History CreatorBreakdown / Eminem

* Eminem's greatest-hits compilation ''Curtain Call'':

Most of Music/{{Eminem}}'s career was caused by CreatorBreakdown - his signature Slim Shady alter ego was created as a way to vent his rage as his life and mental health got worse. Eminem claims he uses his raps as therapy, airing his worst feelings and indulging in MuseAbuse that often perpetuates the hurt. Some fans and critics hold that his [[CreatorRecovery happier periods]] tend to produce uninteresting songs compared to when he has something to be angry about - but his most critically abhorred periods also came as a result of breakdowns.

-->''Woe is me!'' "There goes poor Marshall again, [[{{Wangst}} whinin']] about [[FirstWorldProblems his millions]],\\

-->--Music/{{Eminem}}, "Evil Deeds"

* ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'', while itself a KinderAndCleaner project of CreatorRecovery and his happiest album, contains a large amount of lyrics about him looking back over his past self and making fun of himself for the breakdown he had in the early 2000s, portraying himself as a cruel and irresponsible idiot who unintentionally became the poet of a dark time in American white suburban culture.

* While far minimised compared to most of the above examples, his 2018 album ''Kamikaze'' was the result of critics sliming his 2017 album ''Revival''. While he had not been confident about ''Revival'', launching it with a single ("Walk On Water") in which he acknowledged his insecurities, he had intended it as a crowd-pleaser and used it to air his sincere feelings - when it instead pleased nobody and dented his legacy, he responded with a whole album in which he indulged in CopycatMockery of the state of modern hiphop while [[TheDissTrack savagely dissing]] every single person of influence who loathed the album. ''Kamikaze'' also contains several unhealthily romance songs which analogues the reception to "Walk On Water" through an emotionally dysfunctional, ComplimentFishing Slim expecting his girl to respond to his SelfDeprecation by telling him he's great, only to have her agree with him.

* ''Slim Shady EP'' is the result of CreatorBreakdown, which occurred soon after the failure of his noticeably milder and more optimistic debut LP, ''Infinite''. He was broke, had just had a new baby, his relationship with his wife Kim had turned into a DestructiveRomance, his debut album had flopped (partly because it was [[FollowTheLeader derivative]] and shoddy; partly because nobody wanted to buy music from a white rapper) and his house was getting constantly burgled. After being recruited to the {{Horrorcore}} group D12 by his best friend Proof and being told he had to come up with an [[ADarkerMe illing alter-ego]], Eminem came up with his [[ShadowArchetype Slim Shady]] character, and began rapping lyrics that were so shocking and disgusting that Proof cornered him after hearing his new act and begged him to tone it down, worried about his friend's mental health. At first Eminem reassured his friends that it was just [[KayfabeMusic kayfabe]] and [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity a way to get attention]], but he soon became LostInCharacter as other members of the hip-hop community started to treat him like he was the real Slim Shady, giving him recreational drugs (previously he didn't even drink) and encouraging the violent results of his HairTriggerTemper. ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP'', while continuing with the SelfDeprecation of the Slim Shady character and retaining most of the songs from ''EP'', is lighter in tone than its predecessor because Eminem had been scouted by Music/DrDre by that time and was feeling more optimistic about his future. The majority of the new songs on ''LP'' are comedy, like "My Name Is", "Role Model", "I'm Shady" and "As The World Turns".

* ''Revival'' was made during a massive crisis of confidence and something of a midlife crisis, exacerbated by his fear of loss of relevance, fury at the political situation, critics and the hip-hop community shredding his last couple of projects, and a few disasters in his personal life. This resulted in an album where the lead single is a song with no beat about how miserable he is at not being able to live up to his own standards or potential, along with marketing the album by telling people he wasn't sure about its quality and that nobody should feel privileged to hear it. Audiences and critics largely agreed, with many begging him to retire.
* While far minimised compared to most of the above examples, his 2018 album ''Kamikaze'' was the result of critics sliming his 2017 album ''Revival''. While he had not been confident about ''Revival'', launching it with a single ("Walk On Water") in which he acknowledged his insecurities, he had intended it as a crowd-pleaser and used it to air his sincere feelings - when it instead pleased nobody and dented his legacy, he responded with a whole album in which he indulged in CopycatMockery of the state of modern hiphop while [[TheDissTrack savagely dissing]] every single person of influence who hated the album. ''Kamikaze'' also contains several toxic romance songs which analogise the reception to "Walk On Water" through an emotionally dysfunctional, ComplimentFishing Slim expecting his girl to respond to his SelfDeprecation by telling him he's great, only to have her agree with him.

