May we have your attention please? May we have your attention please? Won’t the highest selling male artist of the 21st century please stand up?
The Real Slim Shady, by Eminem (his 1st of eleven #1s)
1 week, from 2nd – 9th July 2000
Whatever your opinion of rap as a genre, or on the talents of Marshall Mathers III, it’s hard to deny that we’re introducing a massive cultural phenomenon with this next chart-topper. And for the record, I will not deny Eminem’s skills as a rapper, which are well on display here. This is hip-hop for the new millennium – sharp, slick and rapid-fire – making much of the rap that we covered in the eighties and nineties sound slow and antiquated.
And, even though this wasn’t his first chart hit, ‘The Real Slim Shady’ acts as the perfect introduction to Eminem. The beat is robust, if simple and repetitive, starting as the theme to a kid’s TV show gone wrong, ending with a slightly out-of-tune recorder coda, and peppered with lots of fairly juvenile sound effects. While the lyrics – which are what we’re all here for – are spat out with precision, and venom. Not a beat or a syllable is wasted, as this sleek, modern rap-bot veers from vulgar, to profound, to problematic, to funny, quickly marking off all the boxes in Eminem Bingo.
We’ll deal with the vulgarity first, as this is the most explicit number one single we’ve met yet. Aside from the actual swear words, we’ve got reference to clitorises, VD, Viagra and jerking off, and whom Christina Aguilera may or may not have given head to. Some of the cultural references haven’t aged too well, though: for example I don’t remember why or when Tom Green humped a dead moose. Profundity (of sorts) comes from the fact that Eminem anticipates the controversy that this song will cause, positions himself as a voice of the disenfranchised (the little guy at Burger King spitting on your onion rings), and encourages everyone to raise their middle fingers to the world.
The problematic bits, for me at least, are his making light of Tommy Lee’s domestic violence against Pamela Anderson, and his comparison of homosexuality to bestiality. Yes Eminem duetted with Elton John shortly after this, and has gone on to show that he’s probably not homophobic; but the lyrics are still there, ringing in this gay man’s ears as loudly as they did when he was a closeted fourteen-year-old. But then other parts of this record are undeniably funny, and the Will Smith don’t gotta cuss in his raps to sell records, But I do, So fuck him, And fuck you too… line ranks as one of my all-time favourite chart-topping lyrics.
We have ten more of his number ones to get through, so plenty of time to dissect the many guises of Eminem. His music can be extremely unpleasant; but at the same time, to react to it with outrage is to give him exactly what he wants. This isn’t his best chart-topper, and I think its impact is now marred by the fact that we’ve had twenty-five years of similar schtick, and several (far less funny) comedy singles, from him down the years. But it does represent a moment in time when Slim Shady was becoming both the biggest star on the planet, and public enemy number one.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I was a couple of months off my 35th birthday when this hit number one. I’m not exactly a hip hop fan but give me this, Stan or Lose Yourself any day over the absolute sleep inducing shit show of Swift, Sheeran and Adele that followed
Although I have a keen interest in pop culture history and chart history in particular (hence my following of this blog, which is excellent), I’m afraid I do believe that pop culture– and pop music especially (using the term “pop” broadly)– is constantly lowering standards of decency and good taste, decade after decade. Eminem was a pretty notable landmark in that decline. He’s a thug, albeit a talented thug.
Happily, old-fashioned romance, idealism, and sentiment still endure, and bubble to the top again and again.
Maolsheachlann, Dublin
While I agree to an extent that societal standards have changed… (‘lowered’ feels like a loaded term in this context)… Are artists like Eminem a cause, or a symptom?
Eminem has compared himself to Elvis more than once, in terms of his ‘borrowing’ of black music and his affect on middle America, so it is interesting to compare them, 40 years apart, to see what was considered shocking about both artists.
But also, Eminem has two settings: peurile Eminem (like this song), and serious Eminem (like his next number one). The Real Slim Shady is only part of his repertoire, if you like.
I’ve been waiting for this post for a while, not gonna lie. This and eventually Limp Bizkit.
Ah, Eminem. Along with Linkin Park, Gorillaz and Coldplay, he was one of my first big musical loves as a little kid during the mid-2000s. His first three albums are fantastic. And while his catalogue has been very inconsistent ever since, I think all his albums have great songs on them.
Eminem is of the biggest gamechangers in popular music. Especially for the early 21st century. I consider Eminem’s emergence as the moment hip hop went from a very popular genre – but mostly popular in the US with some crossover success internationally but mostly bubbling under compared to Eurodance and alternative rock – to the top genre of the world. He really helped popularise the genre internationally, and especially among white people – upper/middle-class suburban white people in particular – who may have been a bit too put off by people like 2Pac, Biggie Smalls, Public Enemy, Snoop Dogg or couldn’t relate to them like they could Slim Shady. He had humour, wity, excellent wordplay and charisma and technical skill.
I think he appealed to the white rock crowd too despite being very much a hip hop artists (though some of his later songs incorporated more rap rock influences). The Elvis of hip hop, I guess. And he even has the respect of his black contemporaries like Elvis did (as well as criticism for appropriating black culture, but that’s a heated discussion/debate for another time).
I love this song. Always have. So catchy. I like the slight baroque beat (people on YouTube have made medieval bard baroque/chamber pop/ covers of hip hop songs and it’s amazing – bardcore). The lyrics are very clever. Some troubling lyrics, but hey, hip hop is supposed to be provocative. That’s part of the reason kids – especially young men – got attracted to it: rappers could say whatever they wanted, for better or for worse, while genres like rock became boring and stale and safe. The Will Smith line is one of the greatest disses ever – it’s a pretty loaded diss too.
