Line #325 Music/TheMarshallMathersLP


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eca4d767aa9379aa9d2aeb7e306b06b5.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:''Now will the real Shady please stand up,\
3	and put [[FlippingTheBird one of those fingers]] on each hand up?'']]
4
5	->''"They said I can't rap about being broke no more.\
6	They ain't say I can't rap about '''coke''' no more!"''
7	-->-- "Kill You"
8
9	''The Marshall Mathers LP'' is the third studio album by Music/{{Eminem}}, released on May 23, 2000.
10
11	At the time of the album's release, Em was on top of the world. His previous release, ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP'', made him an overnight sensation and got as much attention from the media as it did from MoralGuardians who were practically having heart attacks at the idea of this guy possibly controlling the innocent youth through his rhymes.
12
13	This album took all of the insanity of its predecessor and cranked it up to eleven, while mixing it with a personal, introspective account of Em coping with his newfound fame. Darker Slim Shady fantasies, [[CreatorBreakdown more disturbing parts of Em's childhood]], and [[TakeThatCritics more venomous responses to critics]] were all implemented on the album.
14
15	The album was released to even more critical and commercial success than ''SSLP'', with critics hailing it to this day as one of the greatest and most important albums of all time, let alone in the hip-hop genre. It gave Em his second consecutive UsefulNotes/GrammyAward win for Best Rap Album as well as a nomination for Album of the Year. It also sold more than 1.76 million copies in America in its ''opening week'', solidifying it as the fastest-selling studio album by any American solo artist in history. The album later went on to be certified Diamond in 2011 for selling 10 million copies in America, and it went on to sell a grand total of 32 million copies around the world (by 2012).
16
17	Keeping with tradition, the album garnered even more controversy than its predecessor with its DarkerAndEdgier approach to Em's life. Many people, including Dick Cheney's wife of all people, were up in arms about Em's lyrics. This caused a significant amount of protesting and debating, which only seemed to [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity propel the album's]] [[StreisandEffect fame further]].
18
19	In 2013, Em would release a direct sequel to this album, called ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'' -- though Eminem stated it wasn't a sequel, but "a revisitation", titled as it was to express "the nostalgia of the thing". Some critics suggest 2018's ''Kamikaze'' is a SpiritualSuccessor to ''The Marshall Mathers LP'', with similar themes of fury, Eminem wrestling with his infamy, and [[DissTrack insulting the popular music]] and [[TakeThatCritics critics]] of the day.
20	----
21	!!Tracklist:
22	# "Public Service Announcement 2000" (0:25)
23	# "Kill You" (4:24)
24	# "Stan" (feat. Dido) (6:44)
25	# "Paul" (skit) (0:10)
26	# "Who Knew" (3:47)
27	# "Steve Berman" (skit) (0:53)
28	# "The Way I Am" (4:50)
29	# "The Real Slim Shady" (4:44)
30	# "Remember Me?" (feat. RBX and Sticky Fingaz) (3:38)
31	# "I'm Back" (5:10)
32	# "Marshall Mathers" (5:20)
33	# "Ken Kaniff" (skit) (1:01)
34	# "Drug Ballad" (feat. Dina Rae) (5:00)
35	# "Amityville" (feat. Bizarre) (4:14)
36	# "Bitch Please II" (feat. Music/DrDre, Music/SnoopDogg, Music/{{Xzibit}}, and Nate Dogg) (4:48)
37	# "Kim" (6:17)
38	# "Under the Influence" (feat. D12) (5:21)
39	# "Criminal" (5:15)
40	# "The Kids" (bonus track) (5:06)
41	----
42	!!''They ain't say I can't rap about TROPES no more!''
43	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal:
44	** "Kill You".
45	--->''I invented violence, you vile venomous volatile bitches\
46	Vain Vicodin, vrin vrin vrin!''
47	** "The Way I Am"
48	--->''I do not got the patience\
49	To deal with these cocky Caucasians''
50	* AlbumIntroTrack: "Public Service Announcement 2000", the second PSA skit on an Eminem album after the one on ''Slim Shady LP''. While the first skit had an announcer (played by producer Jeff Bass) endorsing a general (if tongue-in-cheek) DontTryThisAtHome message, he gets [[RefugeInAudacity straight to the point]] in this album's skit, saying that Slim Shady doesn't care what you think, you can "suck his fucking cock" if you don't like it, you have kissed his ass by buying the album, and he's going to kill you. Like in the previous skit, he asks Em if he has anything to add; Em replies, "Yeah. Sue me."
