Apr 10, 2015 well to answer your question, no, i don't think eminem's first three albums are enough to call someone a "legend," speaking strictly musically. eminem wasn't so much a critical darling as he was a pop culture phenomenon--mmlp made him that. the eminem show was just the new album from the very famous guy. it's inferior is just about every respect, i don't see how it's a defining moment in his career from a creative or commercial standpoint.
Apr 10, 2015 the only true answer to thinking such as this, is that eminem was and is(?) a modern day elvis/johnny cash/michael jackson in terms of bringing the music they preform to a huge mainstream popularity without these artists those genres would not have been what they became .. so yes a pop culture phenomenon, but to leave it at that is not giving credit where it is due that alone makes him a "legend" regardless how his content is or how you personally feel about it the legend of the angry blonde lives on through you when i'm gone
Apr 10, 2015 the effect eminem had on making hip-hop a huge mainstream thing is a revisionist take on history. the boom was already here. that's not to discredit how huge he was/is--and surely there were twelve year old white kids who started listening to rap because of him--but it didn't really elevate genre in any discernible way.
Apr 10, 2015 now your being narrow-minded and/or ignorant so lets stop if you truly think eminem riding off dre and bringing 50 into the game did nothing for rap musics popularity then you are either lying or aren't old enough to have witnessed it happen for yourself .. it was more crazy than drakes success and drake is very successful in this day and age plus the simple fact that eminem essentially made it okay for white people to listen to rap music in public .. suddenly rap radio stations were popular and kids stopped listening to rock and switched over to rap .. it sounds dumb but "if the white people like it, then its okay"
Apr 10, 2015 this is pretty spot on for me as well I think nowadays I find myself liking SSLP the best? MMLP had the most impact of his big three, and probably the greatest highlights as well, but it was also the spottiest. TES is really great overall but it has its flaws too (does anyone genuinely like Say What You Say?)
Apr 10, 2015 rap was the commercial juggernaut that it was (and ceased to be by the end of the last decade) by the time em arrived. he was immensely popular. i'm not discrediting him. i'm just saying that he was a pop force that existed parallel to the rest of hip-hop.
Apr 10, 2015 but you also stated that eminem isn't a legend. The MFer is/was a global icon in the entire entertainment industry period, for over a decade and still counting. You are wrong to say he isn't a legend, especially at this point. He has been a household name since 1999-2000. The MMLP is the fastest selling album in music history. He is sitting on TWO diamond albums. Artistically, he has the catalog to match the greatest rappers in the genre. So many people forget who the f--- eminem is in the first place.
Apr 10, 2015 my quote was "well to answer your question, no, i don't think eminem's first three albums are enough to call someone a "legend," speaking strictly musically." please read.
Apr 10, 2015 In my opinion, The Marshall Mathers LP is his best piece of work. And I see where you're coming from in one of your points and I agree - it did turn him into a phenomenon. But what were the most prevalent criticisms of his first two studio albums? The claim that he relied too much on shock value - so he could bring attention to himself. This was what shifted his mind-state into putting out more personal and relatable songs ; opposed to tracks such as k--- you, criminal, stan, i'm back, etc. Now Hypothetically speaking - let's say that he never listened to this criticism. That he continued to create albums with the same tone as The Marshall Mathers LP. He wouldn't be nearly as accessible as an artist, and his fan-base wouldn't be as remotely large as it is today. That means no till i collapse, no say goodbye hollywood, no sing for the moment, no rabbit run, no lose yourself. Him creating this album silenced the claim he relied on shock value, and convinced even the non hip-hop fans to admit he had talent. Even if you don't believe he is a "legend" musically, it is undeniable that this era was what solidified the degree of his popularity today.
Apr 10, 2015 MMLP though I always have liked TES better because it was the first rap album I ever bought. But MMLP is his definitive album imo
Apr 10, 2015 SSLP or MMLP for me. MMLP would've once been an easy choice, but I've grown to appreciate SSLP more and more over the years to the point that it tends to be my "go to" Eminem album.
Apr 10, 2015 i mean, not really--he was the biggest rapper in the world when he dropped the eminem show. what was his most recent album called? pulling back from shock value and into poppier stuff is just the progression artists of his nature go through. the eminem show is just a moderately successful testament to that.
Apr 10, 2015 i understand what you are saying..but regardless of his pop appeal, to pretend that the outrageous amount of media coverage he was getting did nothing for rap musics mainstream popularity is a rather weird thing to think i mean he was in the news back in the day more than black people getting shot by cops is today the news outlets were basically forcing us to listen to him/acknowledge his existence by projecting him out to us and by doing this, rap got a huge boost by association suddenly school buses were playing rap music on the way to school n s--- i agree with your assessment that he was a separate force but to think he didn't help rap become what it is now.. its dumb and I'm not even talking about his rapping or skills or content or anything, just off his image and popularity alone pretending that didn't do anything for rap is strange
Apr 10, 2015 eminem was so big (and, more importantly, such an outlier) that the inroads he made into middle america/wherever were ones that he was able to capitalize off of, and him alone. he didn't do much to get jadakiss a deal, you know?.
Apr 10, 2015 true but he did make rap music less of a "niche" (for lack of better words) genre which in turn, provided more ears .. more ears listening = more chance to be heard regardless of the rapper the jadakiss part is hella accurate though because 80% of those people "only listen to eminem and tupac" (aka fake real hiphop white people fans) i don't like the word "niche" to describe it because rap was already big, but no amount of pac vs biggie was gonna bring in more listeners as a nation, we switched over from rock music to rap because of his "appeal"
Apr 10, 2015 eh. not really. it's murky--like i said there are certainly a lot of people who started listening to rap because of him--but emineim is more of a product of hip-hop's commercial boom from, like, 96-05, than he is a cause of it.
Apr 10, 2015 Lies. Do you think we'd still have all these white rappers we have now if eminem didn't open up the floodgates? For bringing rap into the white mainstream alone he deserves a place in rap history, not even talking about his music.
Apr 10, 2015 Asher Roth would be much more to blame/thank for that boom, Eminem closed more doors for white rappers than he opened. In the same vein that Vanilla Ice closed doors for white rappers by being a cornball; Eminem closed them by being too good, too commercially successful, too different from everyone else, WAY too big of a pop star etc. It's not like a bunch of white rappers started popping up and becoming huge fixtures in rap after SSLP dropped.... or even after 8 Mile... it took the internet.
