SSLP feels dated. Like a 90s styled version of a funnier early Earl Sweatshirt. Maybe it's because the style became so copied. Maybe because the style and album became almost taboo to like. It was a more polished Infinite Em with a persona that seemed to take the restraints off of his personality. A younger me loved SSLP and when The Eminem Show dropped I remember thinking he was trending towards a more gangster image, which I associated with the mainstream rap I had condemned for the most part. The ability was still there. The humor. Even the subject matter, but it was all tinted with a more serious persona that I didn't vibe with quiet as much. Relapse felt like a more mature version of SSLP and I laugh at the hilarity of it the same way I laugh reading A Clockwork Orange. His G-Unit/Obie Trice/Source beef years were my least favorite overall, but there's still enjoyable verses sprinkled about that period from him.
MMLP I feel like I've listened to too many times to even rate. It's like that shitty movie you watched 100 times as a kid that you should hate as an adult, but can't get past the nostalgia to accurately judge. Not saying it's shitty, only that I can't rate it accurately. Stan is like some ancient Beatles song you've grown up hearing in elevators, department store speakers and countless car rides. It's too iconic to even listen to normally or as its own track, almost. I feel like the concepts and execution on MMLP were a combination of the height of his ability and just coming off the height of his hunger as an artist. Realizing he had made it, but feverishly working to seize the opportunity.
'Kim' as a first listen song was insane.
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