The Eminem Show is the Eminem album were he finally realized that he didn't have to point fingers at everything and everyone to be successful. It's a reflective album were he speaks clearly and openly about his past life, though it doesn't really go into the amount of detail as "The Slim Shady LP".
So that is a minus on this album, no making fun of people which makes Eminem so hilarious. "Without Me", a great song, is really the only song that does it clearly and the only one of the two time that Eminem uses the words faggot to describe "Moby". So why is Eminem not throwing out those insults about homosexuals and women? Well my theory is that Eminem was tired of people suing him for being so inappropriate. Either that or he was tired of the Slim Shady songs. But "Without Me", is just as good it's just like "Slim Shady", except a little quicker and more meaningful. There is also the element that only three songs on this album are produced by Dre. Eminem was nearing the end of his career so he wanted to see what he could do producing this album and he would produce certain acts such as 50 Cent. Do you miss Dre on this album? Yeah, a little bit the beats aren't as complex as the ones on "The Way I Am or Marshall Mathers" on "The Marshall Mathers LP". They are stricter and less complex rap beats that fix nicely with Em's vocals. Sure you would want to see some beat changes but the album still is fine.
So without Dre producing and without making fun of homosexuals and killing women can Eminem make a good album? Oh yes he can. See Eminem can still go back to his past life and he does just that on "Cleaning Out My Closet", a epic song were Eminem sarcastically apologizes to his mom. The chorus is really apologetic and has Em singing "I'm sorry mama", but at the end he remembers some of his past life experiences and takes back every little word that he has said. You want Eminem to get even more personal? Eminem talks about racism in the great song "White America", and how Dr. Dre was the only producer who would give Eminem a chance. Eminem gets about as serious as he does in "The Way I Am" but with a joking chorus there still ends up being some happy-go-lucky parts of this song. Eminem talks about his daughter Hallie that he had with his wife Kim in the tracks "Hallies Song and My Dad's Gone Crazy". But the songs are completely different, "Hallies Song" is were Em says "The Hell With It" and tries to sing. The song ends up having some of Em's best rhymes and shows how much he says he cares for Hallie. "My Dad's Gone Crazy", was a song produced by Dre and is a funny song were Eminem apologizes at the end of the song and says he wouldn't let Hallie listen to him eitheir. The song has some of the quickest rhymes and a cool beat [probably since it was produced by Dr. Dre] and Hallie or the girl trying to be Hallie does a great job of sounding like a baby singing "I think my dad's gone crazy".
Eminem says he is going to be around for a while in "Til I Collapse", which supposedly stole the clapping beat from Queen's "We Will Rock You", but it's such a great song [and I really don't hear the similarities between the song]. It really has the coolest chorus of the album with someone else making bold claims about how long Eminem is going to rap when it really sadly be one album longer. He also makes shows some of his rock influences with the remixed beat of "Dream On" by Aerosmith, with his "Sing For The Moment". The song is really a look back at his career and his childhood. The chorus is the exact one from Aerosmith and Eminem surrounding lines sound absolutely perfect. The beat also doesn't take anything away from Aerosmith or the song would be horrible if it did. "Superman", is one of the most laid back songs of the album and is really the only song were Eminem deals with sex and women. It's one of the most catchy and fun songs on the album with a video that can be seen on Eminem's 8 Mile since the original version was born for sexual content. It's intro was probably Eminem's strongest of the album as he is cracking rhymes with ease but after a while it just get repetitive. "Business", is really a fun song but really shouldn't have been one of this albums singles and features a pretty cool chorus but a dull beat. The song gets old after a while but still is in the 4-5 areas of rating.
This is really a preview of how inconsistent Eminem's next album will be. This album has 10 songs that I considered in the 4.2-5 area. But besides those tracks it really is incosistent. I say the rest of the songs are in the 2.5-3 range including the skits. And on "Encore" you only have 4 hits so you know that it is trouble. "The Eminem Show", is really a reflective album with 10 great songs. This really brought to the mainstream Eminem's personal life and led to the creation of the movie 8 Mile. This has the most Eminem classic hits but also has some of his average songs on it to.
Pros:
Reflective/Personal
He can be good without Dre
10 Great Songs
Cons:
Dre missed due to generic beats
Not as controversial/fun.
10 Average songs
4.1/5
