When Eminem described himself as the “It’s the return of the ‘Oh wait, no way, your kidding/He didn’t just say what I think he did, did he?'” on “The Real Slim Shady,” the lead single from his sophomore album, The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000, he accurately summed up his career legacy as being Hip-Hop’s undisputed king of shock value.
He was like a head trip to listen and his classic second studio effort holds the rare distinction in the culture of the follow-up topping a debut that made serious impact. The rhyme schemes, production, album sequencing–were all incredible but it was those lyrics that had 1.76 million rushing to buy it in record-breaking fashion once it was released on May 23, 2000.
Today marks The Marshall Mathers LP fifteenth birthday and commemorate, we’ve tallied up the fifteen most controversial lyrics. We as a population have since been desensitized to most things but back then, these rhymes were a pretty big deal.
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Photo: WENN
“I take seven kids from Columbine, stand ’em all in line/Add an AK-47, a revolver, a nine/A MAC-11 and it oughta solve the problem of mine/And that’s a whole school of bullies shot up all at one time” from “I’m Back”
A joke about Columbine today would probably fall under the radar but this line came barely a year after the horrific school shooting. Wow is right.
“Hey, it’s me, Versace! Whoops, somebody shot me!/And I was just checking the mail, get it? Checking the ‘male’?” from “Criminal”
For those of you who were brought to the gaudy Italian clothes by Migos, the real Versace was killed in 1997 while rummaging through his mailbox at his home. And he was gay. That makes this line brilliant and brilliantly f*cked up at the same time.
“Came home, and somebody musta broke in the back window/And stole two loaded machine guns and both of my trenchcoats/Sick, sick dreams of picnic scenes/Two kids, sixteen with M-16’s and ten clips each/And them sh*ts reach through six kids each/And Slim gets blamed in Bill Clint’s speech to fix these streets?/F*ck that!/You faggots can vanish to volcanic ash/And reappear in hell with a can of gas and a match” from “Remember Me?”
Just some more Columbine lyrics. Nothing to see here.
“Shut up, slut, you’re causing too much chaos/Just bend over and take it like a slut, okay, Ma?/Oh, now he’s raping his own mother?/Abusing a whore, snorting coke/And we gave him the Rolling Stone cover?” from “Kill You”
Just in case you are wondering, they are on good terms now.
Photos: XXL
“And then to top it off I walked to the newsstand/To buy this cheap ass little magazine with a food stamp/Skipped to the last page, flipped right fast/And what do I see? A picture of my big white ass/Okay, let me give you motherf*****s some help/Um here, ‘XXL! XXL!’/Now your magazine shouldn’t have so much trouble to sell/Ah f*ck it, I’ll even buy a couple myself” from “Marshall Mathers”
The irony of the situation is that Em went to be on a couple year’s worth of XXL covers when his beef with The Source magazine heightened (more on that later) and the former publication is currently in limited print runs.
“Will Smith don’t gotta cuss in his raps to sell records/Well, I do; so f*ck him and f*ck you too/You think I give a damn about a Grammy?/Half of you critics can’t even stomach me, let alone stand me” from “The Real Slim Shady”
Even wholesome rappers weren’t exempt from getting shots thrown their way. And for the record, Eminem has won fifteen Grammys.
“My life’s like kinda what my wife’s like/F*cked up after I beat her f*cking ass every night/IKE!” from “Who Knew”
The 1993 biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It turned Ike Turner into the living definition of a wife beater and Em was one of the many rappers who slandered the allegations against him.
“So I just, throw up a middle finger and let it linger/Longer than the rumor that I was sticking it to Christina [Aguilera]/Cause if I ever stuck it to any singer in showbiz/It’d be Jennifer Lopez and Puffy you know this!/I’m sorry Puff but I don’t give a f*ck if this chick was my own mother/I’d still fuck her with no rubber and cum inside her/And have a son and a new brother at the same time/And just say that it ain’t mine, what’s my name?!?” from “I’m Back”
Lyrically: wow. Conceptually: yuck.
“I don’t even believe in breathing’/I’m leaving air in your lungs/Just to hear you keep screaming for me to seep it/OK, I’m ready to go play, I got the machete from O.J/I’m ready to make everyone’s throats ache” from “Kill You”
But O.J. was innocent, right? Right???
“An anti-Backstreet and Ricky Martin/With instinct’s to kill N’Sync, don’t get me started/These f*cking brats can’t sing and Britney’s garbage/What is this bitch, retarded? Give me back my sixteen dollars” from “Marshall Mathers”
By becoming the anti-pop star, Em saw his fame soar and none of the targets of his scorn really had a fighting chance for a heated rebuttal. (Although, Christina Aguilera made noble attempts.)
Photo: Clemens Niehaus/Future
“I don’t got that bad of a mouth, do I?/F*ck sh*t ass b*tch cunt, shooby-de-doo-wop, what/Skibbedy-be-bop, a Christopher Reeve/Sonny Bono, skis, horses and hitting some trees…” from “Who Knew”
When this dropped, the world collectively shook and nodded their heads simultaneously.
“So as I got older and I got a lot taller/My d!ck shrunk smaller, but my balls got larger/I drink more liquor to fuck you up quicker/Than you’d wanna f*ck me up for saying the word…” from “Criminal”
After allegedly being shunned at concert, Benzino the former supreme chancellor of The Source magazine and fired reality show member was hellbent on destroying his career and obtained an earlier recording of Eminem using the n-word and included in an issue. Slim Shady dodged the scandal, though.
“Sh*t, half the sh*t I say, I just make it up/To make you mad so kiss my white naked ass/And if it’s not a rapper that I make it as/I’ma be a f*cking rapist in a Jason mask” from “Criminal”
This line alone may be birthed plenty of women’s rights groups.
“My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge/That’ll stab you in the head, whether you’re a fag or lez/Or the homosex, hermaph or a trans-a-vest/Pants or dress/Hate fags?/The answer’s ‘yes'” from “Criminal”
Freedom of speech pushed to the limit.
“Kim”
Yes. The entire song.
Listen to The Marshall Mathers LP
