The Marshall Mathers LP
Encyclopedia
The Marshall Mathers LP is the third studio album
by American rapper Eminem
. Released May 23, 2000, the album sold more than 1.76 million copies in its first week just in the US. In 2001, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
and was nominated for Album of the Year
. The album was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America
in the United States with shipments over 10 million. As of 2005 the album had sold over 19 million units worldwide.
The Marshall Mathers LP has been ranked as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all-time by such magazines as Rolling Stone
, Time
, and XXL
. Rolling Stone placed the album at number 7 on its list of the best albums of the 2000s. The album was ranked number 302 by Rolling Stone on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
. In 2010, Rhapsody
named it the #1 record on the "The 10 Best Albums by White Rappers" list.
, which predominantly featured his Slim Shady persona. Much of the album is spent addressing his rise to fame and attacking those who criticized his previous album. Other themes include his relationship with his family, most notably his mother and Kim Mathers, his former wife.
Unlike Eminem's debut, The Slim Shady LP
, The Marshall Mathers LP is more introspective in its lyrics and less of the Slim Shady persona. Most songs cover Eminem's childhood struggles and family issues, involving his mother ("Kill You"), the relationship struggles with his wife ("Kim"), his struggles with his superstardom and expectations ("Stan
","I'm Back",& "Marshall Mathers"), his return and effect on the music industry ("Remember Me?", "Bitch Please II"), his drug use ("Drug Ballad"), his effect on the American youth and society ("The Way I Am
", "Who Knew"), and reactionary barbs to critical response of his vulgarity and dark themes ("Criminal"). Throughout the entire album, the listener is presented with a mix of dark themes, controversy, and life stories, with Eminem intentionally blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Despite the large amount of controversy regarding the lyrics, the lyrics on the album were overwhelmingly well-received among critics and the hip-hop community, many praising Eminem's verbal energy and dense rhyme patterns. Eminem went on to answer his critics more frequently in some of his later works.
The album contains various lyric samples and references. It features a number of lines mimicking songs from Eric B. & Rakim
's album Paid in Full
. The chorus to "The Way I Am" resembles lines from the song "As the Rhyme Goes On", and the first two lines from the third verse of "I'm Back" are based on lines from "My Melody". In "Marshall Mathers" Eminem parodies the song "Summer Girls
" by LFO when he says "New Kids on the Block
sucked a lotta dick, boy-girl groups make me sick/ and I can't wait till I catch all you faggots in public, I'mma love it" singing the same melody of the "Summer Girls", when the original line is "New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits, Chinese food makes me sick".
". However, the line from "The Real Slim Shady", "fuck him and fuck you too" was bleeped out as a reference/joke on television censorship. The only content significantly edited were offensive and violent parts that were aimed at police, prostitutes, women, gay
s, and schools such as Columbine
, and even the names of guns were censored out, along with the sound effects of guns firing bullets is completely cut (in response to the recent Columbine massacre
). Explicit drug content and alcohol references are also removed. On many copies, the 25-second "Public Service Announcement" is shortened to just two seconds of silence. On other copies though, the track is still left fully intact. On the clean version, the song "Kim" was completely removed because of the violent messages aimed at his then wife and was replaced with the South Park
themed song "The Kids", which was about not doing drugs.
and Mel-Man
, who typically employ sparse, stripped-down beats, allowing Eminem's rapping to take center stage. Bass Brothers
and Eminem produced most of the second half, which ranges from the laid-back guitars of "Marshall Mathers" to the gritty atmosphere of "Amityville." The only outside producer on the album is The 45 King
, who sampled a verse from Dido
's song "Thank You
" for "Stan
", while adding a slow bass line.
's 1993 debut Doggystyle
, and topping Britney Spears
' record for highest one-week sales by any solo artist. The album sold 800,000 in its second week, 598,000 in its third week, and 519,000 in its fourth week for a four week total of 3.65 million, and became one of few albums to sell over half a million copies for four consecutive weeks. It finished out the year 2000 as the second highest selling album of the year with over 7.9 million sold. In 2010, the Nielsen Company reported that up until November 2009, the album had sold 10,216,000 units in the US, making it the fourth-best selling album of the decade. As of July 17, 2011, it was the best selling rap album ever in the USA with 10,465,000 copies sold.
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 79, based on 20 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Chuck Eddy
of The Village Voice
gave it a rave review and noted "a self-awareness and emotional complexity... that Eminem previously seemed incapable of". In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau
gave The Marshall Mathers LP an A rating, indicating "a record that rarely flags for more than two or three tracks. Not every listener will feel what it's trying to do, but anyone with ears will agree that it's doing it". Christgau called Eminem "exceptionally witty and musical, discernibly thoughtful and good-hearted, indubitably dangerous and full of shit", while declaring the album "a work of art whose immense entertainment value in no way compromises its intimations of a pathology that's both personal and political". Allmusic called the album fairly brilliant and noted its production for its liquid basslines, slight sound effects, and spacious soundscapes. NME
gave the album a 9 out of 10 rating and described it as a "[g]ruelling assault course of lyrical genius". Entertainment Weekly
commended the album for its diversity, calling it "indefensible and critic-proof, hypocritical and heartbreaking, unlistenable and undeniable" and "the first great pop
record of the 21st century".
