The shock value comes not just because of what it describes, itвЂ™s how he describes it, the perfectly modulated phrasing somehow reinforcing the horror and black humour of the lyrics, more effectively than any amount of unhinged microphone-spitting that he could have chosen to do instead.

The most notorious of these is вЂвЂ™97 Bonnie & ClydeвЂ™, which sees Eminem imagine killing his girlfriend and then disposing of the body with his baby daughter in tow, whom he actually brought into the studio to record the sounds of her cooing and fussing. These tend to be the creations of the alter ego Slim Shady, rather than the products of the rapperвЂ™s actual authorial voice per se. That said, the violence depicted on The Slim Shady LP is almost cartoonishly heightened and stylised, consisting of revenge fantasies against childhood authority figures, ranging from teachers and school bullies to his own dysfunctional mother. ItвЂ™s these technicalДЄspects, and not the initial shock of the violence thatвЂ™s now faded, that make The Slim Shady LP one of the most That cluttered up the late NinetiesвЂ™ hip-hop scene. To show off just how far ahead he was from so much of the cliched gangsta-rap Mix to demonstrate his verbal dexterity in his dialled-up Beastie Boys sneer, Nagging top-end hooks, thereвЂ™s plenty of room for Eminem in the middle of the With Dr Dre and the Bass BrothersвЂ™ sparse sonic constructions of deep bass and Laser-focussed mission to make his big chance count and to win respect andД¬redibility as a white guy doing hip-hop вЂ“ themes that could later be heard on His experience as a battle rapper and comes across like a man possessed, on a What was immediately clear, though, was his talent. Wider world didnвЂ™t know the context of EminemвЂ™s tough childhood and upbringing You can see why the result would have been unsettling, particularly as the Although heДЇlags up a disclaimer in the opening seconds of The Slim Shady LP that its contents arenвЂ™t meant to be takenД®ntirely seriously, before that Labi Siffre sample strikes up to herald вЂMy Name IsвЂ™, As such, it isnвЂ™tДЄlways clear when heвЂ™s operating in reality and when heвЂ™s not. Eminem is a brilliant example of what we nowДЇashionably call an вЂunreliable narratorвЂ™ вЂ“ somebody who is as prone toД®xaggeration and self-parody as he is adept at dropping deep-cutting truthД«ombs and almost uncomfortably autobiographical detail.

Then again, it wasnвЂ™t that easy to tell whether he meant it How righteous (or hypocritical) is it that society can call for censorship over a phenomenon which that same society helped to create and catalyse? Released a matter of months before the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999, something which hysterical religious, community and media figures sought to blame on rock and rap lyrics (particularly those of Marilyn Manson), the outrage that greeted The Slim Shady LP only served to underline the points that the album, and its 2000 successor The Marshall Mathers LP, was making. Its effect of The Slim Shady LP, in the context of an ultra-conservative Middle America working itself into a righteous lather over rap and metal lyrics, spearheaded by Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Centre, was incendiary and in no small part calculated. Most significant and scrutinised musical figures. Thus was the curtain raised on one of the 21 st centuryвЂ™s Threatening to subvert your impressionable kids as they played this CD in theirД«edrooms. Suburban Middle American parents, here was a white-trash, working-classД¬aricature who seemed to have leapt straight from the pages of a comic book The mid-Fifties had a white man doing black music caused so much controversy. Not sinceД®lvis Presley was filmed from the waist upwards on the Ed Sullivan show back in Major label debut album The Slim Shady LP,ДЄnd unquestionably one of the greatest introductions to a star ever. Lead single and first track from EminemвЂ™s Violence?вЂќ So began the opening verse of вЂMy Name IsвЂ™, the Lamar, Run The Jewels, Macklemore & Ryan LewisД«oys, Public Enemy, N.W.A., Dr Dre, 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, Streets, Ludacris, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Lily Allen, Odd Future, Drake, Kendrick

Eminem slim shady album playlist