51	* AnAesop:
52	** "Stan" has the message that your idols are only human; mainstream-level creators like Eminem have fandoms in the millions and would not be able to keep up with fan interactions while still balancing their careers and personal lives, so them being late to answer fan-mail or appearing cold and distant in person doesn't mean they hate you. [[LoonyFan Being obsessed with a creator]] can also lead to tragic consequences, especially consequences involving your loved ones, if you don't stop and realize that there's more to your life than just that creator.
53	** "The Real Slim Shady" uses Slim Shady as a metaphor for rebelling and refusing to conform, and runs on the idea that this spirit exists in everyone. The song's final verse encourages the listener to [[BeYourself embrace this side of them with pride]] in defiance of MoralGuardians who wish to suppress it, by extension communicating that as uncouth as Em appears in his music, he's not that different from you. As Em says at the end of the song, "I guess there's a Slim Shady in all of us."
54	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: "The Real Slim Shady"
55	-->''Feminist women love Eminem\
56	"Chicka-chicka Slim Shady, I'm sick of him,\
57	Look at him, walking around, grabbing his you-know-what,\
58	Flippin' the you-know-who."\
59	"Yeah, but he's so cute though!"''
60	* AlliterativeName: Slim Shady and Marshall Mathers (both the person and the song), as well as Ken Kaniff.
61	* AloneWithThePsycho: "Stan" and "Kim" both have somebody [[spoiler:kidnap a spouse and murder her]].
62	* AndThatLittleGirlWasMe: In "Criminal":
63	-->Mother did drugs, hard liquor, cigarettes, and speed\
64	The baby came out, disfigured ligaments indeed\
65	It was a seed who would grow up just as crazy as she\
66	Don't dare make fun of that baby cause that baby was me
67	* AntiLoveSong: "Kim", though he says that he loves her too, right as he's driving her out the woods to slit her throat. It's an [[SlapSlapKiss angry love]].
68	* ArtImitatesLife and LifeImitatesArt: "Stan" is an example of both.
69	* AudienceParticipationSong: "Kill You" is used for this purpose during concerts.
70	* AxCrazy: Slim Shady and Stan on this album are both psychos.
71	* BadassBoast: Common in his work, but particularly this bit from "The Real Slim Shady":
72	-->''I'm like a head trip to listen to\
73	'Cause I'm only giving you things you joke about with your friends inside your living room\
74	[[AtLeastIAdmitIt The only difference is I got the balls to say it in front of y'all]]\
75	[[BrutalHonesty And I don't gotta be false or sugarcoat it at all]]\
76	I just get on the mike and spit it\
77	And whether you like to admit it, I just shit it\
78	Better than 90% of you rappers out can\
79	Then you wonder "[[ThinkOfTheChildren How can kids eat up these albums like Valiums?]]"''
80	* BeYourself: "The Real Slim Shady" has this as AnAesop. As repressed and censorious as the MoralGuardians want our society to be, the fact remains that "every single person is a Slim Shady lurking," and instead of suppressing your rebellious or nonconformist side, you should embrace it -- "be proud to be out of your mind and out of control."
81	-->'''Genius Lyrics Annotation:''' Society tends to project the ideology that you should live a normal life, do normal things, work a nine to five job, date one girl, marry her, raise a family etc. Slim Shady is disregarding this. Telling the free spirits of the world that it’s OK to be different. Be proud of who you are, even if you’re one of God’s unwanted children.
82	%%* BlackComedy: The emphasis on this record is more one violence against women than his previous album.
83	* BlackComedyRape: Several songs feature Slim Shady doing this or threatening to. One of the very last lines has him threatening to become a "rapist in a [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason]] mask" if he doesn't make it in rap.
84	* {{Bowdlerise}}: While ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP'' already had it rough, the clean version of this album is notorious for being completely intolerable, with practically every other lyric being muted. "Kim" didn't even make it onto the album, being replaced by "The Kids", a song which is only on the clean and deluxe versions of the album.
85	** "Stan" received an ''infamous'' serving of this.
86	*** There are two versions of the music videos for the song, with the most recent Fuse "version" of the song more censored than the last two. While MTV's short version of "Stan" is heavily censored (also removing scenes of a [[DrivenToSuicide murder/suicide]]), the long version, however, isn't much better. Dido (singer of "Thank You", which was used as the main sample of "Stan", who played Stan's pregnant girlfriend in the music video) has stated that what her character goes through in the song's third verse -- being BoundAndGagged, [[PunkInTheTrunk trapped in the trunk of Stan's car]], and screaming while struggling to remove her restraints -- was actually filmed, but many versions of the video's long version remove both these scenes as well as another scene with Stan (played by actor Creator/DevonSawa) drinking while driving. The rest of the versions show only one brief clip of Dido in the trunk while removing the scene of Stan drinking and censoring the words [[FrothyMugsOfWater "drank", "vodka",]] [[DrugsAreBad "downers",]] [[BigShutUp "Shut up,]] [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch",]] [[PunkInTheTrunk "screaming in the trunk",]] "slit", [[BoundAndGagged "tied her up",]] "suffocates" and [[NeverSayDie "die"]]. In the last verse, [[HideYourPregnancy the censors remove all mentions of the girlfriend in the trunk]], as well as the lyric, [[HideYourGays "And what's this shit about us meant to be together?"]]
