Some Rare Facts About ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ you might not know. Album Turns 20.
Eminem’s classic ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ completed 20 years a few days ago and the Detroit rapper will celebrate the anniversary on 27th, with a listening party along with a live chat and much more. Before that, we collected some of the rare facts about the 2000 classic album which you might not know.
It’s been two decades since Eminem released The Marshall Mathers LP, a gorgeous, dark, and twisted vision. From Kendrick Lamar to Elton John to the late Juice WRLD, performers from all genres have regularly cited this album as an influence. Even now, Eminem appears to be attempting to recapture the hatred, fury, and anger that characterizes the initial MMLP project.
“I’mma keep it 100% honest: I feel like, and I’ve felt like this for a long time – I’ve always been chasing The Marshall Mathers LP,” Eminem said to Sway Colloway in 2019. “Because I know that captured a moment, you know what I’m saying? It’s kind of like a time capsule when I look back at it. The times that it was back then and the turmoil in my life that was happening.”
Following the failure of his debut album, Infinite (1996), Eminem invented the alter character Slim Shady, whom he presented on the Slim Shady EP (1997). After finishing second in the annual Rap Olympics, Eminem caught the attention of Interscope Records’ employees and subsequently CEO Jimmy Iovine, who played the Slim Shady EP for hip hop producer Dr. Dre.
“The Marshall Mathers LP” will celebrate its 20th anniversary in May. While we wait, let’s take a trip down memory lane and learn 10 interesting facts about Eminem’s legendary album.
01. The ‘Marshall Mathers LP’ was Originally titled ‘Amsterdam’.
Only some people know that Eminem’s legendary project ‘The Marshall Mathers LP‘ was supposed to be called ‘Amsterdam‘, the capital of the Netherlands. The city was well-known for its free use of drugs and marijuana, which inspired Eminem to write a lot of lyrics for the album.
02. There Are 49 Name-Drops on the MMLP.
In 2015, XXL Magazine revealed in an article that Eminem iconic ‘The Marshall Mathers LP‘ featured at least 49 namedrops. The namedrops include hip-hop figures, pop stars, actors, president of the US. The list includes the likes of Dr. Dre, Pamela Anderson, Will Smith, Britney Spears, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Clinton, Jennifer Lopez, Tupac, Missy Elliott, Snoop Dogg, Mark Wahlberg, Ricky Martin and more.
03. The Another twist to Stan’s Story.
In 2011, Eminem said, “There was a verse where [Stan] got out of the water. He escaped and came to my house to kill me. Then I had to kill him first, but I missed him, and he was in the hospital for three weeks, Then he was pissed off that I didn’t write him the get well soon cards, so he came to kill me again, and in the last verse finally I just blew his head off.”
04. Around 12 people were killed on the album, including Dr. Dre.
In 2015, XXL Magazine listed a list of the people that were killed in Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP“. The 12 (or more) people list includes Dr. Dre (twice), Stan, Stan’ Wife, Kim’s husband, and his son, N Sync, Bizarre’s Mother, A School full of bullies and more.
05. The Album has the biggest hip-hop debut of all time.
Eminem still has the record of biggest ever Hip-Hop debut in the US, thanks to his MMLP album. The album sold 1.76 million copies in the first week, doubling the previous record-holder Snoop Dogg’s ‘Doggystyle‘ at that time. Currently Top 3 biggest Hip-Hop debuts belong to Eminem, which includes ‘The Marshall Mathers LP (1.76m)‘, ‘Encore (15m)‘, and ‘The Eminem Show (1.32m)‘.
06. The Song “Kim” was replaced by “The Kids”.
The Detroit rapper replaced too controversial track ‘Kim‘ with the song called ‘The Kids‘ for the clean version of his album ‘The Marshall Mathers LP‘ because ‘Kim‘ was too explicit to be censored. ‘The Kids‘ appeared on the project’s clean version, the deluxe, the UK and Australian versions of the album.
07. Kim was the first track to be recorded for the album.
One of the most controversial songs of all time ‘Kim‘, is the first track to be recorded for Eminem’s ‘The Marshall Mathers LP‘. The song was recorded shortly after wrapping up the work for his previous album ‘The Slim Shady LP’ in 1998.
08. “Stan” Added the Oxford Dictionary.
The word ‘Stan‘, which was the name of Eminem’s die-hard fan in ‘The Marshall Mathers LP‘ track, was included in the Oxford Dictionary in 2017. The Oxford defines the word as “An Overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity.” The Eminem fandom is also called as the stans.
09. Steve Berman is a Real Person.
The Album featured a skit called ‘Steve Berman‘ where the person of the same name complains about Eminem’s dark lyrics. Steve Berman is an actual person who’s the president of sales and Marketing at Interscope Records. He was also used by Eminem in his tracks on his next albums ‘The Eminem Show’ and ‘Relapse’.
10. In the album, Eminem used around 278 curse words.
In 2015, XXL Magazine listed the curse words which were used in Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP“. The 278 (or more) Curses include F**k 132 times, Sh*t 62 times, B**ch 56 times, Sl*t 10 times, F*g 15 times, and wh*re 3 times.
