Eminem

The Slim Shady LP in 1999 introduced an international audience to the character through which Marshall Mathers exaggerated his darkest jokes and impulses. Dr. Dre’s production helped give that voice an immediately recognisable setting, but the performances depended on Eminem’s command of rhythm and detail. He could make a verse feel like a scene, with different voices and sudden changes of perspective occupying the same small space.

The Marshall Mathers LP followed in 2000, sharpening the conflicts between public persona, family life and the pressures of fame. “Stan” is a particularly clear example of the narrative instinct: a sequence of messages gradually changes meaning as the distance between two people becomes apparent. Elsewhere, the record is deliberately abrasive. Its effect cannot be separated from the discomfort it creates or reduced to admiration for complicated rhymes.

The Eminem Show in 2002 gave the production a broader, often rock-inflected scale. “Without Me”, “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” and “Sing for the Moment” approached celebrity, resentment and identification from very different angles. “Lose Yourself”, written for 8 Mile, concentrated another part of his appeal: a tightly constructed performance that makes the possibility of failure feel physically close.

Later albums including Relapse, Recovery and The Marshall Mathers LP 2 revisited the relationship between technical display and personal exposure in different ways. The catalogue is more rewarding when those tensions remain visible. Eminem can make an astonishingly elaborate verse sound conversational, but the strongest songs give that ability a dramatic purpose. The precision matters because of what is being pressed into it, not merely because it is difficult to perform.