Recently titling himself as a Rap God, Eminem is most definitely one, if not the best, rapper to have ever step on this planet. However it hasn’t been fun and games for Slim through his career. After a spell in rehab, Eminem has returned a different person in the mass media’s spotlight, a more mature artist in some ways.
This leads us onto this weeks discussion, ‘Was Eminem better on or off drugs?”. The clear transition of the individual goes without question especially in front of the camera, but has his music changed? Has it changed for better or worse? We collect some our biggest Eminem fans here at HTF HQ to give you their views and let us know what you think in the comments below.
Mike Pascoe – Contributor
By all accounts, Em was high as hell throughout the production of the Slim Shady and Marshall Mathers LP, and it was then that he hit the zenith of his popularity and the peak of his creative powers. In the Marshall Mathers era, the Slim Shady persona had a kind of freewheeling viciousness – “Oh now he’s raping his own mother, abusing a whore, snorting coke and we gave him the Rolling Stone cover?” – that was both relentlessly precise and terrifyingly unpredictable. Now he’s cleaned up and grown up, his flows have become even tighter and his technical skills even more polished, but the psychotic instability has gone. It’s like Slim Shady spent ten years doing pilates, jogging and drinking cucumber smoothies; yes, he’d technically be faster and stronger, but you’d still be more scared of the Slim Shady that had stayed up for three nights drinking vodka and smoking cocaine-laced blunts if you met him in the street. Why? Because he’d grab a knife by the blade and stab you with the fucking handle, drop the sawed-off and beat you with the piece it was sawed off of, and all the other horrible shit he threatened us with.
Bart Williams – Contributor
Determining whether Eminem is better on or off drugs is a pretty solid task in my eyes. I wouldn’t say there’s any steady correlation between his drug-use and quality of music, and when examining how drug-use has affected his artistic output I think we have to look at two very different Marshall Mathers’. Two very mortal versions of what you and I know as Eminem and Slim Shady. Back in his hay-day, when Em dropped ‘The Marshall Mathers’ and ‘Slim Shady LPs’, getting high only complemented his material in the same way that international notoriety did. Em’s ego was sky-high and no one was complaining (feminist and gay groups aside). The period that followed saw a comparatively sober Eminem – ‘The Eminem Show’ displaying a far less ruthless tone whilst still holding itself up as a great album – by no means out of reach from the heights of his first two Aftermath-produced LPs.
Up until this point in his career I don’t think it’s for anyone to say whether he is better on or off drugs. Post-2002 though, I think it would be fair to say that we can. This era is the beginning of the aforementioned other Eminem. The Eminem that let addiction, fame and other responsibilities grind him down, this struggle consequently transpiring into his music. Whilst by no means would I say ‘Encore’ was a bad album, I think it was there that the signs of what were to come really began to make themselves apparent. The album showed a big reliance on using over the top characters with silly voices, really detracting from the cutting edge and depth of previous material. In the years that followed, I think for anyone to claim that drugs had a positive effect on Eminem would quite simply be ludicrous when you consider the fact that the Father of a young girl was dis-engaging his brain with the daily intake of copious amounts of prescription drugs whilst building up a fast-food addiction almost as critical to his health and well-being.
At the end of this period, after several failed rehabilitation attempts came ‘Relapse’, an album which for me only built on the negatives of ‘Encore’ by taking the absurdity of his many alter-egos to an all new level. The album was a joke – an unconvincing joke at that, the annoying voices simply used as a mask to cover the ugly face of a period of his life drowned in excess. This said, I’m not sure whether I can class the albums released in his following chapter of sobriety as any better: ‘Recovery’ equally agonising for completely different reasons (the main drive of the album seemingly pop-chart success). Now, this week came his latest installment: ‘The Marshall Mathers LP 2’ – an album which actually spurred mad anticipation in me for the hope of a return to the seminal prequel’s raw brilliance, an excitement quickly smothered by the release of painful singles leaving me with the sordid realisation that Eminem has actually sunk so low as to tarnish the classic’s name in the shallow hope of boosting album sales. No form of Resurrection of his former self to be seen.
Ultimately, I think that Eminem at his best was a result of getting high and vice versa, with his excessive use of drugs often to blame for the somewhat embarrassing material he’s dropped over the years. So for this one I’ve gotta say I’m very much on the fence.