In a largely negative review, Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine
found Eminem "repugnant" and panned his lyrics, stating "The only thing worse than Eminem's homophobia is the immaturity with which he displays it". Spin
gave the album a mixed review and viewed his rhymes as "outstanding", but ultimately found its beats "mediocre" and called the album "musically, not all that noteworthy". In a restrospective review, Sputnikmusic
staff writer Nick Butler noted the album as culturally significant to American popular music and stated "Even if you ignore the album's importance, it remains a truly special album, unique in rap's canon, owing its spirit to rock and its heritage to rap, in a way I've rarely heard". Online music magazine
Pitchfork Media
placed The Marshall Mathers LP at number 119 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.
The album won Best Rap Album at the Grammy Awards in 2001. It won Best Album at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards
.
. However, Ontario
Attorney General Jim Flaherty argued that Canada should stop Eminem at the border. "I personally don't want anyone coming to Canada who will come here and advocate violence against women
," he said. Flaherty claims to have been "disgusted" when reading transcriptions of Eminem's song "Kill You", which includes lines like "Slut, you think I won't choke no whore/till the vocal cords don't work in her throat no more?" Eminem's fans argued that this was a matter of free speech and that he was unfairly singled out. Michael Bryant
suggested that the government let Eminem perform and then prosecute him for violating Canada's hate crime
laws, despite the fact that Canada's hate-crime legislation does not include violence against women. In a Globe and Mail editorial, author Robert Everett-Green wrote, "Being offensive is Eminem's job description." Eminem was granted entry into Canada.
A 2001 and 2004 study by Edward Armstrong found that of the 14 songs on The Marshall Mathers LP eleven contain violent and misogynistic lyrics and nine depict killing women through choking, stabbing, drowning, shooting, head and throat splitting. According to the study, Eminem scores 78% for violent misogyny while gangsta rap
music in general reaches 22%. Armstrong argues that violent misogyny characterizes most of Eminem's music and that the rapper "authenticates his self-presentations by outdoing other gangsta rappers in terms of his violent misogyny."
Protests against the album's content reached a climax when it was nominated for four Grammy Awards in 2001 including Album of the Year
, marking the first time a hardcore rap album was ever nominated in this category. At the ceremony, Eminem performed "Stan" in a duet with openly gay artist Elton John
playing piano and singing the chorus, as a response to claims by GLAAD and others who claimed his lyrics were homophobic. GLAAD did not change its position, however, and spoke out against Elton John's decision. Despite significant protests and debate, The Marshall Mathers LP went on to win Best Rap Album.
In 2002, French
jazz
pianist Jacques Loussier
filed a $10 million lawsuit against Eminem, claiming the beat for "Kill You" was stolen from his song.
" was the first single released from The Marshall Mathers LP. The song was a hit, becoming Eminem's first chart topper in some countries, and garnering much attention for insulting various celebrities. The chorus is: "I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady/All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating/So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?"
"The Way I Am
" was released as the second single from The Marshall Mathers LP. "The Way I Am" features a much darker sound and much deeper subject matter than "The Real Slim Shady". It features the first beat Eminem produced on his own, featuring an ominous bassline, a piano loop, and chimes. In the song, Eminem lashes out at people he feels are putting too much pressure on him, including overzealous fans and record executives expecting him to top the success of his hit single "My Name Is
". He also shares thoughts on the Columbine school shooting
. Marilyn Manson
is mentioned in the song in the lines: "When a dude's getting bullied and shoots up his school/And they blame it on Marilyn/And the heroin/Where were the parents at?/And look where it's at/Middle America, now it's a tragedy/Now it's so sad to see/An upper-class city/having this happening." The video features Marilyn Manson with the word "WAR" scrawled on his stomach. The two later toured together performing the song at their own concerts, and often making appearances on stage even when not singing the song. During the chorus, Eminem questions his identity in the face of massive amounts of attention from millions of strangers. While his previous album, The Slim Shady LP
, was somewhat more cartoonish than this album, and he rapped therein as a distinct character who goes by Slim Shady, his critics believed that Eminem, Marshall Mathers, and Slim Shady were identical. Similar to other musicians and artists who lost their identity in some fictional construct (David Bowie
, Alice Cooper
), Eminem expresses his doubts about who he has become.