87	*** In Eminem's performance of the song at [[UsefulNotes/GrammyAward the Grammys]] with Music/EltonJohn, he changed "You're like his fucking idol" to "You're like his ''favorite'' idol."
88	** In "I'm Back", he raps, "I take seven kids from UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}}, stand 'em all in line/ add an AK-47, a revolver, a nine/ a Mac-11 and that oughta solve this problem of mine/ and that's a whole school of bullies shot up all at one time." An uncensored version is completely unavailable; "kids" and "Columbine" are edited out even in the explicit version. However, 13 years later, he managed to include the line fully uncensored on "Rap God".
89	** A similar thing happened with "Marshall Mathers". One line in particular was censored because, in the event that you are being sued by your mother, insulting their lawyer is not a particularly clever idea.
90	--->''So which is it, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch]], Mrs. Briggs or Mrs. Mathers?\
91	It doesn't matter, [your attorney, Fred Gibson's a] faggot!\
92	Talking about how I fabricated my past.\
93	He's just aggravated I won't ejaculate in his ass.''
94	** The "four-year-old little boy laying dead with a slit throat in your living room" line on "Kim" censors "four" and "boy", even on the explicit version.
95	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: In "Marshall Mathers":
96	-->''Yo, you might see me jogging. You might see me walking. You might see me walking a dead rottweiler dog with its head chopped off in the park with a spiked collar, hollering at him 'cause the son-of-a-bitch won't stop barking.''
97	* CallAndResponseSong: "Kim", a dialogue between Eminem and an impersonation of his wife.
98	* CallBack:
99	** "The Real Slim Shady", "The Way I Am", and "Stan" all reference "My Name Is".
100	*** "Real Slim Shady" has a line mirroring the "and Music/DrDre said..." line from "My Name Is", only for Dre to not say anything and for Em to announce that Dre is dead and locked in his basement.
101	*** "Stan" has the title character tauntingly reciting the "I just drank a fifth of vodka, dare me to drive?" line while driving under the influence of alcohol.
102	** "Kim" is a prequel to "97' Bonnie & Clyde" from ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP''.
103	** In "The Way I Am", Eminem references "Guilty Conscience" and "'97 Bonnie & Clyde", also from his previous album:
104	--->''I'm gonna name her Bonnie''\
105	''The song "Guilty Conscience" has gotten such rotten responses''
106	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Em doesn't as much rap "Kim" as he does ''scream'' it, and he gets more intense as the song progresses.
107	* CelebrityIsOverrated:
108	** "The Way I Am":
109	--->''But at least have the decency in you\
110	To leave me alone, when you freaks see me out\
111	In the streets when I'm eating or feeding my daughter\
112	To not come and speak to me, I don't know you and no\
113	I don't owe you a mothafuckin' thing\
114	I'm not Mr. [[Music/{{NSync}} N'Sync]], I'm not what your friends think\
115	I'm not Mr. Friendly, I can be a prick\
116	If you tempt me, my tank is on empty\
117	No patience is in me and if you offend me\
118	I'm lifting you 10 feet in the air\
119	I don't care who was there and who saw me just jaw you\
120	Go call you a lawyer, file you a lawsuit\
121	I'll smile in the courtroom and buy you a wardrobe\
122	I'm tired of all you, I don't mean to be mean\
123	But that's all I can be is just me\
124	(...) And I'm thankful for every fan that I get\
125	But I can't take a shit in the bathroom without someone standing by it\
126	No, I won't sign you an autograph\
127	You can call me an asshole''
128	** "Marshall Mathers" has shades of this, too.
129	--->''All of a sudden I got 90-some cousins (Hey, it's me!)\
130	A half-brother and sister who never seen me\
131	Or even bothered to call me until they saw me on TV\
132	Now everybody's so happy and proud\
133	I'm finally allowed to step foot in my girlfriend's house (Hey!)\
134	And then to top it off I walked to the news stand\
135	To buy this cheap-ass little magazine with a food stamp\
136	Skipped to the last page, flipped right fast\
137	And what do I see? A picture of my big white ass''
138	* DarkerAndEdgier: "Kim" is easily the darkest, angriest song Eminem has ever made, as it details a fantasy about not only graphically murdering his wife, Kim, but it has him kill both [[MurderTheHypotenuse the man she cheated on him with]] ''and [[WouldHurtAChild said man's four-year-old son]]'' "off-screen" in revenge.
