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The name Eminem has become synonymous with rap and hip-hop, cementing his place in history as one of the greatest to ever do it. His album sales, music video views, cultural impact, streaming numbers, and poetic prowess contribute to why many consider him a living legend in the music industry.
Slim Shady's discography is vast. With a staggering number of songs released, from features to singles, some songs stand out as era-defining and timeless. Whether it is his claim to fame with My Name Is from his infamous 'Shady' era or the semi-recent diss track that broke the internet, Killshot, Em has constantly reinvented the wheel.
True blue fans will have their own personal list of their favorite songs, but this list looks at those tracks that distinguished him from the rest.
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Disclaimer: This article contains the writer's opinions and is not ranked. Reader discretion is advised.
Killshot, Lose Yourself, and six other popular Eminem songs
1) Without Me
Even If someone was not around to listen to hip-hop in the 2000s, they have likely heard the catchy chorus somewhere.
"Now, this looks like a job for me So everybody, just follow me 'Cause we need a little controversy 'Cause it feels so empty without me," Eminem's chorus in the song.
As part of his fourth album, The Eminem Show, Em uses this song to 'flex' his accomplishments and the impact he has had internationally. He asserts that the hip-hop world needs him, and he is the savior everyone is looking up to.
Marshall also uses the song to take jabs at some of his critics at the time, including, but not limited to, Vice President Dick Cheney, NSYNC, Limp Bizkit, and more.
The music video for Without Me got major recognition at the time, winning the MTV Video Music Award and the Grammy Award for its category.
2) Superman
This can be considered one of Em's most 'A' rated songs. This is Shady's version of a love song, but not quite.
Eminem focuses on portraying his superstar lifestyle and his encounters with women, personified by Dina Rae (who is the supporting artist in this song). Superman is the fourth track on The Eminem Show (2002) and serves as a callback to what is arguably the most popular time in his career, the Slim Shady era.
Unlike some of his songs, Superman has remained evergreen, coming in and out of fashion every 2-3 years, finding its most recent resurgence as a part of Tik-Tok videos and Instagram reels.
3) My Name Is
Another one from the classic Shady era, this song helped catapult Eminem to the national stage. Part of his second album, Slim Shady LP, the song contains an interpolation of a track by musician Labi Siffre. It became so popular that it won Em his first Grammy for the best solo performance.
In this song, he talks about his struggles with self-discovery, his childhood, and troubled young adulthood. All the while not taking himself too seriously, as evident from his cadence and the upbeat music.
However, wherever Shady goes, controversy follows. His own mother, Debbie Mathers, sued him for defamatory lyrics, including the line, "99 percent of my life I was lied to / I just found out my mom does more dope than I do."
The song also featured slight jabs at celebrities like the Spice Girls and Usher, along with the racy language the rapper was infamous for at this time in his career.
4) Mockingbird
Eminem brings out his sentimental side for this one. Dedicated to his daughter Hailie Jade, Em talks about his regret for not being there for her due to his work and the divorce between him and Hailie's mother. Mockingbird serves as a parental lesson about relationships and how sometimes they simply don't work out.
The uniqueness of this song also comes from its music. Instead of the usual hip-hop beats, Em chooses to take things slow and uses piano chords as his beat to rap on. This track added some diversity to the rapper and gave him some much-needed depth to separate him from the herd, and it showed in the numbers.
Mockingbird ranked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 10 on the Hot Rap Songs chart, and went triple platinum in the US and UK!
5) Lose Yourself
The signature track from the movie 8 Mile won Eminem his first Oscar, making him the first rapper to receive the award. It also won the Best Rap Song of the Year award at the 2003 Grammys and helped him get his first number 1 US single.
The song portrays Em's tenacity in the face of adversity and his never-give-up attitude. Marshall's character (in the film) is an underdog who must overcome his fear of performing in front of a swarm of people waiting for him to fail.
Most fans consider this song to be the rapper's finest work, and few would disagree.
6) Killshot
Eminem has dished out many disses to his colleagues over the years. Mariah Carey, Ja Rule, Limp Bizkit, Donald Trump, even the president is not safe when Slim Shady enters the booth.
But perhaps the most brutal and infamous diss track of them all is Killshot. Targeted at Machine Gun Kelly, it is believed to be one of the reasons why MGK stopped making rap songs and transitioned to punk rock.
In September 2018, MGK released the song Rap Devil, in which he mocked the veteran rapper for becoming jaded and irrelevant. He also made some personal comments about his family and claimed that he was past his prime.
Em promptly released this 4-minute track, Killshot, in which he counters almost every point made by MGK. Not only was the song an instant hit with fans, garnering over 400 million views, but it also brought Em back to form.
7) Stan
This one goes out to all of Eminem's loyal fans, or Stans, as he so affectionately refers to them. Stan is the personification of a fan who is just a little too obsessed with his idol. In the story narrated by Em through the song, a fan regularly sends him twisted letters, which get successively more unhinged as each letter is left unanswered.
The rapper was inspired to create this track after receiving many disturbing fan letters in real life. When his album The Slim Shady LP was released in 1999, many of his fans took the album's violent content seriously. The song was supposed to serve as a deterrent to them.
"When I heard "your picture on my wall," I was like "Yo, this could be about somebody who takes me too seriously." So I knew what I was going to write about before I wrote it," Eminem talking about Dido's song 'Thank You' which was sampled for 'Stan.'
Although the song didn't win him any awards, it has made a massive cultural impact. Many reputed magazines refer to this as one of the greatest hip-hop tracks of all time, and hip-hop fans tend to agree.
8) Not Afraid
Not Afraid comes from Em's seventh studio album, Recovery. Released in 2010, the song made headlines when it debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The rapper addresses his struggles and triumphs in this song, in turn motivating his fans to go out there and seize the day just like him. The track's anthemic nature made it very catchy for fans and shone the rapper in a more serious and mature light, embracing his role as a role model for many.
After becoming an insane commercial success and being a hit with the fans, the awards followed suit. He won several awards, including the Grammy Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards. At present, the YouTube video has over 1.8 billion views.
No matter what song people claim to be the best, it is hard to deny that Eminem has had a storied career. Recently, he released his new album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce).
Follow the link to get a track-by-track review of the album: https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/music/a-track-by-track-review-eminem
