The Many Names Of Marshall Mathers

The Many Names of Marshall Mathers

When I get into my car or when I'm coming home from a hard days worth of work, I enjoy listening to music. Music has a way of soothing me and calming me down. I like to listen to a variety of music; I'll listen to everything from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, to Waylan Jennings and Tupac. Although I thoroughly enjoy listening to these artists and bands, there is one artist who just tops them all. That artist is the controversial Slim Shady.

Eminem is easily one of the most recognized people in the United States as well as one of the most controversial. He is controversial because of his lyrics, the way he acts, and also his views on certain people and events. The one thing that sets him apart as a rapper is he sings about his life and he puts his heart into everything that he writes or sings. One of the things that I like most about him is how much his music and lyrics change. Each new album that he has come out with is different than the previous album. He seldom raps about the same thing and he doesn't rap about bitches, money, drugs, and sex constantly in his music. I never said that these things aren't mentioned in his songs but not nearly as much as others rappers. One of his more controversial songs is of his off of his first album the Slim Shady LP. "My Fault" is a story about a guy and a girl at a party and the girl overdoses on shrooms and dies. The music in this song sounds like the music from "Maria Maria" by Carlos Santana. The beat to this song reminds me of a guy playing on bongo drums and someone playing a tune on a banjo. At the end of the second verse he is talking to a guy and here is what he says about the girl,

"I took three she ate the other twenty-two caps

Now she's upstairs cryin out her eyeballs,

drinking Lysol." She's gonna die dude."

I know and it's my fault!

This song sticks out to me because this kind of stuff happens all of the time. People go to parties take drugs or get plastered, overdose, and die. This just goes to show you that doing drugs isn't cool and they can kill you. Even though the song is grossly offensive it actually shows you a good lesson.

Yes I know it is hard to say someone is talented when they are singing a song about killing their ex-wife or when one of the tracks is called "Kill You". His next album after the Slim Shady LP was his most controversial of all in my opinion. For one thing, this album has the song "Kim" on it. "Kim" is one of his more controversial songs, when the album, The Marshall Mathers LP, came out there were a huge thing going on about it in the news and on the television. In this song Marshall sings about how Kim cheated on him and how it messes him up mentally and then he sings about slitting her throat in the end. Eminem sings at the end of the song and he says,

Don't you get it bitch, no one can hear you?

Now shut the fuck up and get what's comin to you.

You were supposed to love me.

Now Bleed, Bleed Bitch.

The music to this song sounds like the music to a Halloween movie. It actually sounds a lot like the theme music from the famous "Halloween" series.

Eminem shows another side to himself on this album in the song "The Way I Am". This song is about his life and the way that it is. He raps about how he gets so much attention from the media as well as his fans that he can't enjoy normal things such as taking his daughter out to eat or going to the store. He is trying to let people know that it isn't all fun and games. Eminem in the beginning of the third verse talks about how he wished it would all stop and go away.

I'm so sick and tired of bein admired

That I wish that I would just die or get fired

And dropped from my label and stop with the fables

I'm not gonna be able to top on "My Name is..

In these four lines he raps about losing his fame. He wishes that everything he had worked for to be gone just so that people in general will leave him alone even if for just one minute. The music to this song sounds like Beethoven or Bach with a DJ. Give DJ Skribble Scrabble a copy of 7th symphony and you got the music to "The Way I Am"

Marshall's next album to hit stores was The Eminem Show. This Album has to be my favorite out of all of his albums. If there is one thing that Eminem cares about besides the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it is his daughter Hailie. Marshall's whole life revolves around his daughter, and everything that he does he does for her. Hailie is also the basis for one of Eminem's songs that shows his soft side. "Hailie's Song" is a slow song that makes Eminem sound like he is going for that boy band persona that he hated so much. Marshall still raps in this song but for the first two verses he sings to Hailie. Yes, Marshall actually tries singing to his daughter and is sincere about it. A lot of people dogged Eminem when he made songs like this saying he is getting soft but I see it as him maturing as an artists. Eminem's only thing that he lives for is his daughter and I think that this song proves how much he loves her and cares about her.

Some days I sit, starin' out the window

Watchin' this world pass me by

Sometimes I think theres nothin' to live for

I almost break down and cryÐ'...Ð'.....

Ð'...Ð'.....But then I see my baby

Suddenly I'm not crazy

It all makes sense when I look into her eyes

Eminem shows a side that until this point no one saw. Everyone thought he was this rebel, that didn't give a shit about anything or anyone. The music of this song reminds me of some background music to a lullaby. It seems like he is almost singing this to her for her to go to sleep. Then after she goes to bed he starts rapping.

Eminem's next album Encore is his latest album. Marshall is known for slamming the government and giving the FCC shit, but he takes some initiative in "Mosh" as he sings about how bad George W. Bush is messing up and how much