139	* DeathSong: "Kill You", where Eminem threatens women in a BlackComedy fashion. "Stan" is a more dramatic tale, where a LoonyFan drives his car off a bridge in an attempt to kill his girlfriend. In "Kim" Eminem murders his then-wife and places her corpse into the trunk of his car and drives her off a bridge.
140	* {{Deconstruction}}: "Kill You", of his signature "let's try to offend people with really unnerving lyrics" songs.
141	-->''"And I'ma be another rapper dead, for poppin' off at the mouth with shit I shouldn't have said"''
142	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The album cover's not black and white, ''per se'', but more of a sepia tone.
143	* DepravedHomosexual: Ken Kaniff, who is now been given a blow job by members of Music/InsaneClownPosse, who have a feud with Eminem. In "The Real Slim Shady" Eminem makes a homophobic comment: ''But if we can hump dead animals and antelopes/then there's no reason that a man and another man can't elope'', while in the music video he illustrates this scene by breaking up a gay marriage just as the two men are about to kiss each other and expressing disgust.
144	* DidntThinkThisThrough [=/=] OhCrap: The title character in "Stan" has both when he realizes that [[spoiler:he won't be able to send Eminem the tape he's making before he drowns himself and his pregnant girlfriend, precisely because he's about to... well, yeah]].
145	* DirtyOldMan: Parodied in "The Real Slim Shady," in which Eminem muses that his life is going so fast that, by the time he's 30 years old, he'll be prematurely aged enough to need a nursing home -- but still just as raunchy and debauched as ever.
146	-->''It's funny, 'cause at the rate I'm going when I'm 30\
147	I'll be the only person in the nursing home flirting\
148	Pinching nurses' asses while I'm jacking off with Jergen's\
149	And I'm jerking but [[TheLoinsSleepTonight this whole bag of Viagra isn't working]]''
150	* DownerEnding:
151	** "Kim": [[spoiler:Marshall takes Kim out to a remote area in the woods against her will and slits her throat. Afterwards, the same sound effects from the beginning of "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" - namely, him dragging her corpse to a car and tossing it in the trunk.]]
152	** "Stan": [[spoiler:The obsessed fan of the song's title kills himself, his pregnant girlfriend, and their unborn child all because Em didn't answer his letters in time.]]
153	* DracoInLeatherPants: Lampooned at one point in "The Real Slim Shady": %%invoked
154	-->''Feminist women love Eminem\
155	"Chicka-chicka-chicka Slim Shady, I'm sick of him.\
156	Look at him, walking around, grabbing his you-know-what,\
157	Flippin' the you-know-who."\
158	"Yeah, but he's so cute, though!"''
159	* DramaticIrony: The final verse of "Stan" creates some for the listener, since Em tries to write back to the title character (a LoonyFan of his) saying that he hopes the letter reaches him in time. [[spoiler:Just prior to Em's verse, Stan had driven his car off a bridge and killed himself, his wife, and their unborn kid. Em only realizes this while finishing the letter.]]
160	* DrivenToSuicide: The climax of "Stan" has the title character talking to Em while drunk driving on a bridge with his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk. [[spoiler:The scenario ends with Stan driving the car off the bridge.]]
161	* DrugsAreBad: The moral of "The Kids", taught by Em to a class of kids straight out of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''.
162	* EpicRocking: 8 out of the 18 tracks on this album are over 5 minutes long, with the longest being "Stan", which is 16 seconds shy of 7 minutes. Second longest is the 6:17 "Kim".
163	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The page quote, which comes from the opening lines of "Kill You", the first song on the album (but not the first track; track 1 is a public service announcement, just like ''SSLP''). Em explains this set of lines more in his autobiography ''Angry Blonde''.
164	-->''I wanted to start the album with that song because everybody in the press was like, "what’s he gonna rap about? He’s not miserable anymore. [...] The whole idea of this song was to say some of the most fucked-up shit. Just to let people know that I’m back. That I didn’t lose it. That I wasn’t compromising nothing and I didn’t change. If anything...I got worse.''
165	* EvenTheGuysWantHim: In-universe, among them Stan, Ken Kaniff, and the Insane Clown Posse, who even think of him while having sex.
166	* EvilLaugh: Eminem's chuckling during "Kill You".
167	* ExactWords: Eminem promises the critics he won't use "fuckin'" for six minutes near the end of "Remember Me?". Although he continues to use variations of "fuck" for the next six minutes, he does not, in fact, use "fuckin'."
168	* ExplainExplainOhCrap: The ending lines of "Stan" have Em talking about a recent death in the news that he found sickening. As he explains the death more, he realizes that [[spoiler:it was Stan who died]].
