Eminem
The Slim Shady LP
- Aftermath/Interscope
The living incarnation of Offspring's “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)”, Motor City rapper Eminem, has delivered a debut album that is so patently offensive it borders on the ridiculous. It has also soared up the charts, which says a whole lot about the chaotic state of the hip-hop nation in 1999. One minute Lauryn Hill is raising the bar of social awareness, the next minute some fast-talkin' fool is raking in cash by the barrel-full with shock value sagas about rape, molestation and murder. Here, Eminem (Marshall Mathers) raps about decapitating a cheating wife (“Guilty Conscience”), berating an overdose victim with tales of her incestuous upbringing (“My Fault”) and — in the set's sickest track — murdering his little girl's mother in front of the child. The latter cut, “97 Bonnie and Clyde”, doubles as a brutal parody of Will Smith's “Just the Two of Us.” Already a strong contender for the year's most moronic album.