"Stan
" was the third single released from The Marshall Mathers LP. It peaked at number one in the United Kingdom and Australia. The song is perhaps Eminem's most critically acclaimed song and has been called a 'cultural milestone'. "Stan" is a story of a fan who is obsessed with Eminem and writes to him but doesn't receive a reply. Stan drives his car off a bridge with his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk. The first three verses are delivered by Stan, the first two in letter form and the third being spoken as he is about to drive off a bridge and is recording a cassette with the intent (but, he realizes too late, not the means) to send it to Eminem. The song makes heavy use of sound effect
s, with rain and thunder heard in the background, as well as pencil scratchings during the first two verses, and then as Stan drives off the bridge, listeners hear tires screeching and a crashing sound, followed by a splash of water, in a style similar to the 1964 songs "Dead Man's Curve
" and "Leader of the Pack
". The fourth verse is Eminem responding to Stan, only realizing at the last second that he has heard about Stan's death on the news as he was writing to him. The song was produced by The 45 King and samples the first couple of lines of "Thank You"
by Dido
as the chorus. "Stan" was ranked number 3 on a list of the greatest rap songs in history by Q
, and came in tenth in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com. Rolling Stone
s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time ranked it number 290. It was also ranked the 270th best song of all time in November 2008 by Acclaimedmusic.net.
Samples and notes:
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American rapper Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
. Released May 23, 2000, the album sold more than 1.76 million copies in its first week just in the US. In 2001, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums with rapping at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
and was nominated for Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
. The album was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in the United States with shipments over 10 million. As of 2005 the album had sold over 19 million units worldwide.
The Marshall Mathers LP has been ranked as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all-time by such magazines as Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, and XXL
XXL (magazine)
XXL is a Hip-Hop magazine, published by Harris Publications.In 1997, XXL was founded by former Source staffers as well as other Harris Publication employees, who wanted to create their own magazine about the hip-hop music and culture using the model developed by the founders of The Source...
. Rolling Stone placed the album at number 7 on its list of the best albums of the 2000s. The album was ranked number 302 by Rolling Stone on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
. In 2010, Rhapsody
Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
named it the #1 record on the "The 10 Best Albums by White Rappers" list.
Concept
In the album's title, The Marshall Mathers LP is a more serious and personal album than his major-label debut, The Slim Shady LPThe Slim Shady LP
The Slim Shady LP is the second studio album by American rapper Eminem, released on February 23, 1999. It is his major-label debut, and was released under Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, and Web Records....
, which predominantly featured his Slim Shady persona. Much of the album is spent addressing his rise to fame and attacking those who criticized his previous album. Other themes include his relationship with his family, most notably his mother and Kim Mathers, his former wife.
Lyrical content
The Marshall Mathers LP was released in both clean and explicit versions. However, some lyrics of the album are censored even on its explicit version. Some songs are censored because of events surrounding the album's release.Unlike Eminem's debut, The Slim Shady LP
The Slim Shady LP
The Slim Shady LP is the second studio album by American rapper Eminem, released on February 23, 1999. It is his major-label debut, and was released under Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, and Web Records....
, The Marshall Mathers LP is more introspective in its lyrics and less of the Slim Shady persona. Most songs cover Eminem's childhood struggles and family issues, involving his mother ("Kill You"), the relationship struggles with his wife ("Kim"), his struggles with his superstardom and expectations ("Stan
Stan (song)
"Stan" is the third single from The Marshall Mathers LP, by rapper Eminem featuring Dido. It peaked at number one in the United Kingdom and Australia. It is also included on Curtain Call: The Hits, performed with Eminem and Dido as well track 17 on Curtain Call: The Hits as a live Performance from...
","I'm Back",& "Marshall Mathers"), his return and effect on the music industry ("Remember Me?", "Bitch Please II"), his drug use ("Drug Ballad"), his effect on the American youth and society ("The Way I Am
The Way I Am (Eminem song)
- Charts :...
", "Who Knew"), and reactionary barbs to critical response of his vulgarity and dark themes ("Criminal"). Throughout the entire album, the listener is presented with a mix of dark themes, controversy, and life stories, with Eminem intentionally blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Despite the large amount of controversy regarding the lyrics, the lyrics on the album were overwhelmingly well-received among critics and the hip-hop community, many praising Eminem's verbal energy and dense rhyme patterns. Eminem went on to answer his critics more frequently in some of his later works.
The album contains various lyric samples and references. It features a number of lines mimicking songs from Eric B. & Rakim
Eric B. & Rakim
Eric B. & Rakim were a hip-hop duo composed of DJ Eric Barrier and MC Rakim .Hailing from Long Island, New York, the pair are generally considered by hip hop enthusiasts to be one of the most influential and innovative groups in the genre...
