Eminem
The Eminem Show
Release Date: May 28, 2002
Album Review: Silk
1. 1. Curtains Up
2. White America
3.
Business
4.
Cleanin Out My Closet
5.
Square Dance
6.
The Kiss (Skit)
7. Soldier
8.
Say Goodbye Hollywood
9.
Drips
10.
Without Me 
11. Paul Rosenberg (Skit)
12. Sing For The Moment
13.
Superman
14. Hailie's Song
15. Steve Berman (Skit)
16. When The Music Stops
17.
Say What You Say
18. 'Till I Collapse
19. My Dad's Gone Crazy
20.
Curtains Close (Skit)
Eminem Show
Release
Date: May 28, 2002
The latest instalment in the Marshall Mathers discography reprises familiar themes from the previous two efforts: his relationship with his drug-abusing mother, his absent father, his turbulent relationship with his wife, and finally his daughter, Hailey. His relationship with his daughter receives a touching and mature treatment from the older, wiser and only slightly less slanderous yet wildly-talented ("I bet you didn't expect him to sing-the-hooks") Eminem on "Hailey's Song".
Dr Dre returns to reprise his partnership with Eminem, and as with Redman and Method Man, indivdually they are very good but as a team they are greater than the sum of the parts. Eminem's strident, strained and insistent voice is a complete contrast to Dre's laid-back, West Coast funk yet Eminem rides the rhythm like a skilful jockey. His self-deprecation and sense of humour - extremely rare in any rapper - remain in place, as displayed on "My Daddy's Gone Crazy". He does display slightly less pain and rage than previously especially when dealing head-on with his relationship with his mother on "Clean Out My Closet". Here the lyrics are matter-of-fact rather than vitriolic while Dr. Dre's drum programming is simple, the keyboard embroidery straightforward and yet melodic and this works so very well on another classic Dre/Eminem collaboration.
The easy bounce laid down by Dre combines with Eminem's intricate word-play on "Business" to confirm that it is very much business as usual for the dynamic duo. Nowhere is this fact more obvious than the excellent "Say What You Say (featuring Dr Dre)" which reopens the ongoing sniping between Aftermath artists and Jermaine Dupri. Quite how this beef got started is uncertain, however, Dr Dre, Eminem and Xzibit have all taken pot-shots at Dupri referring to him as "Papa Smurf" and "Mini Me". Recently, Emimem unleashed a vicious diatribe in a 90-second guest verse on a new mix-tape by DJ Kay Slay: "I stay beefin' with JD 'til the day Dre 2ways me / That it's OK to stop blazin' him," He then finishes off by calling him a "gay midget". On "Say What You Say" Dre takes up the baton and slays Dupri by insisting that he has "sold 80m records without using 10 year old kids", thereby prolonging the beef and provoking an inevitable response that will doubtless sell a few more records.
On other standout tracks "Without Me", "Superman", "Drips" and "Sayin' Goodbye To Hollywood" and with his improving production skills, Eminem reaffirms that his is a superior talent, and this a superior hip-hop album. As thoughts inevitably turn to comparisons with his previous albums Eminem should be content in knowing that the "The Eminem Show" fairs well in any such comparisons. To conclude buy it, borrow it, just get your hands on it quickly and put it in your CD rack next to Jay-Z's "Blueprint" and Nas' "Stillmatic" and then start arguments with your friends about which of these three is better.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Favourite Personal tracks:
17.
Say
What You Say
10.
Without
Me
13.
Superman
Return to Latest Reviews or select review by artist or Soundtrack, A-Z.