169	* FaceOnAMilkCarton: The music video to "The Real Slim Shady" shows Eminem's {{Mentor\|s}} Music/DrDre on a milk carton (with a very beleaguered expression) just as the lyrics go ''And Dr. Dre said[[{{Beat}} ...]]/Nothing you idiots! Dr. Dre's dead/He's locked in my basement!''
170	* FaceOnTheCover: There are two covers for the album, and Eminem is seen on both of them from a far distance.
171	* FanDisservice: The Ken Kaniff skit on this album is a rare audio example of this, considering it has one of the most disquieting-sounding oral sex scenes ever heard in a song. And it's between Ken and some members of the Music/InsaneClownPosse, no less.
172	* FlippingTheBird:
173	** In "The Real Slim Shady," two fangirls talk about Em's tendency toward "flipping the you-know-who," and at the end, Eminem himself advises us to "put one of them fingers on each hand up."
174	** In "The Way I Am", Eminem lampshades this:
175	--->''And it seems like the media immediately\
176	Points a finger at me ''(finger at me)''\
177	So I point one back at them, but not the index or the pinkie\
178	Or the ring or my thumb, it's the one you put up\
179	When you don't give a [[WorldOfPun fuck]]''
180	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In "Stan", the titular character mentions how his little brother Matthew is even more of a fan of Em than himself. After we see the events that unfold in the song, we are left with the question of how much larger is Matthew's love for Em over Stan's. [[spoiler:We find out the answer in "Bad Guy" off of ''Marshall Mathers LP 2'', where Matthew kidnaps Em, planning to bury him alive, but winds up committing a murder-suicide in the exact same manner as his big brother]].
181	* GrossUpCloseUp: In the music video of "The Real Slim Shady" Eminem spits in an onion ring he delivers to an obese woman, from which she takes a disgusting looking bite as she walks away.
182	* HaventYouSeenXBefore: "Y'all act like you never seen a white person before."
183	* {{Horrorcore}}: "Kim" is a definite example of this genre, with a very graphic and PlayedStraight story of Eminem murdering his wife in the forest.
184	* HypocriticalHumor: "Criminal" features a [[MoralGuardians Moral Guardian]] who declares that Eminem needs Jesus, before transitioning into asking God for a new car and a prostitute while his wife is in the hospital.
185	* IAmSong:
186	** "The Real Slim Shady".
187	** "The Way I Am" is one of the darker examples of this trope in his discography.
188	* ImmediateSelfContradiction: From "Who Knew":
189	-->''I don't got that bad of a mouth, do I?\
190	Fuck! Shit! Ass! Bitch! [[CountryMatters Cunt]]!''
191	* ImYourBiggestFan: Stan writes letters signed off with "''your biggest fan - this is Stan.''" Via a diss track by Music/{{Nas}}, the word "Stan" was later adopted by the hip-hop community to mean an obsessive fan, and from there to mean a specific, social-media-dominated fan subculture.
192	* InelegantBlubbering: Eminem cries in "Kim" because she was supposed to love him, then he strangles her.
193	* KickTheDog: Shady exploits this on "Criminal" by suggesting he might shoot a puppy.
194	* LampshadedDoubleEntendre: From "Criminal":
195	--> ''Hey, it's me, Versace! Whoops, somebody shot me!\
196	And I was just checkin' the mail. Get it? Checkin' the male?''
197	* LocationSong: "Amityville" is a song about Detroit, where the rapper discusses the city's crowning as murder capital of the United States.
198	* TheLoinsSleepTonight: "The Real Slim Shady" foresees a time when Slim is in the nursing home chasing nurses, but even Viagra isn't able to help him.
199	* LoonyFan: Stan is a famous example in hip-hop, so much so that all obsessive fans are now referred to as "stans".
200	* LiteralAssKissing: The video for "The Real Slim Shady", among other things, shows Eminem dressed up as a masked superhero with a large prosthetic ass who attacks unsuspecting citizens to force them to kiss his bum.
201	-->''My bum is on your lips! My bum is on your lips!\
202	And if I'm lucky, you might just give it a little kiss!''
203	* LyricalColdOpen: "Kill You", "Marshall Mathers", and "Who Knew?".
204	* MisogynySong: Eleven of the 14 songs on this album have violent and misogynistic lyrics. Nine refer to murdering women.
205	* MondegreenGag: At the climax of "Stan", the title character incorrectly refers to Music/PhilCollins' "In the Air Tonight" as "In the Air of the Night". However, he was drunk and high, not to mention insane, so there is reasoning.
206	* MoodWhiplash:
207	** "Kim" starts with Em softly talking to her baby daughter Hailie, but as he shifts his attention to Kim his voice is raised and it all goes downhill from there.
208	** "Under the Influence", which is the song right after "Kim", opens with Eminem comedically slurring gibberish.
