Em didn’t just shock people for the sake of shocking people (not saying Tyler did that, not really big on his discography) he shocked people to prove a point and win. Anybody could offend Middle America, and with cancel culture how it is these days, it’s even easier to hit the self destruct button on your career by doing that but nobody but Em could shock people and then double down on his act as a response to when the same people came marching with pitchforks and protested his music, and it gets even more astounding that Em literally rebranded himself with The Eminem Show and 8 Mile after being public enemy #1 for three years straight and it was no pr effort, Em was just that authentic. MMLP isn’t a classic for shock humour or satire or even the underlying political commentary, it’s a classic because underneath all that hype, controversy, blurring of lines between fantasy, entertainment and reality, it’s one of the most authentic self-expression of an artist ever. There’s really no fucking around with early Em, he was the greatest.