#072 Eminem - The Marshal Mathers LP

Figured I'd hit his next one after mixed feelings about the first one.

This really deepens the some of the impressions I had after his first album, especially the negative ones. Here, Mathers is even more narcissistic, more defensive, more single-mindedly focused on talking about himself, his impact on the world, and how he feels about it. On some level, there's something here - fame took on bizarre proportions in the Britney / Boy Band era, and Mathers is in an interesting position to snipe at it from the inside. And the rapping is still super good. But it just gets tiresome. Its so ugly in tone, in subject matter, its unpleasant. It goes on for so long and is so relentless in its obsession over itself that I found myself really forcing myself to finish for the sake of the project. You can only fold reflections on reflections on reflections on fame and stardom over so many times before there's nothing holding it together, and this album crosses that threshold for me. The production on a few tracks (The Real Slim Shady, especially) is amazing, but 2.5/5