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His lyrics, when they aren't flat-out, call-your-local-Congressperson offensive, can be witty. "And it seems like the media immediately/points a finger at me/so I point one back at them/but not the index or pinky," he raps on one of the album's best cuts, the gruff The Way I Am. Eminem is also fearlessly blunt at times, cruelly deriding the talents of the hottest pop stars. "Don't get me started/these f_______ brats can't sing," he raps about the boy band 'N Sync. "And Britney's garbage/What--is this bitch retarded?"
The one thing the album lacks--other than, of course, a moral compass--is great beats. Eminem is a protege of master rap producer Dr. Dre (who serves as executive producer), but the songs showcase Eminem's lyrics more than Dre's studio skills. Dancing to this album would be like dancing to a Lenny Bruce routine. The CD also gets old quickly: Who wants to hear the same joke told five times?
On one track, Eminem raps that he "became a commodity/because I'm W-H-I-T-E/cause MTV was so friendly to me." Maybe someday we'll get to the colorblind place. Maybe some day Britney and Ricky and Eminem and DMX will sit around a campfire and their voices will drift up to the sky: "Kum ba yah, my Lord, Kum ba yah..." But for now, guys like Eminem have an advantage, and they're working it for all it's worth.