209	** In one particular bit of "Stan", the title character goes from talking about how much he loves Em (even getting his name tattooed across his chest) to talking about how he enjoys the adrenaline he gets from the pain of slitting his wrists.
210	** Arguably the whole album after "Ken Kaniff" skit falls into this trope. From farily upbeat sounding "Drug Ballad" it goes to very dark and violent on "Amityville" then back to "Bitch Please II" which sounds more like something from "2001". From that point the album reaches its most notoriously violent song with "Kim", which in turn is followed by "Under the Influence" starting with Eminem literally mocking listeners for taking anything he says seriously. "Criminal" has similar theme, but with a darker approach to it.
211	* MurderBallad: Practically every other song, "Kim" is the best example, despite not being a song and more of an audioplay.
212	* ObsessionSong: "Stan", written from the perspective of a LoonyFan of Em.
213	* OdeToIntoxication: "The Way I Am"
214	-->''I sit back with this pack of Zig-Zags and this bag\
215	And this weed it gives me the shit needed to be\
216	The most meanest MC on this, on this Earth''
217	* OneManSong: "Stan", "Paul", "Steve Berman", "Ken Kaniff", "The Real Slim Shady" and "Marshall Matters".
218	* OneWomanSong: "Kim"
219	* OneWordTitle: "Criminal", "Paul", "Stan", "Amityville"
220	* ParentalIncest: "Kill You" has lines where Eminem rapes his own mother.
221	* ParentalNeglect: "The Way I Am"
222	-->''Sometimes I just feel like my father\
223	It hate to be bothered with all of this nonsense''
224	* PetTheDog: In the final verses of "Stan", Marshall shows a caring and compassionate side almost completely absent in most of his work.
225	* PopCulturalOsmosis: To the younger generation the line "Will the real X please stand up?" is associated more with "The Real Slim Shady" than the quiz show where it originated from: ''Series/ToTellTheTruth''
226	* PrecisionFStrike: Like in most of Eminem's songs. However in "The Way I Am" he gives an explanation:
227	-->''Since birth I've been cursed with this curse to just curse\
228	And just blurt this berserk and bizarre shit that works\
229	And it sells and it helps in itself to relieve\
230	This tension dispensing these sentences''
231	* ProductPlacement: "The Real Slim Shady"
232	-->''He could be workin' at Burger King, spitting on your onion rings''
233	* QuestioningTitle: "Who Knew?" and "Remember Me?"
234	* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
235	** On the original cover Eminem was sitting on the porch of the house where he lived during teenagehood.
236	** "Drug Ballad" is about his drug use. "Stan", "I'm Back" and "Marshall Matters" are about his struggles with superstardom, while "Remember Me" and "Bitch Please II" are about his return and effect on the music industry.
237	** "The Way I Am" and "Criminal" address Eminem's feelings about the media controversy over his lyrics and the accusation that he is just "some wigger who tries to be black." He also references the [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} pupils who shot other pupils in the Columbine High School in Colorado in the spring of 1999]].
238	--->''When a dude's getting bullied and shoots up his school\
239	And they blame it on Marilyn and the heroin\
240	Where were the parents at and look where it's at\
241	Middle America, now it's a tragedy\
242	Now it's so sad to see, an upper-class city\
243	Havin' this happening''
244	** "Kim" expresses Eminem's hate for his then-wife as they were undergoing a really nasty and messy break-up at the time. In the song he imagines killing her and dumping her body in a car from a bridge.
245	* RecordProducer: Music/DrDre.
246	* RefugeInAudacity: Oh yeah. He even ''acknowledged'' it in "The Real Slim Shady":
247	-->''The only difference is I got the balls to say it''
248	* ResistanceIsFutile: During "Kim" [[spoiler: Eminem kidnaps his wife. As she tries to run away in the forest he follows her, catches her again and tells her there is no way to run too. To taunt her even more he screams along with her for help, to emphasize nobody's there to help her.]]
249	* RevengeIsADishBestServed: "The Real Slim Shady" advises that Slim Shady "could be working at Burger King, spitting on your onion rings."
250	* {{Sampling}}:
251	** "Kill You" features an interpolation of "Pulsion" performed by Jacques Loussier.
252	** "Stan" is built around a sample of Dido's "Thank You".
253	* SanitySlippageSong:
254	** The three verses of "Stan" written by the title character show his mental state progressively deteriorating as he starts getting more and more fed up with Em not replying to his letters.
