I remember being a Junior in high school listening to an up-coming rapper named Eminem. I have never been an expert in rap or hip-hop music but I remember wondering to myself, “Will this white rapper really make it? Or do we have another Vanilla Ice in our hands.”
At the time when Eminem came out, pop music was at its peak. I remember much too well since I was a sucker for all Backstreet Boys, N’Sync & Britney Spears music. When I started listening to Eminem and I heard the lyrics of the song My Name Is I knew I would follow his music endeavours for a long time.
The following summer I had the opportunity to attend the Anger Management tour which featured Eminem, Ludacris, Papa Roach, Xzibit and the X-ecutioners. That concert had such a great hype from beginning to end. Eminem had such a stage presence, his angry lyrics and the way he spit his rhymes were fantastic. It was definitely one hell of a show.
In 2000, Eminem came out with The Marshall Mathers LP in which he had Dr. Dre produce for him once again. On this CD he had songs that took a stab at his then wife Kim, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and even expressing his “I don’t give a f*** attitude towards winning a grammy or what his critics said. In a sort of sarcastic way, Eminem performed side by side with none other than Elton John at the 2001 Grammy’s winning 3 awards.
The Eminem Show followed in 2002 and also the release of the very successful movie 8 Mile, movie which depicted Eminem’s life and struggles.
The album Encore hit in 2004. As part of Encore, Eminem included the song that has to be one of the most heartfelt he has ever written. The song Mockingbird which he dedicates to his daughter Hailey (ever since the beginning of his career, Eminem has battled with his ex-wife Kim and him mom and has always professed how much he loves his daughter. )I am a cry-baby and this song gets me teary eyed to this day.
Eminem released Curtain Call in 2005 which included some of his hits from previous albums. After this album, Eminem went on a long hiatus from the music business, there was much speculation as to what was going on in his life (on-going problems with his ex-wife, a battle with prescription pills and many other things.)
In May of last year, Eminem came back from his 5-year hiatus with the album Relapse, the album received mixed reviews though it did earn him 2 grammy awards this past January.
It has been a year and Eminem is back (again) with his newest album Recovery. Don’t expect Eminem’s alter-ego “Slim Shady” to take a stand. Eminem is putting his alter-ego on a break and instead he is doing collaborations with artists such as Lil’ Wayne, Pink and even Rihanna.
I have high hopes for Eminem and his newly released CD. I suppose that a lot of his fans will miss his angry lyrics and him talking smack about other celebrities but, for this CD Eminem wants to share with his fans what he has been through battling his addiction to prescription pills and all the other demons he has battled.
Let’s see how good Recovery does on the music charts and I definitely expect a tour hopefully next year. If you get a chance to see him live, do it, trust me he puts on a great show. Don’t forget to buy the album Recovery, it hit stores today.
Photo Credits: www.facebook.com/eminem
