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 0704 - Blue Lines

Massive Attack "Blue Lines" (1991)

Massive Attack had gravitated towards each other and been developing music together for months.  Some of the group were involved in the production of Neneh Cherry's "Raw Like Sushi" album, and Neneh in turn had been motivating the group to make and release their own music.  In the words of Daddy G:

"We were lazy Bristol twats. It was Neneh Cherry who kicked our arses and got us in the studio. We recorded a lot at her house, in her baby's room. It stank for months and eventually we found a dirty nappy behind a radiator".

The group produced music with an electronic vibe, but throwing live instruments into the mix and with much slower tempos than typically found in the electronic genre.  Hiphop beats and rapping mix with an almost loungey soul, strings and brilliant vocals from Shara Nelson, Horace Andy and rapper Tricky, who would go on to have an extensive solo career.

Viewed as one of the first/cornerstone albums in the yet-to-be labelled 'trip-hop' genre.