While he acts dumb and petulant for MTV, the complex psychological rendering of Stan, and Mathers’ gloriously elastic way with words – that explosive, slangy poetry which manages to force seemingly natural rhymes out of phrases that bear no relation to each other – just confirms Eminem as the finest lyricist of his generation, and America’s most vital satirist since Bill Hicks.
The formidable original, featuring that melancholic sample lifted from Dido’s ”Thank You,” can be found on his Marshall Mathers LP.
The first time I hear Stan, it nearly reduced me to tears.