's album Paid in Full
Paid in Full (album)
Paid in Full is the debut album of American hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, released July 7, 1987, on the Island-subsidiary label 4th & B'way Records. The duo recorded the album at hip hop producer Marley Marl's home studio and Power Play Studios in New York City, following Rakim's response to Eric...
. The chorus to "The Way I Am" resembles lines from the song "As the Rhyme Goes On", and the first two lines from the third verse of "I'm Back" are based on lines from "My Melody". In "Marshall Mathers" Eminem parodies the song "Summer Girls
Summer Girls
"Summer Girls" is the title of a song recorded by the pop group LFO. It was released in June 1999 as the lead single from their album, LFO. The song reached the Top 30 in the US in July 1999 and peaked at number three in August 1999....
" by LFO when he says "New Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block are an American boy band from Boston, Massachusetts, assembled in 1984 by producer Maurice Starr. The band currently consists of brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood.New Kids on the Block enjoyed success in the late 1980s and...
sucked a lotta dick, boy-girl groups make me sick/ and I can't wait till I catch all you faggots in public, I'mma love it" singing the same melody of the "Summer Girls", when the original line is "New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits, Chinese food makes me sick".
Clean version
The clean version of the album is only slightly censored, as it leaves words like "ass", "shit", "bitch" uncensored. The only censored profanities are "fuck" and a few other words which were deemed inappropriate and which are normally either backmasked or blanked, such as "niggaNigga
Nigga is a term used in African American Vernacular English that began as an eye dialect form of the word nigger .- Use in language :In practice, its use and meaning are...
". However, the line from "The Real Slim Shady", "fuck him and fuck you too" was bleeped out as a reference/joke on television censorship. The only content significantly edited were offensive and violent parts that were aimed at police, prostitutes, women, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
s, and schools such as Columbine
Columbine High School
Columbine High School or CHS is a high school in unincorporated Jefferson County, Colorado, United States.- History :Columbine High School opened in the fall of 1973. There was no senior class in its first year. The school's first graduating class was the class of 1975...
, and even the names of guns were censored out, along with the sound effects of guns firing bullets is completely cut (in response to the recent Columbine massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
). Explicit drug content and alcohol references are also removed. On many copies, the 25-second "Public Service Announcement" is shortened to just two seconds of silence. On other copies though, the track is still left fully intact. On the clean version, the song "Kim" was completely removed because of the violent messages aimed at his then wife and was replaced with the South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
themed song "The Kids", which was about not doing drugs.
Production
Much of the first half of the album is produced by Dr. DreDr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young , primarily known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records...
and Mel-Man
Mel-Man
Melvin Breeden, better known as Mel-Man, is a producer from Norfolk, Virginia. He is the President/CEO of Big Cat Records.-Early life:...
, who typically employ sparse, stripped-down beats, allowing Eminem's rapping to take center stage. Bass Brothers
Bass Brothers
Bass Brothers is the professional name for the team of Mark and Jeff Bass, the Detroit producers responsible for grooming megastar Eminem in his early days and collaborating on much of his subsequent music. Before that they worked with George Clinton...
and Eminem produced most of the second half, which ranges from the laid-back guitars of "Marshall Mathers" to the gritty atmosphere of "Amityville." The only outside producer on the album is The 45 King
DJ Mark the 45 King
DJ Mark the 45 King , also known as the 45 King, started DJing in New Jersey in the mid-1980s. The nickname "the 45 King" comes from his ability to make beats using obscure 45 RPM records.-Career:...
, who sampled a verse from Dido
Dido (singer)
Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong , known as Dido, is an English singer-songwriter.Dido shot to worldwide success with her debut album, No Angel...
's song "Thank You
Thank You (Dido song)
"Thank You" is a song by Dido. The song made its first appearance in 1998, on the soundtrack of Sliding Doors, although it was not released as a single until late 2000. It later featured on Dido's debut album, No Angel, becoming the album's biggest hit...
" for "Stan
Stan (song)
"Stan" is the third single from The Marshall Mathers LP, by rapper Eminem featuring Dido. It peaked at number one in the United Kingdom and Australia. It is also included on Curtain Call: The Hits, performed with Eminem and Dido as well track 17 on Curtain Call: The Hits as a live Performance from...
", while adding a slow bass line.
Commercial performance
During the first week of sales, the album sold 1.76 million copies, becoming the fastest-selling rap album in history, more than doubling the previous record held by Snoop DoggSnoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
's 1993 debut Doggystyle
Doggystyle
Doggystyle is the debut album from American rapper Snoop Dogg; released by Death Row Records on November 23, 1993. The album was recorded soon following the release of Dr. Dre's landmark debut album The Chronic , to which Snoop Dogg contributed significantly. His musical stylizations for the album...