I can't imagine it. That little [[EatTheRich rich]], [[RagsToRiches poor]], [[AcceptableEthnicTargets white]] bastard\\

* ''Slim Shady EP'' is the result of CreatorBreakdown, which occurred soon after the failure of his noticeably milder and more optimistic debut LP, ''Infinite''. He was broke, had just had a new baby, his relationship with his wife Kim had turned into a DestructiveRomance, his debut album had flopped (partly because it was [[FollowTheLeader derivative]] and [[GoodIsBoring boringly wholesome]]; partly because nobody wanted to buy music from a white rapper) and his house was getting constantly burgled. After being recruited to the {{Horrorcore}} group D12 by his best friend Proof and being told he had to come up with an [[ADarkerMe illing alter-ego]], Eminem came up with his [[ShadowArchetype Slim Shady]] character, and began rapping lyrics that were so shocking and disgusting that Proof cornered him after hearing his new act and begged him to tone it down, worried about his friend's mental health. At first Eminem reassured his friends that it was just [[KayfabeMusic kayfabe]] and [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity a way to get attention]], but he soon became LostInCharacter as other members of the hip-hop community started to treat him like he was Shady, giving him recreational drugs (previously he didn't even drink) and encouraging the violent results of his HairTriggerTemper. ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP'', while continuing with the SelfDeprecation of the Slim Shady character and retaining most of the songs from ''EP'', is lighter in tone than its predecessor because Eminem had been scouted by Music/DrDre by that time and was feeling more optimistic about his future. The majority of the new songs on ''LP'' are comedy, like "My Name Is", "Role Model", "I'm Shady" and "As The World Turns".

* ''Music/TheMarshallMathersLP'' was written after Eminem had just become famous, and discovered that [[TheNewRockAndRoll people were blaming him for the Columbine massacre]] and believing he condoned all of the shock content in his lyrics, while his fans [[MisaimedFandom believed exactly the same things but worshipped him for it]]. Much of the content on the album is TakeThatCritics as a result (down to namedropping ''Billboard'' writer Timothy White and beefing with ''XXL'' magazine); "Stan", a song about a LoonyFan who kills himself and his girlfriend after not getting a response to his fanmail to Slim Shady, is a love-hate letter to his own [[invoked]] FanDumb, and "The Way I Am" is an ArtistDisillusionment song he wrote in response to being forced to write a hit single that could compete with his BlackSheepHit "My Name Is". A lot of the rest of the album is disgust about the TeenPop celebrities he was now shoulder-to-shoulder with, as beyond his PrettyBoy looks and his videos' domination of ''TRL'', he was a HardcoreHipHop artist with nothing in common with them. Eminem was also struggling with the fact that his abusive mother tried to sue him for $10m over his use of a fictionalised version of her as the EvilMatriarch of Slim Shady's HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood on ''The Slim Shady LP'' - he responded by accusing her lawyer of being "''just aggrivated I won't ejaculate in his ass''", with the namedrop [[TooDumbToLive censored out due to being a terrible idea]].

* 2004's ''Encore'' falls under this as well. It was recorded as he began his Ambien addiction, and was intended to be his last album before retirement due to him circling a mental breakdown from the stress of being as big as he was. His technical ability on the record is uncharacteristically muted as a result, with slurred lyrics, tortured flows and his signature unrhymable rhymes pushed to breaking point ([[LeastRhymableWord "oranges"/"pointless"/"torturous"]]). Em's ability to concentrate had failed him and he was struggling to read his own lyrics sheets, so (while there's some carefully written songs on there, like "Yellow Brick Road" and "Mockingbird"), a majority of the tracks were freestyled, from serious tracks like "Mosh" to goofiness like "Big Weenie". It's worth pointing out that, despite it being the closest thing Eminem ever did to a straight [[PissTakeRap comedy rap album]], his CreatorBacklash to it was based on it being too {{Wangst}}y and [[SelfDeprecation self-loathing]] - a lot of the tracks contain scenes where Eminem [[WhoWritesThisCrap attacks his own lines]], sobs about his utter uselessness, states he is [[DemonicPossession possessed by the Devil]] or "Satan-spawn", and satirises his entire career and the worst aspects of his life as [[BigStupidDoodooHead playground stupidity]], acknowledging the AngstDissonance. The album is also themed around suicide - a suicide note is printed on the cover of the CD, the skit ends in Slim committing MurderSuicide, and he would pretend to commit suicide on stage at the end of his live performances while touring his ''Encore'' material.

