Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 05/12/05
Label: Interscope

Although his career is still shy of seven short years, a retrospective from one of rap's most revered rhymers is far from premature. If Jay Z is the God MC, Tupac the greatest ghetto poet and Biggie Smalls simply the illest, then Eminem is surely hip hop's most controversial couplet constructer. Public spats with on-off girlfriend Kim, legal wrangling with various family members, reported addiction to prescription medication, beef with other rappers and even charges of racism may have dogged him, yet Eminem remains one of music's brightest stars. Public Enemy fought the power and Kanye publicly demolished George Bush, but few have progressed rap music quite so consistently as Slim Shady.

Regardless of the many he offends, the multi-monikered MC is always outstanding and the compilation "Curtain Call" exemplifies why. Often complex and almost always brilliant, Eminem has crafted concepts, pushed himself to the lyrical limit and experimented with rhyming patterns that have seen lesser emcees down pens in defeat. Take debut single "My Name Is" from "The Slim Shady LP"; at first glance a name-dropping novelty track, yet amid the Spice Girl slaggings and quick-witted Pamela Anderson puns, we quickly discover the Detroit rapper had a dark side. "When I was little I would get so hungry, I threw fits / How you gonna breast feed me mom when you ain't got no t*ts?" As if anticipating the forthcoming furore, he shrugged off criticism with confident nonchalance. "I don't give a f*ck / God sent me to piss the world off."

On second album "The Marshall Mathers LP", Em concentrated more on controversy, creating songs like "Stan", a superb piece of storytelling that unfortunately also launched Dido. We forgive him though, as the album also boasted "The Way I Am", a fantastically furious tirade against the industry, his family, fans and everyone in-between. Eminem may be private in public but on wax he has proven nothing is off record. However, it was on his third record that Eminem's mic control really came to play. Already celebrated for his witty wordplay, "The Eminem Show" proved that few could match Mathers as an emcee; double-time spitting, mid-sentence rhyming, Eminem's ever-mutating flow was unmatched.

While Dr Dre has been the main musician behind the Slim Shady soundtrack, Em has also turned out to be a promising producer. Although he occasionally veers to the dark and dreary, for every "Toy Soldier", there's a "Without Me" to display his innate eye for a great hook and a speaker-shattering drumline. While he appears to have lost some inspiration in recent years, particularly epitomized by the inclusion here of sub-standard new tracks like "When I'm Gone", lets hope "Curtain Call" isn't the last we see of Eminem.

Unquestionably, it would be a tremendous loss to the world of modern music.

    by Hattie Collins