, and topping Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
' record for highest one-week sales by any solo artist. The album sold 800,000 in its second week, 598,000 in its third week, and 519,000 in its fourth week for a four week total of 3.65 million, and became one of few albums to sell over half a million copies for four consecutive weeks. It finished out the year 2000 as the second highest selling album of the year with over 7.9 million sold. In 2010, the Nielsen Company reported that up until November 2009, the album had sold 10,216,000 units in the US, making it the fourth-best selling album of the decade. As of July 17, 2011, it was the best selling rap album ever in the USA with 10,465,000 copies sold.
Critical response
Upon its release, the album received positive reviews from most music critics. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 79, based on 20 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Chuck Eddy
Chuck Eddy
Chuck Eddy is an American music journalist.He was born in Detroit, Michigan. After starting his journalism career with The Village Voice and Creem, where he published one of the first national interviews with the Beastie Boys in the mid-1980s, Eddy then wrote for Rolling Stone, Spin,...
of The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
gave it a rave review and noted "a self-awareness and emotional complexity... that Eminem previously seemed incapable of". In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave The Marshall Mathers LP an A rating, indicating "a record that rarely flags for more than two or three tracks. Not every listener will feel what it's trying to do, but anyone with ears will agree that it's doing it". Christgau called Eminem "exceptionally witty and musical, discernibly thoughtful and good-hearted, indubitably dangerous and full of shit", while declaring the album "a work of art whose immense entertainment value in no way compromises its intimations of a pathology that's both personal and political". Allmusic called the album fairly brilliant and noted its production for its liquid basslines, slight sound effects, and spacious soundscapes. NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
gave the album a 9 out of 10 rating and described it as a "[g]ruelling assault course of lyrical genius". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
commended the album for its diversity, calling it "indefensible and critic-proof, hypocritical and heartbreaking, unlistenable and undeniable" and "the first great pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
record of the 21st century".
In a largely negative review, Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
found Eminem "repugnant" and panned his lyrics, stating "The only thing worse than Eminem's homophobia is the immaturity with which he displays it". Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
gave the album a mixed review and viewed his rhymes as "outstanding", but ultimately found its beats "mediocre" and called the album "musically, not all that noteworthy". In a restrospective review, Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic, or simply Sputnik, is a music website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites...
staff writer Nick Butler noted the album as culturally significant to American popular music and stated "Even if you ignore the album's importance, it remains a truly special album, unique in rap's canon, owing its spirit to rock and its heritage to rap, in a way I've rarely heard". Online music magazine
Online magazine
An online magazine shares some features with a blog and also with online newspapers, but can usually be distinguished by its approach to editorial control...
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
placed The Marshall Mathers LP at number 119 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.
The album won Best Rap Album at the Grammy Awards in 2001. It won Best Album at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards
MTV Europe Music Awards
The MTV Europe Music Awards were established in 1994 by MTV Networks Europe to celebrate the most popular music videos in Europe. Originally beginning as an alternative to the American MTV Video Music Awards, the MTV Europe Music Awards is today a popular celebration of what MTV viewers consider...
.
Controversy
On October 26, 2000, Eminem was to perform at a concert in Toronto's SkydomeRogers Centre
Rogers Centre is a multi-purpose stadium, in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated next to the CN Tower, near the shores of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989, it is home to the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League...
. However, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
Attorney General Jim Flaherty argued that Canada should stop Eminem at the border. "I personally don't want anyone coming to Canada who will come here and advocate violence against women
Violence against women
Violence against women is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women...
," he said. Flaherty claims to have been "disgusted" when reading transcriptions of Eminem's song "Kill You", which includes lines like "Slut, you think I won't choke no whore/till the vocal cords don't work in her throat no more?" Eminem's fans argued that this was a matter of free speech and that he was unfairly singled out. Michael Bryant
Michael Bryant (politician)
Michael J. Bryant is former public administrator and former politician in Ontario, Canada. A Harvard-trained lawyer, he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the electoral district of St. Paul's for the Ontario Liberal Party from 1999 until 2009...
suggested that the government let Eminem perform and then prosecute him for violating Canada's hate crime
Hate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
laws, despite the fact that Canada's hate-crime legislation does not include violence against women. In a Globe and Mail editorial, author Robert Everett-Green wrote, "Being offensive is Eminem's job description." Eminem was granted entry into Canada.
A 2001 and 2004 study by Edward Armstrong found that of the 14 songs on The Marshall Mathers LP eleven contain violent and misogynistic lyrics and nine depict killing women through choking, stabbing, drowning, shooting, head and throat splitting. According to the study, Eminem scores 78% for violent misogyny while gangsta rap
Gangsta rap
Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
music in general reaches 22%. Armstrong argues that violent misogyny characterizes most of Eminem's music and that the rapper "authenticates his self-presentations by outdoing other gangsta rappers in terms of his violent misogyny."
