Day 0916 - The Marshall Mathers LP

 Eminem "The Marshall Mathers LP" (2000)

"The Slim Shady LP" (not the most original when it comes to naming albums) moved Em from underground rapper to international celebrity.   The fame and fortune didn't seem to bring happiness with it, as this album is more angry and seems to be working harder to offend (though I guess possibly he was just realising that this approach sold records so leaned into it).

Eminem hunkered down in the studio with Dr Dre and production team the Bass Brothers to work on the follow-up.   

To my mind the album is much more sonically interesting than its predecessor, with songs like "Stan", "the Way I am" and "Marhsall Mathers" being invested with a bit more musicality.

Mathers brings back his Slim Shady persona for "Criminal" and "The Real Slim Shady".   The former with it's slightly stuttered groove feels like it could have been on "Slim Shady LP".  He seems to relish in the fact that so many people/institutions hated him after his first album, name-checking and lashing out at various targets even as he runs his mouth with the usual combination of misogyny, homophobia and general crassness, baiting his critics and inviting their ire.

It's not all wink-to-the-camera trolling though, "Kim" is actually horror movie stuff.   It's Mathers playing out a scenario of confronting and murdering his wife but his passionate vocal delivery with voice cracking as he yells accusations at her, breaks down and then turns to violence makes it feel genuine.  It's disturbing, like the musical equivalent of a snuff film.    It almost feels like it could be from a hidden recording of a real domestic dispute.   I guess that's why people love/hate Eminem, whether it's his anger, his violence, or his twisted humour, it feels real.

 

Day 0893 - The Slim Shady LP

Eminem "The Slim Shady LP" (1999)

Eminem/Slim Shady/Marshall Mathers' story has already been told (in broad strokes) via the film "8 Mile":  Poor, working class white kid in a predominantly black neighbourhood, falls in love with hip-hop and builds up his skill in  underground rap battles.

Mathers released the relatively straight-ahead  hip-hop album "Infinite" which was a commercial failure and led to some DJs suggesting that as a white guy he should stick to 'rock'.   Mathers channelled his anger and frustration into a new persona Slim Shady, an angry-yet-mischievous alter ego who could and would say anything Mathers wanted him to say.

The character was a success, after an EP release, Mathers got to work with N.W.A.'s Dr Dre of whom he was a fan.   The pair worked well together, with beats by Dre inspiring Em.   The arrangements are mostly just stripped back to bass and beats while Mathers is rapping, but with lots of interesting bits and pieces going on in between.    

The album opens with a pretty hefty 1-2 punch of "My Name is" and "Guilty Conscience", both solid tracks that introduce the new anarchic, angry Slim Shady (his voice even sounds different than from on "Infinite") who was also an engaging storyteller.  

Where Will Smith released "Just the two of us" as a loving ode to fatherhood, Eminem's track "97' Bonnie and Clyde" previously also titled "Just the two of us" is a horror story of making his daughter unwitting accessory to murder.   The horror theme feels like it's continued on "Rock Bottom" the backing track of which sounds akin to old giallo soundtracks, maybe something from Morricone.

Mathers' first album sold around 1,000 copies.  Though he would come to largely retire the Slim Shady character as he matured, Slim helped him sell millions of copies of this second album and essentially put him on the musical map.

Day 0886 - Central Reservation

Beth Orton "Central Reservation" (1999) - got it

Another interesting character.  Beth spent time living with Buddhist nuns in Thailand, did catering work and performed in the theatre.   She dated producer William Orbit and they collaborated on music together, including a full release "Superpinkymandy" and working on music that would wind up on their respective solo albums.

Orton's first solo album featured triphoppy beats mixed with a folk sound.   She followed this up with an EP collaborating with singer Terry Callier with a more 'organic' sound and she followed that direction through into "Central Reservation".

This is another situation where I knew Orton's name and had listened to some things she'd done with artists such as Finley Quaye, Orbit, and the Chemical Brothers but wasn't really familiar with her own music.   Luckily my wife had a copy of this album (so by extension, I have it) and I enjoyed being educated.

Turns out I was familiar with the opening track "Stolen Car" though Jenni suggested this might be because she's played it for me before.  The album largely sticks to a folky/alt-country sound.  To my ears, the tracks when she does bring in some beats (in places, courtesy of Everything But the Girl's Ben Watt) such as "Stars All Seem to Weep" it feels kind of jarring alongside the more earthy tracks on the rest of the album.

Day 0811 - Dr Octagonecologyst

Dr Octagon "Dr Octagonecologyst" (1996)

Originally a founding member of Ultramagnetic MCs, Kool Keith started working on solo material.  He completed a couple of tracks with collaborator Kutmasta Kurt which they sent out to radio stations and local DJs.   The tracks got into the hands of producer Dan 'the Automator' Nakamura who came on board and recorded the album with the two KKs in his home studio in his parents' basement.