I do kinda wish “My Name Is” was his first chart-topper in the UK, and it could’ve been too since it went #2 in the UK.
The thing that I find frustrating about Eminem, and why I can never really call myself a fan, or listen to much of his work, is pretty much what I wrote in this post: one line can be hilarious, the next just irredeemably offensive. But I get that that’s his appeal, and that he’s probably one of the most authentic popular artists of all time.
I also understand why his lyrics have been dissected, studied, theorised… Stan is an amazing song, but not one I’d ever particularly want to listen to in passing.
There’s so much to unpack with him, and with 11 number ones there’ll be plenty of time for me to try!
As a gay man fast approaching 60 who grew up with queer bashing, section 28 and the aids crisis I find the younger generations fixation with ‘problematic’ song lyrics and celebrity pronouncements as ridiculous as I did my parents generation banning god save the queen in 1977. I can honestly say that when I was a teenager things like that were well down the list of things that affected me coming out
I too grew up under section 28 (it was repealed the year I left school), was a child old enough to be aware of the AIDS crisis, and was threatened with violence for being gay at school (not that I was out or anything like that… no chance…) And yet still had time to notice when Eminem was being a homophobic twat. It felt fairly relevant, to me anyway, when the nation’s top-selling single featured lyrics comparing men getting married to men humping dead antelopes.
I think Eminem was number one in his field, and quite often he annoyed me – the gay references not least – and the move towards obligatory using swearwords and misogynistic and sex-obsessed lyrics in rap really takes off from this point onwards, not to mention money-obsessed. The main difference between Marshall and his talentless clones since is his sense of humour, genuinely witty, the fact that he uses characters as commentary (Slim Shady, as shown in his recent great resurrection of the alter-ego) and tells stories, that’s a lost artform in the 2020’s dick-obsessed, money-grabbing whines for attention in rap, and a more general self-centred “it’s all about me, me, me” in pop. But not in an analytical or unlucky-in-life sense, but in an “I’m a victim and you are s.h.1.t.” sense. Even when they are multi-millionaires. His lyrics are poetry compared to most of the rap ancestors, and his best records have a refreshing versatility and inventiveness and liveliness. I wouldnt listen to a whole album, but he’s had some gems as singles over the years (albeit mostly in the 2000’s).
I agree pretty much with all of this. I know he was ‘playing a character’, and he isn’t rapping about me personally, but the gay slurs were hard to take at the time and still impair my enjoyment of his music now. Having said that, his following three number ones are a step up from ‘Real Slim Shady’. Perhaps the most impressive chart-topping run of the decade.
Oh nooo not Eminem. What a High School nightmare! I say that sort of tongue in cheek, but wonder if it’s artists like him that caused me to retreat into the 1950’s fantasy I ended up in. LOL. Of course, I did listen to Eminem, once in a while even though I could never stand him, he was just THERE and impossible to escape. I didn’t understand why he acted like he hated absolutely everyone, but to this day I just figure it was his “schtick.”
Yes, I guess we’re about the same age, as he was huge when I was in Year 9/10. I get the appeal, especially to teenagers at the time, and do really like some of his hits. But he does have a schtick, especially when trying to be funny, that doesn’t always work for me.
It’s kind of gimmicky but memorable.
Rap got popular when I graduated high school…I never got into then or now. I tried…I do respect some of the lyrics but not the trashy stuff.
That is the very reason I get pissed when someone brings up an old song…oh they could have meant bla bla bla…and then you have some rapper talking about everything under the sun straight out…no between the lines.
I can see why (proper) musicians don’t like rap, as musically it is quite simple (and often the beat is borrowed from somewhere else). But in terms of lyrics, Eminem is probably the best rapper there is. Even when he’s being deliberately trashy and offensive, he’s usually still funny, and not just going on about bitches, cars and money.
And yeah, rappers do seem to get away with more. I think Axl Rose is a good comparison, as he’s come out with similarly racist, homophobic stuff and seemed to get more critiscism.
I agree…his lyrics are probably the best out there.
The year someone tried to cancel Baby, It’s Cold Outside…a very square Christmas song…there was a giant hit at that time about as trashy as you can get.
Yea I don’t like Axl either…he seems really trashy.
Yeah, that’s virtue signalling in the extreme. There are a lot of bad things happening, but cancelling a 70 year old Christmas song isn’t going to help. I think people get riled up about music, TV and movies (on both sides of the spectrum) because at the end of the day it’s not that serious. It’s easier to get worked up about Eminem than about wars, the economy etc.
That is what fires people up I agree. It’s so…well not funny….oh I remember the number 1 song when that Christmas song got cancelled… “Wet As A P*****”… lol
I do agree with you….
So I’m going to admit here that I think WAP is funny as hell… I’ll get to write a post on it eventually.
The Christmas song that causes controversy in the UK is Fairytale of New York, which includes a gay slur starting with ‘f’. Which is not a nice word – and I say that as a gay person – but the song on the whole doesn’t upset me. I recognise that some people will be upset hearing that word. Eminem using it upsets me more, for some reason. But that’s life. Your opinion is never the final say on something… Lecture over haha.
lol…Oh it wasn’t about the song…it was the irony. So this is bad but that is ok? I get it and I would never go out of my way to offend anyone… I only get upset at people looking for something…like the old Xmas song…you have to be trying. You know…I do remember now about that song you are talking about…the Pogue song…
Ah yea…the British Cigarette…when I first heard that on…probably Fawlty Towers I did a couple of double takes…I was thinking…what the hell? Yea I can see why that would be offensive.
The British Cigarette… I’m going to start using that as a euphemism lol