Protests against the album's content reached a climax when it was nominated for four Grammy Awards in 2001 including Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
, marking the first time a hardcore rap album was ever nominated in this category. At the ceremony, Eminem performed "Stan" in a duet with openly gay artist Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
playing piano and singing the chorus, as a response to claims by GLAAD and others who claimed his lyrics were homophobic. GLAAD did not change its position, however, and spoke out against Elton John's decision. Despite significant protests and debate, The Marshall Mathers LP went on to win Best Rap Album.
In 2002, French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist Jacques Loussier
Jacques Loussier
Jacques Loussier is a French pianist and composer. He is well-known for his jazz interpretations in trio formation of many of Johann Sebastian Bach's works, such as the Goldberg Variations.-Early life and education :...
filed a $10 million lawsuit against Eminem, claiming the beat for "Kill You" was stolen from his song.
Singles
"The Real Slim ShadyThe Real Slim Shady
"The Real Slim Shady" is a hip hop song written by Eminem for his third studio album The Marshall Mathers LP . It was released as the lead single a week before the album's release...
" was the first single released from The Marshall Mathers LP. The song was a hit, becoming Eminem's first chart topper in some countries, and garnering much attention for insulting various celebrities. The chorus is: "I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady/All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating/So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?"
"The Way I Am
The Way I Am (Eminem song)
- Charts :...
" was released as the second single from The Marshall Mathers LP. "The Way I Am" features a much darker sound and much deeper subject matter than "The Real Slim Shady". It features the first beat Eminem produced on his own, featuring an ominous bassline, a piano loop, and chimes. In the song, Eminem lashes out at people he feels are putting too much pressure on him, including overzealous fans and record executives expecting him to top the success of his hit single "My Name Is
My Name Is
"My Name Is" is a song by Eminem released in 1999. It is the debut single overall from his major label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. The song was ranked at #26 on "VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90's". "My Name Is" also was ranked #6 on Q Magazine's "1001 Best Songs Ever"...
". He also shares thoughts on the Columbine school shooting
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
. Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
is mentioned in the song in the lines: "When a dude's getting bullied and shoots up his school/And they blame it on Marilyn/And the heroin/Where were the parents at?/And look where it's at/Middle America, now it's a tragedy/Now it's so sad to see/An upper-class city/having this happening." The video features Marilyn Manson with the word "WAR" scrawled on his stomach. The two later toured together performing the song at their own concerts, and often making appearances on stage even when not singing the song. During the chorus, Eminem questions his identity in the face of massive amounts of attention from millions of strangers. While his previous album, The Slim Shady LP
The Slim Shady LP
The Slim Shady LP is the second studio album by American rapper Eminem, released on February 23, 1999. It is his major-label debut, and was released under Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, and Web Records....
, was somewhat more cartoonish than this album, and he rapped therein as a distinct character who goes by Slim Shady, his critics believed that Eminem, Marshall Mathers, and Slim Shady were identical. Similar to other musicians and artists who lost their identity in some fictional construct (David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
), Eminem expresses his doubts about who he has become.
"Stan
Stan (song)
"Stan" is the third single from The Marshall Mathers LP, by rapper Eminem featuring Dido. It peaked at number one in the United Kingdom and Australia. It is also included on Curtain Call: The Hits, performed with Eminem and Dido as well track 17 on Curtain Call: The Hits as a live Performance from...
" was the third single released from The Marshall Mathers LP. It peaked at number one in the United Kingdom and Australia. The song is perhaps Eminem's most critically acclaimed song and has been called a 'cultural milestone'. "Stan" is a story of a fan who is obsessed with Eminem and writes to him but doesn't receive a reply. Stan drives his car off a bridge with his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk. The first three verses are delivered by Stan, the first two in letter form and the third being spoken as he is about to drive off a bridge and is recording a cassette with the intent (but, he realizes too late, not the means) to send it to Eminem. The song makes heavy use of sound effect
Sound effect
For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...
s, with rain and thunder heard in the background, as well as pencil scratchings during the first two verses, and then as Stan drives off the bridge, listeners hear tires screeching and a crashing sound, followed by a splash of water, in a style similar to the 1964 songs "Dead Man's Curve
Dead Man's Curve (song)
"Dead Man's Curve" is a 1964 hit song by Jan and Dean detailing a teen street race gone awry. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart....
" and "Leader of the Pack
Leader of the Pack
"Leader of the Pack" is a 1964 pop song recorded by girl group The Shangri-Las. It became number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 28, 1964.-Original Shangri-Las recording:...
