If you were to start going through this series from the very first post and up to here, you’d think that the only hip-hop artists I listen to on the regular are Eminem and Kanye West. Not that there’s anything wrong with this. They’re both two of the best to ever do it in the genre. But, you know… I’d like to think I have a varied taste now. I wasn’t able to write the posts in time, is all. I started this blog when I was 17, and at that age, in my eyes, Eminem and Kanye were the best ever and no one could beat them. Times have passed, and their flaws – musically speaking – have become apparent to see as the years roll on. But their classic songs are still classics, including this one right here, which everyone knows and is still one of Eminem’s most popular tracks almost 25 years after its release.

‘The Real Slim Shady’ was the first single to be released from Eminem’s second major-label album, The Marshall Mathers LP. It had only been just over a year since the rapper blessed everyone’s screens with ‘My Name Is’, introducing the world to Slim Shady and the persona’s wild, wild antics. Now Em was back, laughing at the chaos left in his wake and making his mark again as a labelled misogynist and advocate of domestic violence (taken from Wikipedia, I’m sorry), being the White man succeeding in a Black man’s game and ultimately poking fun at the imitators who had made themselves present in the aftermath of his success. It’s a mixture of silliness and seriousness as Eminem criticises vapid boy/girl pop groups, journalists and critics and the general public. He also cusses out Will Smith in one of the funniest diss lines to be put to paper.

I was five when all of this was happening, so I didn’t really grasp Eminem’s magnitude at the time. To me, he would just pop up with his new singles every time a new album was coming around. I wanna say I do remember watching that VMA performance of the song where he got hundreds of lookalikes to stand menacingly as he rapped through the track. ‘The Real Slim Shady’ doesn’t have that much a personal connection with me, but it’s always just been there existing almost as long as I’ve been around, and it’s damn good. Does it sound a bit dated? Sure. I mean, those cultural references in the lyrics aren’t anything but stuck in the late ’90s/2000 dead-on. But once Eminem gets to rapping, I never get that feeling to skip it.