Arian Murati STAFF WRITER

Most musicians or hipsters nowadays will tell you that the first CD they truly cared about came out when they were in middle school or early high school. They are, in fact, total liars. The first important CD to come out when my generation was coming of musical age was The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000. Seriously, think about it. We were coming out of the age of Boy Bands and Bubblegum pop stars that weren't even full-fledged whores yet. All of a sudden, some white rapper comes along and talks about things we've never heard of (drugs, sex, homosexuality, Marylin Manson, etc.) and flips everything on its head.

Everyone remembers owning this album, but only those of us with the balls to say it will admit that it was awesome. I remember the first time I heard "The Real Slim Shady". One of my friends from school got the CD from his older brother and invited me over to listen to it. I had to run to his house because we only had an hour before his dad came home from work. He would have beaten us mercilessly if he heard us listening to Eminem. He thought we were too young to listen to that kind of stuff, but of course, being 10 or 11 years old, we thought we were adults. As the sonic barrage of cuss words and Dre beats filled the room, everything instantly changed. Gone were the days of Pokémon and juice boxes. Shit suddenly got real.

Overnight, everyone started wearing baggy white shirts and dying their hair blonde. My parents would have killed me if I did, and plus, blonde hair and black eyebrows don't look so great. Kids started sneaking the CD to school and letting their friends borrow it for the day. Whenever the principal would make an announcement and started it with "May I have your attention please?" the entire class would erupt with "WILL THE REAL SLIM SHADY PLEASE STAND UP?!"

A short while after that, when the "The Way I Am" video was in heavy rotation, all of a sudden, everyone was angry and brooding. Kids started memorizing his raps and reciting them to impress the playground passerby. A few kids even got their ears pierced, and that was just totally badass. Hell, even I wanted to do it, and I was a total fucking nerd. But that was the thing about this album. Literally everyone had it. The nerds, the soon-to-be jocks, the girls, and I remember even a janitor or two listening to it on their CD players while mopping up vomit and Wall Ball blood.

We all sat around at school dances, waiting for one of his tracks to grace the gym floor. Some of the guys even danced, and that was unheard of at the time. It was like watching yourself grow up. Two months ago, you were sitting on the playground trading pieces of Japanese paper, and now, you were trying to dance with girls. At this point, the Marshall Mathers LP went beyond the music, and found its way into our culture. It taught us how to curse, how to rebel, and now, how to meet women. Fuck slow dances, I'm talking about being a preteen pimp, getting all sorts of fine ladies on the dance floor and getting AIM screen names. (*Note* I am not a pedophile.)

Then middle school came around, and everything changed again. Eminem wasn't cool anymore; Blink 182 was. After one short year, people started denying their love for Slim, put away their white tees, and put on skater clothes. Even I did it, although I never cared for Blink 182, because I knew they sucked, even back then. I was always a little music snob. I listened to System of a Down (Metal FTW!11!) and started wearing converse sneakers instead of skate shoes. Still, my MMLP sat in my room, gathering dust, until one day, not too long ago, I found a burned copy a friend made for me ages ago, and it's still awesome. Had it not been for Eminem and my subsequent denial of his awesomeness, I would have probably never started looking for music on my own, and I would even go so far as to say that I would have probably never started smooth talking the ladies. To this day, I'll still say it: Fuck you, Eminem is awesome, and the Marshall Mathers LP changed everyone's lives for the better.

Eminem - The Real Slim Shady.mp3
Eminem - The Way I Am.mp3
Eminem - Criminal.mp3
Eminem - Stan (ft. Dido).mp3


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