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In 2001, controversial, award-winning rap-star Eminem introduced the world to his original crew, D12... Eminem and his fellow D12 members (Proof, Denoun, Bizarre, Kuniva & Swifty) met seven years ago at Detroit's Hip Hop Shop - "We made a pact years ago," says Eminem, "which ever one of us gets signed, comes back for the rest." - making good on that promise, Eminem led D12 into the UK Top 5 for the first time in summer 2001 with 'Purple Hills'.
I suppose it's good of Eminem that he did keep to his word. And it's a tribute to his star power that even the crew's debut single, the charmingly-titled 'Shit On You', reached the Top 10 over here. It reappeared as a flipside to their first fully promoted release, which reportedly sold enough in its first week to top the chart had one format not fallen foul of chart rules and been excluded from calculations. Still, it got the consolation of a Now appearance, one of I think only three for Eminem.
The trouble is, it's a blinking awful record. And not only because of the self-consciously controversial content, which is after all what you expect from Eminem - indeed 'Purple Hills' as featured here is a sanitised version of the more explicitly druggy 'Purple Pills', though it retains such shock lyrics as "I can't describe the vibe I get/When I drive-by six people and five I hit." Personally, I dislike the fact that the obscenity in this particular track leans towards the lavatorial, which has less of the thrill of a skillful verbal barb. There's a more fundamental problem with D12 though: the reason why Eminem got signed to a big record company before the rest of them was because they weren't as talented as he is. In what seems like a smart commercial move, Eminem gets the first verse but that only seems to emphasise how the other five struggle to keep up. This is why I think their best single was 'My Band', which actively parodies that dynamic.
Of all the tracks on this album, I think this is the one I was most dreading having to listen to in full, so thoroughly did I detest it at the time. But at least it was shorter than the Lighthouse Family record.
Available on: Hip Hop Anthems Of The Decade [+Digital Booklet]
