Eminem Discography:
The Eminem Show
The Eminem Show is Eminem's third album after signing to a major label, Aftermath
Entertainment.
Before the release of The Eminem Show, Eminem was trying to think of a title
for the CD. He was going to use the regular suffix that he used on all of the
other CDs: LP/EP, but decided that it would get bland after awhile. So he instead
put the word "show" into it.
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It was intended to be released in June 2002, but Interscope decided to release the album early on May 28 when pirated copies of the tracks began to pop up on popular peer-to-peer file sharing networks. In the U.S. however, many stores actually began selling on Sunday, May 26.
The Eminem Show is a reflective album; Eminem touches on the issues of race in hip hop, especially in the second track on the album, "White America", his childhood, especially in "Cleanin' Out My Closet", his conviction for assaulting a nightclub bouncer in 2000, his status as a rap superstar, and his relationship with his ex-wife Kim and daughter Hailie. Unlike The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show's release came off without allegations of misogyny or homophobia. This is likely due to the fact that Eminem only uses the word "fag" once in the entire album and no tracks are potentially offensive in the mold of "Kill You" or "Kim" on the previous album.
The album also saw Eminem take a substantially more predominant production role; most of it was self-produced, with longtime collaborator Jeff Bass co-producing several tracks. Dr. Dre, in addition to being the album's executive producer, produced three individual tracks: "Business," "Say What You Say," and "My Dad's Gone Crazy."
The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of 2002, with 7.6 million copies by year end. In 2003, the album was ranked number 317 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Although the album was a critical and commercial success, many fans felt that it didn't live up to the power of his first two albums; some questioned Eminem's ability as a producer, while others claimed that he had lost the edge he had on his previous albums. However, The Eminem Show was generally received better than its successor, Encore.
Eminem - The Eminem Show (2002) Track listings & Lyrics
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