Ten years back, my soon-to-be wife, Cindy,
and I first noticed the bombarding beat for
Marshall Mather’s “My Name Is.”
“What an ass,” I said as the two of us sat to
watch the Grammies a year later. “It’s sad he
can sell so many records just by being vile.
Really, how much talent can that possibly
take?”
“Have you heard the record?” Cindy asked.
“No,” I admitted. “But I’ve heard enough to
know he’s an ass.”
She pursed her lips in silence as I stuttered
through a series of half-articulated examples
— the criticisms of others slipping through the
filter of my voice. Unlike me, she was
withholding judgment of the music until she’d
heard more of it.
“You know if you listen to the album you’ll be
a lot more entitled to an opinion, right?”
My wife has taught me, and continues to
teach me, more than anyone else.
The next day I bought the Slim Shady LP
along with the newly minted Marshall Mathers
album. I then spent the next few months in a
new sort of aural awe.
I’m not sure what my expectations were, but
they certainly weren’t to meet a man who
would murder my preconceptions of the
alphabet.
Though I’ve always been drawn to great
lyricists and songwriters, I’d never heard
anyone able to effectively indulge satire, rage,
sorrow, shame, guilt, regret, power, passion,
loneliness, bravado, stupidity, genius,
leadership, idiocy, misogyny, sympathy and,
believe it or not, tender compassion. And
Eminem was doing it in a stream of
pentameter that would, I’m certain, cause
William Shakespeare to shudder.
Plus, the dude is a brilliant storyteller.
Marshall Mathers is a lyrical sniper with a
shotgun, and vents more in a few hundred
words than many are able to effectively
communicate in pages of copy. When I listen
to an Eminem record, I’m hearing a man who
cares about every single syllable and the exact
tone of its delivery.
This isn’t to say all his songs are good. In
fact, each album has a handful of songs I find
both repugnant and unendurable. Yet they are
always peppered against gems of absolute
genius.
Eminem is a complicated artist, and could
easily provoke pages of arguments on his
positives, negatives and overall impact on our
culture for better or worse. But as a writer and
marketer, few can touch what he’s managed to
accomplish.
Meaning that if we pay attention, there’s
plenty to learn.
What Eminem can teach you about writing
1) Write and read all you can
Marshall started writing while just a child,
constantly sanding the rough edges of his
craft, knowing without doubt that the only
thing that would get him out of the trailer
park and into a better life was furious effort
and endless practice .
Marshall familiarized himself with the greats
until storytelling was as natural as drawing
breath. He may have started by imitating the
pioneers who came before him, but Eminem
soon blended their legacy into his own brew
that was like nothing else.
2) Edit ruthlessly
Eminem’s best tracks harbor some of the
tightest writing I’ve seen in any medium. One
has to wonder just how long he spends on
each song, considering how securely each
syllable is cemented in place.
Not only can Em craft a compelling argument
in prose, he can also structure it in a way that
would dazzle Dr. Seuss, not only by rhyming
words that shouldn’t rhyme, but by packing
more poetry into a verse than should be
technically possible. Only fastidious editing
can pull the written word so taut.
3) Write what you know
One of the things that makes Eminem so
polarizing is that his message flies from mind
to mic with only the thinnest filter in between.
Listening to his music is like tuning into a live
therapy session that would make Tony
Soprano seem stable by comparison. It’s easy
to believe that Marshall is speaking directly
from his heart and unique set of experiences.
4) Start strong and finish stronger
The best of Em’s songs achieve something
rare in commercially produced music — they
realize a powerful climax prior to their
conclusion. Many of Marshall’s songs are
written as arguments, and it’s usually in his
third verse when he drives his point home,
often with a lyrical sledgehammer.
5) Be concise and use powerful sentences
Marshall pares his arguments down to the
marrow. His intuitive sense of flow allows him
to seamlessly drift from the measured cadence
of ordinary speech to an unrivaled intensity of
verse, but it is always the power of his writing
which enables him to drive his point home
with such precision.

What Eminem can teach you about marketing
Eminem is a terrific writer, but if he wasn’t
also a natural marketer, he might very well be
still living on the wrong side of 8 Mile.
1) Put yourself out there
Be tireless and undaunted. Marshall paid his
dues in underground clubs as the only white
boy to step up and take the mic.
“ I was playing in the beginning, the
mood all changed. I been chewed up and
spit out and booed off stage. But I kept
rhyming and stepwritin the next cypher,
best believe somebody’s paying the pied
piper . . .
Em knew that no one was about to hand him
anything. If he wanted his voice heard, it was
his job to spread it.
2) Be extreme
Try speaking to everyone and you end up
speaking to no one.
As Sonia recently pointed out, Jenny Lawson
and Naomi Dunford aren’t for everyone, but
those who love them, really, really LOVE them.
“ See I’m a poet to some, a regular
modern day Shakespeare, Jesus Christ
the King of these Latter Day Saints here.
To shatter the picture in which of that as
they paint me, as a monger of hate and
Satan — a scatter-brained atheist. But
that ain’t the case, see it’s a matter of
taste. We as a people decide if Shady’s
as bad as they say he is. Or is he the
latter — a gateway to escape? Media
scapegoat, who they can be mad at
today . . .
3) Tell a story
Build a backstory that is unique to you and
you’ll develop a following that can belong to
no one else.
Marshall’s storytelling was evident in his first
LP, but he cemented his place as a teller of
unforgettable tales in the second album, most
notably with the song Stan, which tells the
story of a crazed fan who does double duty in
the song as a doppleganger for Marshall.
Eminem used this narrative as both a means
of self reflection and as a response to the
many critics questioning the cultural impact of
his music.
4) Experiment
Eminem’s music is crammed with
experimentation. From the simple lo-fi beats
of his earliest work to the wicked carnival
rhythms which characterized his partnership
with Dr. Dre, and all the loopy meters in
between, it’s easy to imagine that Marshall
isn’t happy unless he’s trying something new.
Not every experiment works, but at least he’s
willing to play in the lab.
5) Address objections
A big rule of marketing is to address audience
objections before the audience does.
Eminem has a history, going all the way back
to his first major release, of addressing critics
head on without flinching.
“ How many retards’ll listen to me
and run up in the school shooting when
they’re pissed at a teach-er, her, him, is
it you is it them? ‘Wasn’t me, Slim Shady
said to do it again!’ Damn! How much
damage can you do with a pen? Man, I’m
just as %#&@#! up as you woulda been
if you woulda been, in my shoes, who
woulda thought, Slim Shady would be
something that you woulda bought?
Marshall Mathers is complicated and
undeniably controversial, and though his
critics would correctly point out that his music
is filled with hate and vitriol, few of them seem
to acknowledge that he is also manipulating
his own material, taking his arguments to
such ridiculous extremes that he turns them
into farce.
Love him or hate him, the man known as
Eminem has proven that he’s an important
force in both modern music and culture. You
don’t have to like his lyrics or his message to
learn something from him. I’m grateful for the
day my wife wondered out loud if I really knew
what I was talking about.
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