So this was the Anger Management world tour? Very funny. But maybe not so amusing if you were caught in an 8-mile tailback at the gates of motorway hell that is the Red Cow Inn roundabout. In the space of a 48-hour stopover, Marshall Mathers had clogged up the talk radio switchboards and spawned an acre or two of newsprint. Business as usual so, except in the year 2003 nobody seems too fussed anymore about whether or not we should let the kids listen to Slim, ’cos Public Enemy number one has metamorphosed into Mr. Exemplary Rapper Role Model.
Even the stage set is a sign of changing times. In 2001, when Mathers was putatively, “the biggest threat to the nation’s children since polio” (according to one George W. Bush) his intro was copped straight from Friday
The 13th. Today it’s the rather more inoffensive and wholesome Billy Smart’s New World Circus. Snippets of US news footage blasting the Artist who was formerly known as the Menace are looped to a frenetic climax as his Slimness enters via the big wheel. And there isn’t a chainsaw or outraged parent in sight as the awesome curtain opener ‘Square Dance’ stuns Puncho.

But a few cracking singles aside, I’ve never been the world’s greatest advocate of the cult of Shady/Marshall/Em/Whoever. It’s not his lyrical content which offends me, it’s all the Messiah talk the pundits have spawned
of him being the biggest and best since Elvis and Brennan’s Sliced White combined. Sure, he’s a great wordsmith and a charismatic performer, but it’s a world away from the hip-hop I love – The Last Poets, Public Enemy, Gang Starr, The Roots, Mos Def etc. But granted, Em gives great show. An hour and half hour set is peppered with some of his finest moments – ‘White America’, ‘The Way I Am’, ‘Without Me’ and ‘Lose Yourself’ – easily the finest flick you’ll find on EmTV rotation right now. He is a absolute treat to watch, claiming this huge stage as his own and constantly psyched and right on cue. “What age are you guys allowed to start drinking here? Seven?” he quips when overwhelmed by the crowds ecstatic response.

Compared to some of his tirades in the past, tonight is pretty mild. But he still finds time to diss his Mom (which by now is very tiresome) and all journalists (Thanks Em!). His Detroit 12 posse stir up some awesome variety and spice, a much-needed contribution since it’s hard to see how even Slim could carry off a show of this pace and magnitude totally alone. The show was undeniably a major pop-culture event, transcending the boundaries of rap or hip-hop. It was big, brash and brilliant, despite the fact that we were denied the opportunity to cap it all off with ‘My Name Is’ or ‘The Real Slim Shady’. What made it so great was that this was exactly
what it said on the tin – The Eminem Show. He mightn’t have played the tune, but the Real Slim Shady did stand up.