People think of this as an “Eminem song”, a joke song, not “real Rap” or something like that; but I’m not sure they realize how important this was for Rap. When this came out, rapping slow and tight and over a beat like this was probably more of a fuck you than the words ‘fuck you’. Remember, at the end of the ’90s people were making party songs about about cars, clothes, and money; that was the period when it became accepted that you didn’t have to be a good MC to do Rap, you just had to look rich or be an “entrepreneur” or whatever. And a pop/rap song lived and died by the “beat”. To come out with something like this, with personal rhymes and, yes, goofy jokes was a more serious statement than anyone else was making back then.

“Well … Since age twelve
I felt like I’m someone else
’cause I hung my original self
from the top bunk with a belt”

• Eminem – My Name Is
• Labi Siffre – I Got The …