* While far minimised compared to most of the above examples, his 2018 album ''Kamikaze'' was the result of critics sliming his 2017 album ''Revival''. ''Revival'' had been something of a passion project he'd intended to be a crowd-pleaser - when it instead pleased nobody and dented his legacy, he responded with a whole album in which he indulged in CopycatMockery of the state of modern hiphop while [[TheDissTrack savagely dissing]] every single person of influence who hated the album. Even critics who hated Eminem's post-overdose career considered ''Kamikaze'' a return to form, because its gratuitous, petty meanness captured some of the spirit that made Eminem's pre-overdose period compelling.

** The song "Rock Bottom" (which appears on ''The Slim Shady LP''), which describes Slim Shady [[GoingPostal forced to start killing people due to his humiliating poverty]], is especially notable because it was written during a suicide attempt. Eminem had lost his job, broken up with Kim, had been evicted from his house because the housemate he'd been paying rent to had just been taking the money, and was broke, with a new baby he couldn't afford to care for, and just before Christmas/her first birthday. He came up with the idea that "Rock Bottom" would be his suicide note, ate a huge quantity of Tylenol 3s, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome and then - fortunately - spent the rest of the evening vomiting them all back up due to his poor tolerance]].

* 2002's ''The Eminem Show'' was largely written in response to several particular events in his personal life. The first was Eminem's abusive mother bizarrely dropping a diss track against him; the result of this was the [[IHateSong excoriating song]] "Cleaning Out My Closet", in which he describes in detail his child abuse as a victim of her MunchausenSyndrome and declares himself dead to her. The second was Eminem's conviction for assault after pistol-whipping a man he believed his wife was cheating on him with; many songs on the album are about him soul-searching in response to this, in particular his terror that they'll take his kid from him. The third is Eminem's divorce from Kim; several songs on the album are {{Misogyny Song}}s dealing with maladaptive OnTheRebound behaviour.

** The album intro track is "FACK", a [[StylisticSuck deliberately awful]] BottomOfTheBarrelHumor song intended to [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun smear his legacy forever]].

** The album intro track is "FACK", a [[StylisticSuck deliberately awful]] FanDisservice song intended to [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun smear his legacy forever]].

** ''The Re-Up'' was a label compilation album on which Eminem barely features (in order to give him room to recover mentally), but Proof's death had ramped up his addiction to Ambien, Vicodin and Valium. In addition, he was being stalked by the FBI for rapping that he wanted "to see the President dead" in his 2004 song "We As Americans". His ''Re-up'' work uses a slurred, depressed delivery different to his usual style, and his mental state can be appreciated on "Public Enemy #1", a rap based around a single verse in which he expresses his apparently genuine conviction that the government is trying to kill him.

** ''Relapse'' is a bizarre LightmareFuel {{Horrorcore}} ConceptAlbum in which Eminem raps as an incarnation of Slim Shady who is an AllegoricalCharacter for drug addiction - a pill-popping SlasherMovie SerialKiller with a [[ShiftingVoiceOfAccent weird accent]]. Notably, the Ambien addiction had left Eminem with enough brain damage that he had to relearn how to rap, which the accents were used to help him do (as it let him [[AccentDepundant force rhymes that would not normally work]]). It's possible to work out the order in which ''Relapse'''s songs were written from the relative complexity and coherency of the rapping. Some music critics consider ''Relapse'' to be an exorcism of everything tasteless and nasty about Eminem's music so he can move on to more mature topics - Eminem himself has said that he views ''Relapse'' as a necessary step so he could make ''Recovery''.

*** "Beautiful" - a melancholic track where Eminem reflects on his depression and his increasing doubt over if he can still cut it as a rapper. Eminem started writing it on his first day in rehab, thought it was the best of his writer's block period songs, wrote a final verse for it (notably more lyrical and funny than the other two), and put it on the album as a document of how far he'd come.
*** "Old Time's Sake" is an OdeToIntoxication about smoking up with Music/DrDre, but Slim loses control as a result of the weed and starts murdering women.
*** "My Darling" is a conversation between Marshall and Slim, presented here in his [[EnemyWithout the Monster]] form, as the voice of his own addiction trying to persuade him to relapse.

* This happened yet again with 2009's ''Relapse'' and 2010's ''Recovery'', which were triggered by Eminem's recovery from a full-blown relapse that began in 2005. The first album, whilst containing a good dose of his vitriolic tirades and bizarre comedy, has a track called "Deja Vu". The track is a rather stark description of his relapse and the effect it had, notably apparently collapsing in his bathroom and his apparent case of pneumonia actually being related to methadone use. Also related is the song "Beautiful", which is a melancholic track where Eminem reflects on his depression and his increasing doubt over if he can still cut it as a rapper.