The Eminem Show

Coming off the cartoon violence of his first two blockbusters, Eminem here turns the microscope on himself, producing much of the record and treating stardom, race, and his own family as raw material.

"White America" opens with a taunt about how his blond hair and blue eyes let his rage travel where a Black rapper's wouldn't, and he never lets the listener off that hook. Then "Cleanin' Out My Closet" strips the jokes away entirely, a son addressing his mother over a plain, insistent beat until the confession stops feeling like theater. The Aerosmith loop under "Sing For the Moment" shows the other move he learned that year — pulling rock into rap and making stadiums out of guitar samples. It's the sound of a provocateur discovering he can build the whole machine himself, and deciding to aim it inward.