It's a concept album featuring (particularly for a rap album) surreal lyrics about Kool Keith's alter-ego, a time-travelling gynaecologist Dr Octagon.   Though Keith would go on to downplay the input of Kurt and the Automator on the sound of the album, Nakamura is a sorely underappreciated producer.   From his own projects such as Handsome Boy Modelling School, Lovage and Got a Girl, to his production work for bands like Kasabian and Head Automatica, to his collaborative work such as Peeping Tom, the first Gorillaz album and several projects with Del tha Funky Homosapien.

The music here is inventively produced, loaded with film samples, and cinematic production, mixing strings, sci-fi/horror cues and interesting beats.

I'd say that as a fan of the Automator I wanted to like it more than I did.  I enjoyed the music and didn't actively dislike Keith's rhymes but for some reason the whole thing didn't really 'capture' me.

Day 0752 - Doggystyle

Snoop Doggy Dogg "Doggystyle" (1993)

Snoop's debut hit the ground running, thanks to hype created by his contributions to Dr Dre's "The Chronic" album, and by the fact that Snoop himself had been arrested in connection to the murder of an associate of a rival gang.   For many it would have given that hint of authenticity to Snoop's rhymes that other 'gangsters' might have been seen to be lacking.

Other than a few of the bigger tracks I hadn't really heard this album before. Great music, some of the best basslines around, thanks to Dre and his G-Funk sound.  

Snoop's delivery has so much attitude... not so fussed on some of the more misogynist lyrics, but then 80s and early 90s hip-hop, that's unfortunately par for the course.

Day 0718 - The Chronic

Dr. Dre "The Chronic" (1992)

Dre left N.W.A. and teamed up with Suge Knight to create Death Row Records (which got off to a running start with classic albums from Dre, Snoop and eventually Tupac) and released his first solo album.

Dre's production created the genre known as 'G-Funk', slow P-Funk style grooves with deep sludgy bass and high lead-synth parts.  Dre would often re-record the source material rather than just sample the original recordings, and the lyrical approach of this new genre was confrontational and 'raw'.

I know that rap beefs are part of the fabric of the genre, but so much of that feels a bit petty and insecure, with shots being fired at some of Dre's old N.W.A. associates (Eazy E in particular).  A lot of the rest seems to focus on dicks and balls being people's mouths, or people being on said dicks and balls... to the extent that there's even a track called "Deeez nuuuts".

Whatever my feeling toward the lyrical approach, the album helped launch the production career of Dre, and the rap career of Snoop Dogg before he'd even released an album of his own - though once his debut "Doggystyle" appeared, he cemented that success.

Day 0663 - Straight Outta Compton

N.W.A. "Straight Outta Compton" (1989)

We wrap up the 1980s with another classic rap release.   Oddly, this album was funded via a canny marketing move from Priority Records, who licensed and released an album by the fictional group 'The California Raisins' who had hit it big with their cover of 'Heard it on the Grapevine'.



Eazy E assembled the group of DJs and MCs, and put together an undeniable slice of gangster rap.   Whereas Public Enemy brought their 'wall of noise' and De La Soul, their pop-leaning sample-based tracks, N.W.A. just lay down sparse rhythms with some scratches and a few well-placed sounds and beats-by-Dre (and Yella) to create the backing for Eazy-E, Ice Cube and Mc Ren to rhyme over. 

The tracks are famously aggressive, packed with violence, which the group were accused of glorifying, but as they pointed out, they were just reporting on what life was actually like in their neighbourhood.  The opening salvo of "Straight outta Compton" "Fuck Tha Police" and "Gangsta Gangsta" set the scene, but the album holds its own throughout the duration.

The mix of the three MCs works really well and adds variety enough to keep things spicey across the album's runtime.  

Day 0582 - I Against I

Bad Brains "I Against I" (1986)

I'm kind of surprised that the first (self titled) Bad Brains album isn't on this list.  Its sound - blistering onslaught of fast thrashy hardcore punk that could change speed or rhythm on a dime - is breathtaking.

That's not to take anything away from this album though as it is an amazing collection of tracks.  There's the groovy "Sacred Love" with its dreamy vocals which were recorded over the phone from the jail by singer HR where he was being held on charges of marijuana possession.  There's the face-melting opening of "House of Suffering" or the catchy Neanderthal groove of the title track.

The mix of groove with thrashy guitars and sneery punky spat-out lyrics brings to mind the Chuck Mosley iteration of Faith No More (seem to remember reading that Chuck briefly joined Bad Brains) or Fishbone.  Great album!