Psychoanalysis of Eminem’s First Three Studio Albums

By:Julian Hunt

For: Grade 12 English

Eminem's music has always sparked controversy in the press; however, his music has changed over time, as his character evolves through the development of id, ego and super-ego. This artist has produced a large body of work including several studio albums as well as multiple collaborative efforts with other artists. Analysis of this work may be approached using several literary lenses. Applying psycho analysis to his first three studio albums allows us to understand where all these hotly debated lyrics originate from and how they change over time. As we apply Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche to these albums, they turn from just an angry teen's words to a dark, intricate story of a character’s struggle to deal with his inner demons. To achieve this we must carefully analyze the ego, id and super-ego of the character Eminem throughout the albums “The Slim Shady LP”, “The Marshall Mathers LP” and “The Eminem Show”.

The ego of the character we watch develop through these albums is the rapper Eminem: the public persona he strives to be, unaffected by his id or his super-ego. This character struggles to contradict the id, Slim Shady. He is introduced as follows in the song “My Name Is” “Well since age twelve, I've felt like I'm someone else/ Cause I hung my original self from the top bunk with a belt”(My Name Is). Slim Shady is Eminem's evil side, obsessed with sexual gratification as well murder, rape and assault. Not only does Eminem have a sadistic id trying to influence him, he also has the depressive Marshall Mathers as a super-ego trying to drag Eminem down with memories of his terrible childhood. He is introduced to us in the song “If I Had” on the album “The Slim Shady LP” stating that “Friends are people that you think are your friends/But they really your enemies, with secret identities/and disguises, to hide they true colors/So just when you think you close enough to be brothers/they wanna come back and cut your throat when you ain't lookin”(If I Had). Therefore Eminem has two negative personae trying to bring him down in different ways: one toward depression and the other toward violence.

The Marshall Mathers super-ego is largely based on the rapper’s real life experiences (Marshall Mathers is Eminem’s real name). Books, articles and interviews about rapper Eminem's life explain how he grew up being abused by his drug addicted mother, growing up poor and bullied in Detroit’s black ghettos and never knowing his father. The only father figures he had to look up to were his mother’s boyfriends who abused him as well. These life experiences create the super-ego of Eminem in his music. Songs such as “If I had” as well as “Rock Bottom” are drawn from these experiences. Lyrics such as “Life is like a big obstacle / put in front of your optical to slow you down” (If I Had) and “My life is full of empty promises/And broken dreams”(Rock Bottom) illustrate the super-ego’s influence on the ego. However, in his later music the voice of the super-ego changes. He manages to find hope and positivity which is clearly expressed in “Hailie's Song”. The song begins “I act like shit don't phase me/ Inside it drives me crazy/ My insecurities could eat me alive/ But then I see my baby/ Suddenly I'm not crazy/It all makes sense when I look into her eyes”(Hailie’s Song) demonstrating that he tries to act strong in spite of his insecurities and it is love for his daughter gives him purpose and a reason to keep on going. As the song ends we sense that everything is coming together as it should when he states “My baby's travelled back to the arms of her rightful owner/ And suddenly it seems that my shoulder blades have just shifted/ It's like the greatest gift you can get/ The weight has been lifted”(Hailie’s Song). This shift was foreshadowed in some of the earlier and darkest songs released by Eminem. Take “Kim” and “97' Bonnie and Clyde” for example, both murder fantasies of Marshall Mathers ex-wife, Kim Mathers. Both songs contrast Eminem's hate for his ex-wife with his growing love for his newborn daughter. Among lyrics such as “Sit down bitch, If you move again I'll beat the shit out of you”(Kim) and “Quit crying bitch, why do you always make me shout at you”(Kim) you also find lyrics such as “How did you get so big?/ Can't believe it now you’re two/ Baby you're so precious/ Daddy's so proud of you”(Kim). In his early music the hateful lyrics are a lot more prominent however as time progresses we notice a shift in the music that is associated with the Marshall Mathers super-ego. Much less of this is hate related and love for his daughter becomes the main subject of many songs such as “Hailie's Song” as well as “ My Dad's Gone Crazy”. In spite of this positive influence Eminem still must cope with his diabolical id.

