Once in a blue moon an album comes along that changes the game. It’s an album that takes everything good about what’s currently going on and makes it better while at the same time completely breaking the mold. It makes people talk. It makes people listen. And for better or worse everybody tries to copy it. Nas did it with Illmatic. Jay-Z did it with Reasonable Doubt. Biggie did it with Ready To Die. And in 1999 a white, bottle blonde from Detroit managed to change the way hip-hop is made forever. That MC was Eminem and the album was the Slim Shady LP.

Until this point the term “white rapper” made music fans think of one person, Vanilla Ice. While Em was met with a slight amount of skepticism all doubt went flying out the window with the release of his underground single, “Just Don’t Give A Fuck”. With lines like “Fuck it/ While We comin’ out in the open/ I’m doin’ acid, crack, smack, coke, and smokin’ dope then/ My name is Marshall Mathers/ I’m an alcoholic/ I have a disease but they don’t know what to call it/ Better hide your wallet/ ‘Cause I’m comin’ up quick to strip your cash/ Bought a ticket to your concert just to come and whip your ass”.

Eminem was bringing the most absurd, comical, offensive, crude, and ridiculous lyrics the game had ever heard. He also instantly became one of the best rappers in music. Nobody since Big L had taken chances with their lyrics like Eminem and he came at a time when his music was most out of the ordinary.

Just to make it clear how different it was, I will present this. Eminem debuted at number two on the Billboard charts. TLC’s Fanmail was number one. Eminem was getting rid of the old and coming in with the new. Any MC whose first line of their first single is, “Hi kids/ Do you like violence? / Wanna see me stick nine inch nails through each one of my eyelids? / Wanna copy me and do exactly like I did? / Try ‘cid/ And get fucked up worse that my life is” is bound to cause some controversy among the hip-hop community.

The rest of the album picked up right where the single left off with tracks like “Guilty Conscience” where Em and Dre play good cop and bad cop. In the song, a construction worker murders his wife and a frat boy has sex with a 15-year-old girl. “Rock Bottom” shows Em at his most desperate. He vividly describes trying to make it as a rapper while his wife and daughter aren’t properly provided for, needing a Tylenol PM to sleep, and his daughter being down to her last diaper. On “’97 Bonnie and Clyde” Eminem takes us on the journey of Eminem disposing of his dead wife’s body while his young daughter rides shotgun. “Role Model”, “Brain Damage”, “My Fault” and more round out the violent, sexually deviant, drug reference riddled, and amazing album.

“If I Had”, Eminem, The Slim Shady LP

I'm tired of being white trash, broke and always poor
Tired of taking pop bottles back to the party store
I'm tired of not having a phone
Tired of not having a home to have one in if I did have it on
Tired of not driving a BM
Tired of not working at GM, tired of wanting to be him
Tired of not sleeping without a Tylenol PM
Tired of not performing in a packed coliseum
Tired of not being on tour
Tired of fucking the same blonde whore after work
In the back of a Contour
I'm tired of faking knots with a stack of ones
Having a lack of funds and resorting back to guns
Tired of being stared at
I'm tired of wearing the same damn Nike Air hat
Tired of stepping in clubs wearing the same pair of Lugz
Tired of people saying they're tired of hearing me rap about drugs
Tired of other rappers who ain't bringing half the skill as me
Saying they wasn't feeling me on "Nobody's As Ill As Me"
I'm tired of radio stations telling fibs
Tired of J-L-B saying "Where Hip-Hop Lives"

But if I had a million dollars
I'd buy a damn brewery, and turn the planet into alcoholics
If I had a magic wand, I'd make the world suck my dick
Without a condom on, while I'm on the john
If I had a million bucks
It wouldn't be enough, because I'd still be out
Robbing armored trucks
If I had one wish
I would ask for a big enough ass for the whole world to kiss