Aaron page – Contributor
“Well, I do take pills, don’t do speed
Don’t do crack, don’t do coke, I do smoke weed
Don’t do smack, I do do shrooms, do drink beer…”
Em’s been on quite a few drugs from the start. So if you feel that’s what’s been messing with any of his output, then scratch both the Slim Shady and Marshal Mathers LP off your G.OA.T list. Em did drugs from the start and arguably some of his more manic moments (might) even be down to drug use. Personally I love everything Em’s done, but everyone hates Encore, so tracing it back there, Em’s problem is fame. He was already pretty unhappy with fame on his second album (The Way I Am). Then that album sold 10 million copies. Making Eminem the biggest rapper on the planet. Thne the album after that sold 10 million copies. 2 diamond selling albums made him Beatles famous. And this is where he really started to struggle. This is where he started popping pills so he wouldn’t have to deal with the anxiety of being famous. In his biography he still sounds paranoid about going down the road. And he even mentions wearing a bullet proof vest to go to the cinema on his new album. So all the pills he’s popping leave him feeling numb, so he can’t connect to whatever makes him rap the way he does. And then he makes songs like “Just Lose It”
But off drugs he made “Relapse, Recovery and MMLP2” and although those albums are less inventive, as rap albums they’re bordering on genius. So it’s hard to say on or off, so I’ll just say the best eminem is a happy eminem- drugs or no drugs
Fleur cook – Contributor
Promoting the use of drugs for any purpose seems very, very wrong on the old moral front, but I’ll be honest. As a young’s, all I remember was hearing Slim Shady from my brother’s room and I always enjoyed a listen, although the repetition got a little silly sometimes. Now aside from the fact he was on drugs when it was produced, the tracks from the first two albums are mainly what Eminem is remembered for. ‘Stan’, ‘My Name Is’, ‘The Real Slim Shady’, the absolute classics that we all call upon when we think of him as an artist. Now unfortunately, the fact that I’m not keen on many of the artists he collaborated with on ‘Recovery’, from my point of view, doesn’t put the drug free Marshall in good stead. But, can we all agree, he just went a little pop? His lyrics just a little too, tasteful even? This isn’t to say that he’s untalented when sober, I guess he just lost a little of his spark when he was being churned into the pop world. Having said all of this, I’ve yet to hear it but I’m expecting big things from ‘The Marshall Mathers L.P 2’, word on the grape vine is ‘Shady’ is back and he’s cleaner than ever..
Liam Trinh – Contributor
There is plenty of evidence to suggest either points. The world has watched Marshall take on a variety of drug-fueled alter-egos, as well as witnessing his side of enlightenment in phases of clear thinking and self-discovery.
We all know Eminem has his tendencies to crack out emotional, straight-minded tunes now and again (‘Mocking Bird‘ and ‘Hailie’s Song‘ being two of the obvious ones), ever showing that he has passion on either end of the scale. He’s always showed his diversity, but it wasn’t until 2010‘s ‘Recovery‘ that we witnessed Eminem go through his true phase of purity. His period of writer’s block, combined with the second divorce of his ex-wife Kim and the death of D12 co-member and close friend Proof propelled Marshall into an addiction to prescription sleeping drugs, which marked a low point in his life. The pain he suffered in this period of hiatus is thoroughly expressed in ‘Recovery‘, and this new rehabilitated Eminem was a breath of fresh air. But was a breath of fresh air really needed for Slim Shady fans?
Don’t get me wrong, his talent is still undoubtedly present, but it’s the attitude of the Eminem we knew in his first 5 albums (7 including D12 features) which built the fanbase he now has, which I believe may be simmering away as his content floats down the ‘mainstream route’. Collaborations with such artists as Pink may do a lot for a rapper’s popularity, but in terms of street cred? Not so much.
“So you can suck my dick if you don’t like, my shit,
Cause I was high when I wrote this so suck, my dick“
I feel as if the most complex and creative of Eminem‘s work has been created with an intoxicated mind. I mean, when else would you hear the verse: “I smoke a fat pound of grass, and fall on my ass, faster than a fat bitch who sat down too fast“? This type of lyric can be heard of in plenty in Eminem‘s musical timeline, and conveys the wacky/fucked-up character that all original Shady fans got to know and love.
The fact that he was almost permanently high throughout the production of ‘The Marshall Mathers EP‘ and ‘The Eminem Show‘ strongly indicates that it was probably the drugs which brought out the best in Eminem, especially as they are both, in the eyes of most people, his finest pieces of work. I’m whole-heartedly willing to back my conclusion with one of my favourite Eminem tracks below, which does more than justify his creative side under the influence.
“A bloodstain is orange after you wash it three or four times in a tub,
but that’s normal ain’t it Norman?
Serial killer hiding murder material
in a cereal box on top of your stereo,
Here we go again, we’re out of our medicine
out of our minds, and we want in yours, let us in“
It’s not just through music that Eminem convey’s his hilarity. He is known as a personality as well as a musician, and the video below of him explaining a drug-related encounter makes for an entertaining (and slightly concerning) watch.
What Do You Think?
Have Your Say In The Comments Below!
