The Slim Shady LP Review

The character solved everything. Slim Shady let him be a liar, a coward, a drunk and a nuisance without asking the listener to approve, and once that permission was granted the writing turned vicious and quick. My Name Is is the trojan horse, a candy hook wrapped around a verse about drugs and self loathing, and it is still the best joke he ever told at his own expense.

Rock Bottom and If I Had are the tell that this is not only comedy, two songs about being broke in a way that is specific rather than posed. The production is unusually spare for its moment, bass heavy and dry, the beats built to keep out of the way of a voice doing eight things at once. Where it dates is the shock material, some of which was cheap then and is cheaper now. What holds is the pacing. Nothing sits still, nothing repeats, and it ends before the joke goes stale.