255	** "The Way I Am"
256	--->''And I just do not got the patience\
257	To deal with these cocky Caucasians who think\
258	I'm some wigger who just tries to be Black\
259	Cause I talk with an accent, and grab on my balls\
260	So they always keep asking the same fucking questions\
261	What school did I go to, what hood I grew up in?\
262	The why, the who, what, when, the where and the how\
263	'til I'm grabbing my hair and I'm tearin' it out\
264	Cause they drivin' me crazy, I can't take it''
265	* SarcasticTitle: ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' is even less personal than ''The Slim Shady LP'' is. Most of it is dedicated to Slim Shady, and Marshall's appearances on the record heavily fictionalise him as a psycho or idiot (e.g. as Slim Shady). The title responds to the critics of Eminem's persona as if to say, ''if you think Slim Shady is the real Marshall Mathers, then here is the real Marshall Mathers!''
266	* SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud: Eminem imitates a chain saw by saying "vin-vin-vin" in "Kill You".
267	* SelfTitledAlbum: Named after his actual name.
268	* SequelEscalation: People who thought ''SSLP'' was crass and over-the-top would be shocked shitless by the album, considering how Em's lack of fucks to give is only increasing, and it shows through the music.
269	* ShoutOut:
270	** "The Real Slim Shady" refers to Creator/PamelaAnderson and the alledged abuse at the hands of her ex-husband, rocker Tommy Lee.
271	--->''Jaws all on the floor, like Pam, like Tommy just burst in the door\
272	And started whoopin' her ass worse than before\
273	They first were divorced, throwin' her over furniture''
274	** "The Real Slim Shady" namedrops [[Series/TheTomGreenShow Tom Green]] and his song "Lonely Swedish"
275	--->''Sometimes, I wanna get on TV and just let loose, but can't\
276	But it's cool for Tom Green to hump a dead moose''
277	** The song also references the song "The Bad Touch" by Music/BloodhoundGang:
278	--->''Of course, they're gonna know what intercourse is by the time they hit fourth grade\
279	They got the Discovery Channel, don't they?\
280	We ain't nothing but mammals''
281	** In the music video of "The Real Slim Shady" one of the asylum patients is seen laughing at a scene from the ''WesternAnimation/FlipTheFrog'' cartoon "Fiddlesticks".
282	** "The Way I Am"
283	--->''I am not Mr. Music/{{NSYNC}}\
284	I am not Mr. Friendly\
285	I am not what your friends think''
286	** "The Real Slim Shady" became such a pop culture phenomenon that it was parodied by Music/EmilyEllis as "Will The Real Slim Shady Please Shut Up?".
287	** "The Way I Am" provides a shout-out to "As The Rhyme Goes On" from Music/EricBAndRakim's ''Music/PaidInFull''
288	--->''If I wasn't then why would I say I am?''
289	** "The Way I Am" also references UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} and MoralGuardians putting the blame on Music/MarilynManson. In the music video of this song Manson makes a cameo appearance.
290	** "The Kids" is essentially a great big love letter to ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''.
291	** "Kill You" mentions [[Film/{{Psycho}} Norman Bates]]; quite appropriate, as both Norman and the Em depicted in the song are both killers.
292	--->''A bloodstain is orange after you wash it 3 or 4 times in a tub\
293	But that's normal, ain't it, Norman?''
294	** One of the very last lines on the album references Jason from ''Franchise/FridayThe13th''.
295	* SpecialGuest:
296	** Dido plays Stan's girlfriend in the music video of "Stan", a song that also samples her song "Thank You".
297	** During "Bitch Please II", Music/SnoopDogg, Music/DrDre, Music/{{Xzibit}} and Music/NateDogg are featured on guest vocals.
298	** "Remember Me?" has guest appearances from [=RBX=] and Sticky Fingaz.
299	** "Amityville" has a guest appearance from Bizarre.
300	** "Under the Influence" has a guest appearance from D12.
301	** Music/MarilynManson appears in video for "The Way I Am."
302	* SpiritualSuccessor:
303	** "Bitch Please II" on this album is a sequel to "Bitch Please", a 1999 song by Music/SnoopDogg.
304	** The 2013 album ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'' is one for this entire album.
305	* SpokenWordInMusic: "Kim" is not a song, but more a sort of AudioPlay, complete with sound effects.
306	* SpoofAesop: "The Kids" explains how drugs can make you a serial killer, put you in a coma, or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking have your parents come after Eminem and force him into hiding]] respectively. The song's outro instructs kids not to do drugs "so there'll be more for me."
307	* StalkerWithACrush: "Stan" is a rare [[HoYay male/male]] version. Not only is there "My girlfriend's jealous 'cos I talk about you 24/7", but Stan also says that he and Eminem should be together. The video actually shows Stan taking a photo of himself and his girlfriend and covering her up with a picture of Eminem cut out of a magazine.
308	* StockSoundEffects: Rain, thunder, car sounds, a car dumped in the river,... are used in "Stan" and "Kim".
