When you break it big with a blast like Eminem did, with the controversy and stuff, you've got enough fuel to adequately light a nice fire. The Slim Shady LP behind him, but the controversy for his lyrics still right in hit face, multi-platinum rapper Eminem needed to cut a follow up that proved he was more than a one-album wonder.

And he does. Using criticisms for his often violent rhymes, Eminem crafted quite the sophomore album. The hit "The Real Slim Shady" rocketed the Marshall Mathers LP to one of the highest first-week sales for an album of all time. Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

The skits this time around are memorable and funny. Most of them are similar to those on his first album (such as "Paul Rosenberg," "Public Service Announcement"). And they're funny, too! Good stuff.

The singles were pretty well-done, too. "The Real Slim Shady" got overplayed in about 2 weeks, but was - easily - the song of the summer in 2000. Gotta love that hook. But "The Way I Am" and "Stan" were more like the rest of the album - dark and serious.

And most of it manages to be more consciously offensive. If you have any sort of conservative-ness in you, it WILL offend you, or at least come close. Lyrics about violence against, well, women and everyone else, drug references, homophobic lyrics, insults thrown towards pop stars… Eminem tries REALLY hard to piss people off, and he did. Hell, even I get offended by "Kim," a prelude to "97 Bonnie and Clyde" from his first album. Domestic violence never sat well with me, I guess.

But the lyrics are clever, mostly. The album sometimes sags when guest rappers are present on the songs, but it's mostly solid. The beats all around the album are extremely well done thanks to production by Dr. Dre. Very danceable, some of it poppy, all of it is easily accessible and sonically detailed. It's a satisfying record with a few faults. But it succeeds at one thing: Showing that Eminem is going to be around for awhile.