Before he made it big with music, before he met Dr. Dre, before the Grammys and the Academy awards, Eminem cooked and washed dishes at a family restaurant in Michigan. He was paid 5.50 an hour and worked 60 hours a week to save up enough money to support his daughter. By the time he was laid off, five days before Christmas, he's saved 40 dollars for her. All the money he had in the world.
He took this work ethic into his third studio album in early 2000. By this time, Marshall Mathers the Third, Eminem, was one of the hottest rappers in the music industry. He had bounced back from a flop of a debut, his personal problems and substance abuse which culminated in a suicide attempt, and gone on to release the platinum selling Slim Shady LP.
He threw himself into 20 hour recording sessions, isolating himself from not only new hanger ons enamoured by his celebrity, but also the press outside.
He was labeled as "misogynist, a nihilist and an advocate of domestic violence", and in an editorial, Billboard editor in chief Timothy White accused Eminem of "making money by exploiting the world's misery."
What the press and media didn't realise though, was that the world wanted nothing more than to have it's misery rapped back to them over a beat.
Hisrecord label speculated that Eminem would be the first artist to sell one million copies in an album's first week of release in May 2000.
The Marshall Mathers LP sold 1.78 million in it's first week.
The Marshall Mathers LP has been included in several lists of the greatest albums of all time and is widely regarded as Eminem's best album. It has sold 25 million copies worldwide and Eminem claimed yet another Grammy, despite protests outside the award ceremony that year.
Which is why it's easy to see why Dilated People's debut album The Platform, released the very same day in May, is completely forgotten to time.
Why is their album so forgotten? Why is Eminem's remembered so fondly? And how does an album that has lyrics about giving an abortion to a pitbull after drug induced bestiality, win a Grammy Award?
Let's find out. Welcome to When Albums Collide.