June 03, 2003 @ 10:23 am

Eminem - The Eminem Show (AFTERMATH/INTERSCOPE)

Dimitri Ehrlich

Eminem is a controversy magnet.

Eminem is a controversy magnet. In the past, his raps have included violent fantasies of killing his wife (they’ve since split up) and not-very-flattering portraits of his mother (who responded with a multimillion-dollar libel suit). Marshall Mathers’s real-life antics have earned him further legal problems, including gun and assault charges. None of these are topics he shies away from on his third album, The Eminem Show, as he continues to obsess about his personal life and the public’s reaction to him. There is something thrilling about the way he digs into his wounds; it’s the aural equivalent of an episode of Cops. In other words, The Eminem Show is a brilliant piece of theater and a guilty pleasure. Eminem knows his every phrase will be scrutinized, yet he doesn’t seem to care. In the Dr. Dre–produced “Business,” accompanied by a fat, plastic-sounding beat that evokes an army of animated ants going to work, he refers to himself and Elton John as having “played career Russian roulette.” He’s talking about his duet with John at last year’s Grammys, which confounded critics who had accused Em of homophobia. Yet he waxes homophobic again in “Cleaning Out My Closet,” continuing to commodify his private dramas. The song begins as if it might offer a public reconciliation with his family, but soon Em calls his “faggot father” out for having his “panties in a bunch,” and then addresses his moms, calling her a “selfish bitch” and promising that his daughter won’t attend her funeral. “Without Me,” is a high-speed square dance on which Eminem plays peekaboo with his third mask as Slim Shady (he plays three-card monte with his identity). Shady’s a mean, crazy, hyperactive clown who comments on all the controversy his equally mean and crazy alter ego generates. This capacity to mix social commentary and self-parody and turn the whole thing into an amazing record is what makes Eminem so interesting. His guerrilla approach to reality means he never holds onto any one position long enough to have to defend it. That’s easier said than done; Eminem’s ability to hopscotch back and forth over the line between earnestness and sarcasm borders on genius. The album has a few drawbacks. Musically, it is almost a blank frame for Eminem’s lyrics, offering mostly sparse, stiff, fast-paced beats. One of the few exceptions, “Dream On,” built around the Aerosmith hit of the same name, has a killer hook, but in contrast, there is a vivid lack of melodic ideas in the rest of the songs. Lyrically, the album is exceptional on the whole, but there are momentary lapses. “Superman,” in which he turns his quick, cruel mind against women in general, is a failure; unlike his attacks on his mother, white America, and Dick Cheney, Em never establishes any reason for his grievances here. Obie Trice makes a cameo on “Drips,” a morality tale about STDs, but Em has already proven he’s too smart for the song’s frat-meets-the-projects idiocy. Like a man looking into a mirror while the world stares at him, Eminem uses his new album to strip himself naked and dissect his private life. Rhyming with electrifying rapidity, and thinking even faster, he has an unerring instinct for heading straight for our taboos. For some rappers, the boundary be-tween life and art is very thin. For Eminem, it’s the perfect place to pitch his tent and perform.

Article tags: Eminem, Eminem, Show, AFTERMATH/INTERSCOPE 

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