Who does he think he is?

Sunday Herald, The, Nov 14, 2004 by Leon McDermott

Eminem Encore (Interscope) 2/5 stars Who is the real Eminem? Or, rather, the real Marshall Mathers? You suspect that not only does he not want you to know, he doesn't want to know himself. Ever since 1999's Slim Shady LP, which made his name beyond his native Detroit, Eminem has ducked and woven through various identities. Indeed, Encore is the first Eminem album not to be titled after some aspect of his personality. Slim Shady was centred round his violent caricature of an alter-ego, the one who "just don't give a f***". The Marshall Mathers LP, in 2000, was a bitter scrawl of self-loathing which dug deep into the Mathers psyche and pulled out some unappealing rabbits; and 2002's The Eminem Show dissected his public persona, mostly via digs at rivals and broadsides against the moral majority.

So what of Encore, then? The previous three albums stand as a mostly coherent trilogy. Encore sounds like an attempt to move on, but is hamstrung by the desire for continuity. And though some of it is produced by Dr Dre, it lacks the impulsive hooks that are Eminem's speciality.

In some ways, Mathers is rap's Robert Crumb. Like the counter- culture cartoonist, he's a devoted thorn in morality's side who sets out to shock, but claims he's only doing so because he's honest. And anyway, society's a shockingly hypocritical place - and whatever happened to freedom of expression? (Or, in Crumb's words, in a 1971 cartoon, "Would you like me to stop venting my rage on paper? Would you rather I went out and raped 12-year-old girls?") Crumb, however, always admitted to his misogyny and worked through it. Eminem sticks to the tried and tested argument that he's only a reflection of a morally corrupt society; he's just singing about life as he's seen it (and damn, he might add, he's seen the worst of it).

Like his previous albums, Encore is shot through with homophobia and references to "bitches". Mathers's ex-wife, Kim, comes in for more abuse, though she doesn't end up murdered, as she did on the earlier song Kim, which had Eminem strangling her, screaming "NOW BLEED, BITCH, BLEED!" This time, on Puke, he is hardly more tender, telling her: "You're a f***in' cokehead and a slut/I hope you f***in' die/I hope you go to hell and Satan sticks a needle in your eye/I hate your f***in' guts, you f***in' slut".

Meanwhile, Mockingbird, his song to his daughter Hailie, is as sentimental as Puke is furious, though there's still room for a dig at Kim. It's nasty stuff, whether it's in character or not. It's worth asking how teenage boys are likely to take it, particularly if they've been brutalised like the youthful Eminem was. As far as he's concerned, women have let him down his whole life, and it's only fair they get payback.

One highlight of the album is Mosh, released as a single in the US two weeks before the presidential election. A brooding call to arms, it features some of the album's best rapping (too often, Eminem's machine-gun mouth runs away with itself, and he loses coherence). Setting out the culture war in stark terms, it casts Eminem as a beacon for disaffected youth, the leader of a million-strong army that will defeat Bush, the Great Satan. "No more blood for oil/We got battles to fight on our own soil/No more psychological warfare to trick us into thinking that we ain't loyal."

It's one of the few moments on Encore which doesn't feel hateful for the sake of it. In the past, the rage and anger that burned at the heart of Eminem's albums was directed as much inward as at anyone else. On Encore, it loses its self-questioning and becomes posturing. The mask of celebrity has eaten into Eminem's face, and what's left isn't pretty.

FIVE TRACKS THAT DEFINED THE EMINEM SOUND AND

WHERE TO DOWNLOAD THEM It's been five years since Eminem's first UK single and since then he's become the biggest rapper in the world. These five tracks are Eminem at his best: foul, offensive, angry and funny in equal measure.

My Name Is (1999) The calling card in which Eminem unveiled his Slim Shady alter-ego: a foul-mouthed and violent cartoon character of a rapper. Over a trademark Dr Dre slouchy funk beat (sampled from Labi Siffre's I Got The), Eminem disses his competitors, claims that his "palms are too hairy to hide" and - in a move that saw him in court for slander - claimed that "my mom does more dope than I do".

Stan (2000) A stalker fan/star narrative that makes The Police's Every Breath You Take sound like a jolly romp. Is Stan violent because Eminem legitimises it? Or is he just connecting with another tortured psyche who happens to sell millions?

The Way I Am (2000) A self-excoriating and self-justifying slab of introspection, taking in the media hype, his abandonment as a child by his father and the constant claims that he's somehow inauthentic for daring to be a white rapper.

Cleaning Out My Closet (2002) There's enough rage, bitterness and anger in these five minutes to keep a battery of therapists in good suits for years. It reaches deep into his fractured childhood, in which he can't decide between acceptance of his mom and seeing her "f***in' burn in hell".