Slim Shady EP is the only extended play by the American rapper Eminem, released on December 10, 1997, through WEB Entertainment. Unlike his debut album Infinite (1996), the Slim Shady EP helped Eminem gain the interest of CEO Jimmy Iovine (co-founder of Interscope Records) and the West Coast rapper and producer Dr. Dre, who subsequently signed Eminem to his Aftermath Entertainment record label, and served as executive producer on his first major-label album, The Slim Shady LP (1999).
The EP introduces Eminem's alter ego Slim Shady. Since the EP was released before he was signed to Interscope and Aftermath, original copies are now highly valued. His lyrics are a marked departure from those found on Infinite, featuring constant references to drug use, sexual acts, mental instability, and over-the-top violence. Another departure was his exploration of more serious themes of dealing with poverty, his direct and self-deprecating response to criticism, and of marital and family difficulties. His flow is also noticeably different from Infinite where critics claimed he sounded too much like Nas and AZ. The production value of the music on the tracks—from previous collaborators DJ Head, the Bass Brothers, and Mr. Porter—was noticeably higher than previous efforts. According to Billboard, at this point in his life Eminem had "realized his musical ambitions were the only way to escape his unhappy life".
Background and production
In 1996, his debut album Infinite, which was recorded at the Bassmint, a recording studio owned by the Bass Brothers, was released under their independent label WEB Entertainment. Infinite achieved little commercial success and was largely ignored by Detroit radio stations, such as WJLB (97.9 FM in Detroit), and in specific tracks Eminem raps explicitly about this problem, like in "Just Don't Give a Fuck" "If I Had" and "Low Down, Dirty". The disappointment from this experience greatly influenced his lyrical style: "After that record, every rhyme I wrote got angrier and angrier. A lot of it was because of the feedback I got. Motherfuckers was like, 'You're a white boy, what the fuck are you rapping for? Why don't you go into rock & roll?' All that type of shit started pissing me off." After the release of Infinite, Eminem's personal struggles and abuse of drugs and alcohol culminated in a suicide attempt: all these troubles became main themes of Slim Shady EP.
The disappointment of Infinite inspired Eminem to create the alter ego Slim Shady: "Boom, the name hit me, and right away I thought of all these words to rhyme with it".
Release and reception
According to an interview with Zane Lowe, Eminem made 500 copies of the EP, but sold only slightly more than 250. Though rare, reviews of the EP were generally mixed to positive. AllMusic gave the EP two and a half out of five stars without a written review. XXL, despite originally giving the EP three out of five stars "L" rating, listed it on their "100 Most Essential Rap EPs of All Time – The Best of the Short & Sweet" list. Eminem was featured in the March 1998 edition of The Source magazine's (#102), "Unsigned Hype" column. The author of the column highlighted two tracks from Eminem's Slim Shady EP: "Just the Two of Us", and "Murder, Murder". Nearly a year later, when Eminem signed with Interscope Records, the label re-released "Just Don't Give a Fuck". The reissued single became Eminem's first charting single, peaking at No. 62 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, at No. 5 on the Hot Rap Songs chart, and at No. 14 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart (all in November 1998).