It was 13 years ago today that Eminem dropped his groundbreaking Slim Shady LP. Since then, he’s gone on to shake up hip-hop in innumerable ways. At this point, he’s a revered elder statesman, a master MC whose passion comes through on every track he cuts. Complex Magazine is celebrating that mastery. They’ve made an impressive list of his 100 Best Songs, and they’ve crafted a VEVO playlist of Em’s 13 best videos. We chatted with Rob Kenner, Complex’s Music Editor, about the project.
VEVO: The Slim Shady LP was one of those records that no one could avoid. It was everywhere.
Complex: It was a game-changer. It ushered in the Eminem era and we’re still living in that era today. So right now seemed like a perfect time to look back on some of his videos. We’ve done an exhaustive study of his best songs, but we thought it would be the occasion to look at 13 of the videos that burned themselves into the brains of the youth of America. He is as fearless a video maker as he is a song maker.
What keeps him thriving these days?
He’s in love with hip-hop. He’s first, last and always that battle rapper from the wrong side of the tracks that made the right connections to become a global superstar, but it always comes back to beats and rhymes with him. As much as he is a real phenomenon with a sustained career at the highest levels of the music industry, he doesn’t really seem to give a fuck about that, and always gets back to being an MC’s MC.
You mention the battle-rap roots. Do you recall your first impressions of him?
Without a doubt. Everyone remembers the first time they saw the video for “My Name Is.” It was clear we were dealing with something that had never been on this planet before. This was an artist who was willing to take on every sacred cow and slaughter them. But even before he made that video, people who were really paying attention to hip-hop were aware of him coming up through the Lyricist’s Lounge and other things he was doing as an MC on the rise. But once he broke into the mainstream, it was full speed ahead.
He’s often positioned as the angry young man, but his humor has always been an attraction as well.
No question, and I think it took awhile for people to understand his sense of humor. You know, “Is this guy really psychotic, or is it [just a joke]?” Over time we’ve gotten to know his sensibility, what we’re really looking at, which is a high level of satire. But there’s also some very real emotion and pain in a record like “Not Afraid.” That image of him on the edge of a tall building – it captures both his fearlessness as an artist, and his battle back from the brink of oblivion as a human being. His willingness to share both with his fans makes him the type of artist that is never going to get stale.
Vevo Blog
The section seems more active since you got the title lol.
I try.