really work to champion violence against women? Does anyone really listen to that song and think, damn, I’m pumped now, I really wanna go beat a Woman?” Eminem was writing from his experiences and from the perspective of the Id, to use Freudian terms. If #Metoo has taught us anything it’s that violence against women is much more common that we would have liked to believe. We also know that in areas of poverty, the statistics on domestic violence and abuse is disturbingly huge. “Kim” is disturbing intentionally and the listener is meant to leave disturbed Are we supposed to turn a blind eye to these realities? Should we “cringe” when a movie comes out in 2020 and a man hits a woman on TV even though it’s a fair depiction of our reality?

this review says “retrospective” but it’s really no different from the reviews that came out the same year the album was released. Everyone wanted to protest and cancel Eminem then too. This review gives us absolutely no new insight on the album other that the internet seems filled with pseudo-“enlightened” warriors for women who feel they are making a difference by pointing out the obvious “men hitting women = bad.”

You can tell me the album is horrible or tell me it’s a masterpiece as long as you do it in an insightful way. This is the same boring “is listening to Eminem ethical?” conversation that has been around for decades now. It’s tired.

if anything it shows us that people who grow up seeing terrible shit and in poverty have no business being in the mainstream discourse. In 2020, If you weren’t taught how to be chivalrous to women As a child, or you can’t afford a full home recording studio you have no place to depict your reality. This feels like a result of years acquiring an ethical code from the omniscient Twitter verse which you use merely to go back and point out that a rapper in the 90s was mean to women.

“so I’m catching the flack from these activists When they raggin acting like I’m the first rapper to smack a bitch and say ***got? Shiiit.”

We get it. Eminem isn’t cool anymore. Can we please move on to something else to talk about rather than shit on both the man’s new music AND his legacy?

 

oh god

 

My main takeaway from this is that B side means album track now apparently.

 

Yeah, they’re not b-sides. The reviewer means “album cuts.” “The Kids” is a b-side. Super nit-picky, here. Sorry.

 

This “retrospective review” is incredibly poorly written. Despite my mixed feelings on presentism, this review is poorly laid out and lacks any meaningful insight . I agree with ScruffGruff:

In 2020 I rarely listen to The Marshall Mathers LP. I have moved on from this kind of music and consider it a snapshot of twenty years ago.

I do not want to go line by line about how this review is disappointing but one point I would like to highlight is that one would have to be deliberately obtuse to believe that, even in 2000, Marshall was condoning or glorifying the murder of an intimate partner. The song is very clearly meant to be repulsive. This retrospective could have delved into the serious topics on the MMLP beyond a cursory shallow survey and instead there is a complete lack of depth. While “’97 Bonnie and Clyde” was a satire on the same subject of domestic violence and a bit of a parody of the Will Smith song, “Just The Two Of Us” — “Kim” is visceral and abhorrent and it succeeds in its aim:

(Source: NCADV | National Coalition Against Domestic Violence)

The statistics on the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) may or may not come as a shock, depending on how well read one is on the subject of domestic violence — but both “’97 Bonnie and Clyde” and “Kim” are an artistic foray into an incredibly serious topic. “Kim” is a controversial song, it is unpleasant to listen to but it is also effective. Has it aged well when viewed from a lens in 2020? Perhaps, perhaps not. I would not fault someone for not wanting to listen to the song, in much the same way that I wouldn’t fault someone for avoiding the thriller and horror genres of movies. The song itself makes a statement. It is powerful because it is emotional and repulsive. The issues of domestic violence have not dissipated in the last twenty years and, especially during the pandemic, the dialogue that these songs beg for are as salient as ever.

The irony of even remotely considering that Marshall may be condoning domestic violence is that, in the same review, you praise “Stan” for the storytelling. Stan succeeds in being powerful because in addition to the storytelling, it offers a commentary on both mental illness and domestic violence. Two separate lines can be used as a compass of how Marshall may actually feel about domestic violence: “I really think you and your girlfriend need each other/or maybe you just need to treat her better” and “I seen this one shit on the news a couple weeks ago that made me sick…”

Overall, a retrospective review of The Marshall Mathers LP could be an insightful piece that considers both the snapshot of the era it was released and how, we as listeners, have grown (or outgrown) the music. This "review" does an extremely poor job and comes across as a juvenile, lazy effort that says almost nothing of value and falls far short in every discernible way.

 

If you still have a Brand New avatar right now I don’t care about your opinion on anything to be honest.

 

I just played this with headphones on. Wow

 

Pretty lame that you would dismiss someones' opinion based solely on their avatar

 

Nah. Shows the kinda person they are if they still support someone that abused a friend of mine.

 

That makes the comment more understandable. Probably didn’t know it was your friend. I wouldn’t take it to that personal level though. Just a heads up though, this site still covers a lot of bands that have done a lot of worse things than Jesse has. Stephan Jenkins from 3eb is a well-known world class POS. If you want to cancel every asshole shitty person in music, there’s a lot of work yet to be done here.

 

Just shut up, you don't need to comment on this.

 

Gotta agree with Jason on the BN stuff, but also agree that this review is weak. If Eminem ever physically laid his hands on a women, it'd be a different story, but his music is just art, and art isn't always pretty.

 

Any different than promoting this album on their website? For what, clicks? Lol.

 

This post doesn’t even make any sense.

 

Not sure why there are multiple people in here shitting on a user review for no reason. If you've ever tried to write something serious you know it isn't easy.

 

rule 1: don’t attempt criticism unless you’re prepared to take criticism. I’m sure this is a great guy, but when you oversimplify something so deeply, people will inevitably defend it.

this album is a classic for a reason and when evaluated, it should be respected as such.

 

I'm not sure what your issue is, but you're being a dick. He's not a professional reviewer making a grand thesis, he's a guy writing about an album that meant something to him at one point and trying to work out why it no longe does. There's no reason for the heavy-handed response that you and a handful of other people have descended onto this thread with, criticizing his writing, word choices, etc. It's not "fair criticism", it's bullying.

 

let’s not use the word “bullying” so loosely bro. Bullying requires an imbalance of power. Like the leader of a website telling you to “shut up.” I’m just a dude on the internet. Please don’t take me that seriously.

 

You're ultra quick to dismiss someone based on an avatar they chose, yet you choose to promote this album on your own website. Why? What's the difference? He doesn't seem to mind Brand New, and you don't seem to mind the content of this album. It's literally so misogynistic the reviewer can't even type the words on it, yet it's being glamorized as a work of art. I've seen artists completely shut down on this website for saying 1/100th of what's on this album, yet this is OK? Double standard (or no standard), it seems. Oh well.

 

You think this essay, which I didn't write, is "promoting" the album? How in your twisted brain did you get to me not minding the content on this album because someone else wrote an essay about it? Or to me saying this album is ok? My history and thoughts on Eminem are so well know there are entire threads on Eminem fan-message-boards that have death threats toward me and my family because of them. You're stretched so thin with this one I can see through you.

 

them fools are wayyy outta pocket. Sorry you have to put up with that.

 

Um, yes? Because it is. The majority of the review talks about the positive highlights of it and why I should listen.

I got it in my brain that you don't mind it because you allowed it to be posted on your website. You can present whatever sort of narrative you want about how much you dislike Eminem, that's fine, but am I going to put more stock in things you've said in the past, or allowing the promotion of a graphic, misogynistic, homophobic album on your website?

I've been coming here long enough to know you don't condone the content of this album. It's just that seeing someone shut down a Brand New avatar while simultaneously hosting the promotion of this album seemed a little... ironic. But hey, I've also been coming here long enough to know I'm not going to change your mind either, so it's all good. Have a good weekend!