Kim (The Marshall Mathers LP)

Here comes another behemoth of a post as I review, for my money, one of the greatest songs of all time.

I can't even begin to describe how out-of-the-box this song was...how original. I've never heard another song so daring and so bizarre. But it's a good bizarre. I'm confident in saying nobody else has made a rap song quite like it...it's amazing how he makes the dialogue sound so realistic yet it rhymes at the same time.

It's like a movie/rap musical...where instead of acting out a violent domestic scene between husband and wife, the two characters rap it. The song is an Eminem puppet show, with Eminem playing his own wife and doing all the sound effects himself. Apparently he made the sound of the leaves rustling in the woods in the third verse by getting some leaves from outside the studio and stomping on them.

But the thing about this song is that I rarely play it. And that's not because it's bad...it's just too intense. I normally want to play something easy to digest. This is far from it...it's a song that demands your full attention. You can't have it playing in the background while you watch TV. It's too good for that. So let's go through it:

So here's some background for this song (some of this might be inaccurate but fuck it):

Around about 1996, Eminem had just released an album called Infinite which didn't do too well and didn't make much money. So he went back to being a cook at Gilbert's Lodge, earning $5.50 an hour at his dead-end job, barely able to provide for his daughter. I think at this point, Kim was getting sick of it all. So in 1997, she cheated on Eminem and married another guy. Now obviously they weren't married so it wasn't adultery but still pretty bad, since Hailie was only 1.

So this other guy Kim married, already had a son. This enraged Eminem, who was doing everything he could to make Kim/Hailie's life better. So he went and wrote two songs. The first one was Kim.

At the beginning of the song, Eminem babytalks to his daughter Hailie. Then he takes his wife Kim out to the car and drives her to the woods. During the drive he reveals he's already killed her new husband and step-son (who is a 4-year-old boy). He reveals he slit the boy's throat in the living room (and presumably did the same thing to Kim's new husband). So they're laying dead in his house while he takes his wife out to the woods to kill her. In the third verse he reveals his plans to frame Kim for the murder of the husband and step-son, and for taking her own life afterwards ("so now it's double homicide and suicide with no note"). He slits Kim's throat and the song ends when he dumps her in the trunk.

Now, the sequel, '97 Bonnie & Clyde, begins, chronologically, a little later. Because between the events of the two songs, Eminem needs to drive back home with Kim in his car, get the husband and step-son's bodies from the living room, and dump THEM in the trunk too. Then, he says to his daughter, who is still in her cot, "C'mon, hey hey, we goin' to the beach."

So yeah...he wrote Kim and '97 Bonnie & Clyde in probably the same time period (1997). He put '97 Bonnie & Clyde on his Slim Shady EP, but kept Kim locked away from the world until his second album (I don't know why he did this but it was a good decision).

The song has a very dark, gothic instrumental from the Bass Brothers/Eminem production team...and a great chorus from Eminem. It's just the one voice...no digital alteration of his voice (he doesn't hit the notes properly...but I like that sort of imperfection...lends well to the emotional feel of the track).

Highlights of Kim, for me:

SIT DOWN BITCH YOU MOVE AGAIN I'LL BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU

A hilarious shock. Was NOT expecting this when I first heard Eminem sweet-talking his daughter.

Aw, what's the matter Kim, AM I TOO LOUD FOR YOU?!

Laughed at this irony as well...just sick.

What are you doing? CHANGE THE STATION! I hate this song!

He's talking about the quality of songs on the radio during an obvious mental breakdown where he's about to kill his wife. Guy had a warped sense of humor. This is some Tarantino shit...except Tarantino didn't make his characters rhyme. Eminem: 1, Quentin: 0.

What the fuck's this guy's problem on the side of me? Fuck you asshole, yeah, bite me!

I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard this. A hysterical reminder that he's in a car with Kim...referencing the traffic outside.

Kim, KIM! Why don't you like me? You think I'm ugly, don't you? No, you think I'm ugly
Get the fuck away from me! Don't touch me!

I just love this kind of childish response, amidst all the chaos/turmoil. Made me laugh.

That was funny, wasn't it? "Yes." THAT WAS FUNNY, WASN'T IT? "YES!!!"

Kim is forced to reminisce about Brian's party at what I assume is knife point.

Go ahead, yell! I'll scream with you: AHHHH SOMEBODY HELP!

Wow. Just...amazing piece of voice-acting. He actually makes you feel like you're in the woods with them, and this is happening. And just really perverted humor from Eminem when he's about to commit the unthinkable.

BLEED, BITCH, BLEED

Hands down one of the most brilliant pieces of voice-acting Eminem's ever done. Apparently he made this song while he was on ecstasy, so that would have aided/facilitated his emotional delivery since it gets you all lovey-dovey.

Well, that concludes the review to Kim.