". The fourth verse is Eminem responding to Stan, only realizing at the last second that he has heard about Stan's death on the news as he was writing to him. The song was produced by The 45 King and samples the first couple of lines of "Thank You"
Thank You (Dido song)
"Thank You" is a song by Dido. The song made its first appearance in 1998, on the soundtrack of Sliding Doors, although it was not released as a single until late 2000. It later featured on Dido's debut album, No Angel, becoming the album's biggest hit...
by Dido
Dido (singer)
Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong , known as Dido, is an English singer-songwriter.Dido shot to worldwide success with her debut album, No Angel...
as the chorus. "Stan" was ranked number 3 on a list of the greatest rap songs in history by Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
, and came in tenth in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time ranked it number 290. It was also ranked the 270th best song of all time in November 2008 by Acclaimedmusic.net.
Track listing
- All songs written by Eminem.
Samples and notes:
- The chorus of "The Way I Am" contains an interpretation from the song "As the Rhyme Goes On" by Eric B. & RakimEric B. & RakimEric B. & Rakim were a hip-hop duo composed of DJ Eric Barrier and MC Rakim .Hailing from Long Island, New York, the pair are generally considered by hip hop enthusiasts to be one of the most influential and innovative groups in the genre...
. - "Stan" samples "Thank YouThank You (Dido song)"Thank You" is a song by Dido. The song made its first appearance in 1998, on the soundtrack of Sliding Doors, although it was not released as a single until late 2000. It later featured on Dido's debut album, No Angel, becoming the album's biggest hit...
" as performed by Dido. - "Steve Berman" contains a sample from "What's the Difference" by Dr. Dre.
- "I'm Back" contains an interpretation of the song "My Melody" by Eric B. & Rakim.
- The melody line of "Under the Influence" is somewhat similar to the vocal melody from "Give In to MeGive In To Me"Give In to Me" is the tenth track on Michael Jackson's 1991 studio album Dangerous. The single peaked at number one in New Zealand for four consecutive weeks, and at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Stylistically, "Give In to Me" is a hard rock ballad which featured Guns N' Roses lead guitarist...
" by Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
. - "Drug Ballad" is titled just by "Ballad" on the regular version of the album where he encourages drinking and suicide rates to go up. Although Dina Rae sings some parts in this song, she is not credited in the track listing, although she is mentioned in the album's liner notes.
- On the clean album version, "Amityville" is 13–14 seconds shorter than the explicit version.
- "Amityville" contains a sample from the song "Sorcerer of Isis" by Power of Zeus.
- The cover of both the censored and the uncensored album refer to this track as "B**** Please II".
- "Kim" contains drum sample from the song "When the Levee Breaks" by Led ZeppelinLed ZeppelinLed Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
. - "Kill You" is listed as "**** You" on the censored version of the album.
- "Public Service Announcement 2000" is replaced by 2 seconds of silence on the censored version of the album.
- On the clean version of the album, "Kim" is replaced with a censored version of "The Kids," which originally came from the CD single of "The Way I AmThe Way I Am (Eminem song)- Charts :...
".
Personnel
- Vocals: EminemEminemMarshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
, BizarreBizarre (rapper)Rufus Arthur Johnson , better known as Bizarre is an American recording artist best known for his work with Detroit hip-hop group D12. His songs are often about subjects which create shock value such as rape and drugs.-Early life:Bizarre was born as Rufus Arthur Johnson on July 5, 1976 in Detroit,...
, Swifty, Kuniva, Kon Artis, Dr. DreDr. DreAndre Romelle Young , primarily known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records...
. Jeff BassBass BrothersBass Brothers is the professional name for the team of Mark and Jeff Bass, the Detroit producers responsible for grooming megastar Eminem in his early days and collaborating on much of his subsequent music. Before that they worked with George Clinton...
, RBXRBXEric Dwayne Collins, better known by his stage name RBX , is a former rapper and R&B singer from Long Beach, California...
, Sticky Fingaz, Steve Berman, Snoop DoggSnoop DoggCalvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
, Nate DoggNate DoggNathaniel Dwayne Hale , better known by his stage name Nate Dogg, was an American musician. He is noted for his membership of rap trio 213 and his solo career in which he collaborated with Dr. Dre, Warren G, Tupac and Snoop Dogg on many hit releases. Nate Dogg released three solo albums, G-Funk...
, XzibitXzibitAlvin Nathaniel Joiner , better known by his stage name Xzibit , is an American rapper, actor, and television host. He is known as the host of the MTV show Pimp My Ride, which brought him mainstream success... - Bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
: Mike ElizondoMike ElizondoMichael "Mike" Elizondo is a well-known songwriter, bassist, keyboardist, and hip hop music producer.-Musical career:Mike Elizondo is especially known for his collaborations with internationally successful producer Dr. Dre and rapper Eminem. He has played the bass for many of Dr... - Electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
: John Bigham, Mike Elizondo - KeyboardsMusical keyboardA musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...