Slim Shady is a fantasy character expressed in some of Eminem’s music who is his characters’ id and indulges himself according to the pleasure principal. However, while the pleasure principal states that the id tends to seek pleasure and avoid pain, Slim Shady receives pleasure from the suffering of others. Often presented as a very violent criminal he is introduced as follows in the song “Crack A Bottle”:

The moment you've all been waiting for..
In this corner: weighing 175 pounds,
With a record of 17 rapes, 400 assaults, and 4 murders,
The undisputed, most diabolical villain in the world:
Slim Shady!(Crack A Bottle)

Sigmund Freud's states that the id originates at birth and that “The mind of a newborn child is regarded as completely "id-ridden", in the sense that it is a mass of instinctive drives and impulses, and needs immediate satisfaction, a view which equates a newborn child with an id-ridden individual”(Id, Ego and Super-Ego). The latter explains why the source of most of Slim Shady's pleasure comes from women. If the id originates at birth, most of a baby's needs are fulfilled by the mother, a woman. This is exaggerated in the case of Slim Shady as he did not have a father during his childhood and therefore everything he needed would be supplied to him by a woman. If the id truly is created at birth then it make sense that Slim Shady continues to seek out women to fulfill his pleasures as that’s how he was raised and was born to think. Inexplicable by the definition alone of the id is the source of violence and anger towards women that are fulfilling his pleasures/needs. However, because the Marshall Mathers super-ego, the Eminem ego and the Slim Shady id are all contained within the same physical body it is fair to assume they have experienced the same events. The latter explains the id's anger and hatred stemming from the way he was treated by his mother as a little boy. At the time of the mistreatment the body that the id inhabited was physically inferior to his mother and therefore he could do nothing to fight back. However, since his mother also provided him with fulfilment of his needs he was forced to take the abuse in order to achieve satisfaction. More than twenty years later, the id inhabits the same body except that it is now physically superior to those from whom he seeks pleasure. Being the dark part of a human's personality the id is releases his anger towards those he considers fulfilling his mother’s old role. This strong force is difficult for the ego to resist.

The ego in this story is the rapper Eminem. He is angry at the world for the way his music is perceived, and he is being torn apart psychologically by his id as well as his super-ego. Eminem fits Freud’s description of the ego in as he search for balance between his id and super-ego while dealing with the outside influences of social morals, norms and taboos. This places a huge amount of stress on the character of Eminem. Because his egos are expressed when he raps the resulting lyrical content is offensive to many members of the media, who thus are very critical. The latter causes him to have much built up anger towards the media which he releases through many of his songs such as “White America” and “Say Goodbye To Hollywood”. This has negative effects on him expressed in such lyrics as “Cause all I wanted was to give Hailie the life I never had/But instead I forced us to live alienated…”(Say Goodbye To Hollywood) However, Eminem is also proud of his success through controversy as displayed in the following lyrics from “White America”:

Who would of thought, standing in this mirror bleachin' my hair, with some peroxide,
Reaching for a t-shirt to wear, that I would catapult to the forefront of rap like this, how
Could I predict my words would have an impact like this, I must've struck a chord, with somebody/ up in the office, cause congress keeps telling me I ain't causin' nothin' but problems, and now/They're sayin' I'm in trouble with the government, I'm lovin' it, I shoveled shit all my life,/And now I'm dumping it on(White America)

Throughout his third album “The Eminem Show”, we get a sense of things coming to a close by examining the song titles on the album: “Cleaning Out My Closet”, “Say Goodbye To Hollywood”, “Without me”, “Sing For The Moment”, “When The Music Stops” as well as “'Till I Collapse”. Despite this, the last song on the album “My Dads Gone Crazy” leaves us with a depressing feeling that he has given up and given into both of his altered personalities. This is resolved a few years later, with the release of “When I'm Gone”, including dialogue between himself and his daughter Hailie. This song displays his final struggle between giving up to his egos or to shrug them off to stop performing as Slim Shady and take on his responsibilities as a father. The final verse of the song ends with the following:

“I hear applause, all this time I couldn't see
How could it be, that the curtain is closing on me
I turn around, find a gun on the ground, cock it
Put it to my brain and scream "die Shady" and pop it
The sky darkens, my life flashes, the plane that I was supposed to be on crashes and burns to ashes, That's when I wake up, alarm clock's ringin” (When I'm Gone)

It is now clear that Eminem has killed off his id Slim Shady and can finally move on.

This story of a character’s struggle with his inner demons is Eminem’s work of art. It could be compared to psychological thriller movies or to literature such as “Go Ask Alice”, the story of a teenage girl's struggle with a drug problem. Eminem’s trilogy of albums was supposed to shock the audience with the dark, twisted plot and strong characterizations. Taking songs out of context as the media has done makes the artist seem like a homicidal woman hater. However, one must look at the story as a whole to truly see this work of art as it was meant to be.

Feel free to discuss what I've written about in the comments or tweet at me on twitter! @yetanother_nerd

WORKS CITED

Eminem.”If I Had”, ”97’ Bonnie and Clyde”, ”Rock Bottom”, “My Name Is” The Slim Shady LP. Interscope, 1999. CD.

Eminem. ”Kim” The Marshall Mathers LP. Interscope. 2000. CD.

Eminem. “Say Goodbye To Hollywood”, “Hailie’s Song”, “White America” The Eminem Show. Interscope. 2002. CD.

Eminem. “When I’m Gone” Single. Shady Records. 2003. CD.

Eminem. “Crack A Bottle” Relapse. Interscope. 2009 .CD.

"Id, ego and super-ego." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web.25 January. 2012.