309	* StopAndGo:
310	** "Kill You"
311	--->''You don't... wanna fuck with Shady\
312	Cause Shady... will fucking kill you\
313	...\
314	[[EvilLaugh Haha!]]''
315	* TakeThat:
316	** "The Real Slim Shady" is one giant rant against the rappers who try to copy him and also targets Music/WillSmith, [[UsefulNotes/GrammyAward the Grammys]], Music/BritneySpears, Music/ChristinaAguilera, [[Music/LimpBizkit Fred Durst]], Creator/CarsonDaly, and all-boy[=/=]girl pop groups in general. The music video also has Creator/KathyGriffin appearing as a nurse.
317	--->''Will Smith don't gotta cuss in his raps to sell records\
318	Well, I do. So fuck him and fuck you, too!\
319	You think I give a damn about a Grammy?\
320	Half of you critics can't even stomach me, let alone stand me\
321	"But Slim, what if you win? Wouldn't it be weird?"\
322	Why? So you guys could just lie to get me here?\
323	So you can sit me here, next to Britney Spears?\
324	Shit, Christina Aguilera better switch me chairs\
325	So I can sit next to Carson Daly and Fred Durst\
326	And hear 'em argue over who she gave head to first\
327	(...) I'm sick of you little girl and boy groups, all you do is annoy me\
328	So I have been sent here to destroy you''
329	** "Ken Kaniff" is a diss back to Music/InsaneClownPosse for writing an diss track aimed at Eminem. In this skit, the band members engage in homosexual oral gratification.
330	** "Marshall Mathers" takes shots at unnamed rappers who copy Music/TupacShakur and Music/TheNotoriousBIG as well as Music/BackstreetBoys, Music/RickyMartin, {{Music/NSYNC}}, Music/BritneySpears, Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock (while parodying "Summer Girls" by {{Music/LFO}}), Music/VanillaIce, Insane Clown Posse, "the underground" for dissing him for collaborating with Music/MissyElliott, his mother's lawyer [[note]] Fred Gibson, whose name had to be censored to avoid a lawsuit[[/note]], [[LongList and]] ''XXL''.
331	** Depending on how you view it, "Steve Berman" is either an attack on Interscope Records for having no faith in the album or SelfDeprecation on Eminem's part for releasing an uncommercial album full of raps about "homosexuals and Vicodin."
332	* TakeThatAudience: The "public service announcement" at the beginning of the album proudly informs listeners that "by purchasing this album, you have just kissed [Eminem's] ass."
333	* TrappedInASinkingCar: [[spoiler:In "Stan", Stan purposely drives his car off a bridge into a body of water, drowning himself and his pregnant girlfriend (who he has locked in the trunk).]]
334	* {{Troll}}: Lampshaded on “Criminal”:
335	-->''Shit, half the shit I say, I just make it up to make you mad\
336	so kiss my white naked ass.''
337	* UnreliableNarrator: Eminem lampshades how often he twists fact and fantasy in the song "Criminal":
338	-->''A lot of people ask me.. stupid fucking questions\
339	A lot of people think that.. what I say on records\
340	or what I talk about on a record, that I actually do in real life\
341	or that I believe in it\
342	Or if I say that, I wanna kill somebody, that..\
343	I'm actually gonna do it\
344	or that I believe in it\
345	Well, shit.. if you believe that\
346	then I'll kill you''
347	* UrbanLegends:
348	** Discussed in "Stan" when the title character talks about the misinterpretation of the lyrics of Phil Collins' song "In the Air Tonight".
349	** Both "Drug Ballad" and "The Kids" mention a popular misconception at the time that ecstasy drains your spinal fluid.
350	* VillainProtagonist: The titular Stan from “Stan,” though it isn’t evident until the third verse when he [[spoiler: kills his pregnant girlfriend and himself by driving off a bridge with her trapped in the trunk.]]
351	* WholeSomeCrossDresser: He dresses up like Music/BritneySpears in the music video of "The Real Slim Shady".
352	* WouldHurtAChild: In "Kim", Eminem simply doesn't settle for murdering Kim and the man she had an affair with -- he also kills the man's son.
353	-->''There's a four-year-old little boy laying dead with a slit throat in your living room!''
354	* WretchedHive: "Amityville" describes Detroit as this kind of place.
355	* {{Yandere}}: A rare male example in "Kim". Although Eminem repeatedly states his extreme hatred for his ex-wife in the song, it is also pretty clearly implied that he remains obsessed with her and that at least part of his anger is out of jealousy that she left him for another man:
356	-->YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO LOVE ''ME!!!''
357	* YouWannaGetSued: "The Kids" is an homage to ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark,'' and Eminem ends the song saying the writers of ''South Park'' are probably gonna sue him.

Context Music / TheMarshallMathersLP