: Tom Coster, Jr., Mike Elizondo, Camara Kambon
- EngineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
: Rick Behrens, Lynch & the lyrical assasinz, Mike Butler, Chris Conway, Rob Ebeling, Michelle Lynn Forbes, Steven King, Aaron Lepley, James McCrone, Akane Nakamura, Lance Pierre - ProductionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
: Dr. Dre, DJ Mark the 45 King, Eminem, F.B.T. - Production coordinationProgramming (music)Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
: Larry Chatman, Joe Martin, Les Scurry, Kirdis Tucker - MixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
: Chris Conway, Rick Behrens, Mike Butler, Dr. Dre, Rob Ebeling, Eminem, Michelle Lynn Forbes, Akane Nakamura - Art direction and designArt directorThe art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
: Jason Noto
Chart positions
| Chart (2002) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
1 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 1 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Flanders) |
1 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... (Wallonia) |
3 |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
1 |
| Danish Albums Chart | 1 |
| Europe Albums chart IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a not-for-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland... |
1 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 1 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
2 |
| German Albums Chart | 3 |
| Hungarian Albums Chart Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary.... |
10 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
1 |
| Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
7 |
| Netherlands (Mega Album Top 100) | 2 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
1 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart | 3 |
| Polish Albums Chart Polish Music Charts The Polish Music Charts are two official album charts and seven singles charts in Poland, provided by ZPAV, the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry . The first, the Top 100, is a monthly chart based on data received from the album companies... |
9 |
| Swedish Albums Chart | 2 |
| Swiss Albums Chart | 2 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification |
|---|---|
| Argentina Argentina Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires... |
Gold |
| Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
4×Platinum |
| Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
Platinum |
| Belgium Belgium Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... |
2×Platinum |
| Brazil | Gold |
| Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
8×Platinum |
| Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... |
2×Platinum |
| Europe Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting... |
6× Platinum |
| Finland Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside... |
Platinum |
| France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
2×Platinum |
| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
2×Platinum |
| Greece Greece Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe.... |
Gold |
| Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
Platinum |
| Hungary Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary.... |
Gold |
| Mexico | Platinum |
| Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
Platinum |
| New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... |
5×Platinum |
| Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
2×Platinum |
| Poland Poland Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north... |
Platinum |
| Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
2×Platinum |
| Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
4×Platinum |
| United Kingdom British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... |
6×Platinum |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
Diamond |
Chart precession and succession
Accolades
- In 2003, the album was ranked number 302 on Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All TimeThe 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
. In its book format, the album was moved up to #298. - In 2006, the album was chosen by TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
as one of the 100 greatest albums of all time. - IGNIGNIGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
placed the album at number twenty-four on their 2004 list of the greatest rap albums in history. - Digital Dream Door listed the album as the nineteenth greatest rap album of all time.
- In 2005, Pitchfork MediaPitchfork MediaPitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
and Stylus MagazineStylus MagazineStylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog....
named the album #93 and #24, respectively, in their list of the best albums released between 2000 and 2004. - It was the highest ranked rap album on the National Association of Recording MerchandisersNational Association of Recording MerchandisersThe National Association of Recording Merchandisers is a United States not-for-profit trade association based in Marlton, New Jersey that serves music retailing businesses in lobbying and trade promotion...
& the Rock and Roll Hall of FameRock and Roll Hall of FameThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
's list of the 200 greatest albums of all time at number 28. - In 2006, QQ (magazine)Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
ranked the album #85 on a list of the greatest albums of all time, the highest position held by any rap album on the list. - In 2007, Q named it one of the three best and most essential hip hop/rap CDs of all time. The other two were Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us BackIt Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us BackIt Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is the second studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released April 14, 1988, on Def Jam Recordings. Recording sessions for the album took place at Chung King Studios, Greene Street Recording, and Sabella Studios in New York City...
and Wu-Tang ClanWu-Tang ClanThe Wu-Tang Clan is a hip-hop group from Staten Island that consists of RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. They are frequently joined by fellow childhood friend Cappadonna, a quasi member of the group...
's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)Enter the Wu-Tang is the debut album of American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, released November 9, 1993, on Loud Records and distributed through RCA Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during 1992 to 1993 at Firehouse Studio in New York City, and it was mastered at The Hit Factory...
. - It is one of the few albums ever to receive the top ranking of "XXL" from XXLXXL (magazine)XXL is a Hip-Hop magazine, published by Harris Publications.In 1997, XXL was founded by former Source staffers as well as other Harris Publication employees, who wanted to create their own magazine about the hip-hop music and culture using the model developed by the founders of The Source...
. It was Eminem's first album to be rated by the magazine. - It was named the fourth greatest Music Album of 2000's by Complex Magazine.
- Rolling Stone placed the album at #7 on its list of the best albums of the 2000s.
External links
- The Marshall Mathers LP at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...