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Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of double Elvis.

2
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Speaker 2: Stories about Eminem are insane. He killed and then buried

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Speaker 2: the corpse of his wife and his lyrics anyway. Under

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Speaker 2: the guise of a psychotic alter ego he created named

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Speaker 2: Slim Shady, whose lyrics set off an avalanche of criticism

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Speaker 2: from the media and cultural elites. He feared no man

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Speaker 2: or woman, real or imagined, and he took no shit,

8
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Speaker 2: not even from his own mom, who eventually sued him.

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Speaker 2: He was fueled by darkness and raised in the shadows

10
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Speaker 2: of a once great symbol of American hard work and hustle, Detroit, Michigan.

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Speaker 2: He fought his way up out of the city's hip

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Speaker 2: hop underground and fought off violent attackers along the way,

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Speaker 2: charged with beating down rival musicians, pistol whipping his wife's lover,

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Speaker 2: and in general for lowering American standards of decency, Eminem

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Speaker 2: made hold.

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Speaker 1: Up for real.

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Speaker 2: I don't like Eminem's music. I've tried. It does nothing

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Speaker 2: for me. I don't even feel nostalgic for it. But

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Speaker 2: in a way, I do respect Eminem as an artist

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Speaker 2: for risking it, for putting it all out there, and

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Speaker 2: I definitely respect his hustle. But at the end of

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Speaker 2: the day, his music it ain't my bag. So I

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Speaker 2: can't sit here and tell you with a straight face

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Speaker 2: that he made great music. He made music, some of

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Speaker 2: the most compelling music ever made. Unlike that music I

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Speaker 2: played you at the top of the show that wasn't

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Speaker 2: compelling music. That was a preset loop from my melotron

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Speaker 2: called trailer Park Safari MK two. I played you that

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Speaker 2: loop because I can't afford the rights to Angel of

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Speaker 2: Mine by Monica. And why would I play you that

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Speaker 2: specific slice of UK girl Group covered Cheese? Could I

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Speaker 2: afford it? Because that was the number one song in

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Speaker 2: America on February twenty third, nineteen ninety nine, and that

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Speaker 2: was today. Eminem released the Slim Shady LP, introducing America

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Speaker 2: to one of the most disturbed popular musicians of all time,

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Speaker 2: a musician who would eventually need no introduction, but would

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Speaker 2: become reliant on an ever necessary straw man to compel

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Speaker 2: and inspire him to create. On this episode, pistol Whippings,

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Speaker 2: murderous Revenge fantasies, Slim Shady straw.

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Speaker 1: Man and Eminem.

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Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan, and this this disgraceland out of nowhere,

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Speaker 2: squealing tires, rustling, squeaking, sneakers on the floor, and then

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Speaker 2: the piece hard steel and in his face. Doug Dale

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Speaker 2: stared down the barrel of the gun, up past the

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Speaker 2: site and the thumb on the hammer. He locked into

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Speaker 2: the gaze of his assailant. He was unmistakable. Those diamond

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Speaker 2: cutter blue eyes were just as intense in person as

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Speaker 2: they were in the paparazzi.

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Speaker 1: Pictures and in the music videos.

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Speaker 2: The eyes, the gun, the shaky shouting, they all belonged

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Speaker 2: to fellow Detroit native Marshall Mathers. The third eminem to

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Speaker 2: the Billboard charts were his third album, the self titled

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Speaker 2: Marshall Mathers LP, had debuted a month previously and immediately

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Speaker 2: broke the record for fastest selling album of all time.

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Speaker 2: But this wasn't the Marshall Mathers who Dougdale had come

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Speaker 2: to know growing up in the Detroit hip hop scene.

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Speaker 2: And this wasn't the Eminem that the world was currently

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Speaker 2: getting to know through his wildly popular brand of hip hop. No,

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Speaker 2: this sketchy dude with the nine millimeters semi automatic pistol,

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Speaker 2: the shaky voice and the far away look in his

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Speaker 2: eye was none other than slim Shady, the loose cannon

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Speaker 2: persona Eminem had invented to give a voice to his

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Speaker 2: most violent and unstable fantasies. Slim Shady was also the

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Speaker 2: most successful musical alter ego since Siggy Stardust. Slim Shady

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Speaker 2: the deranged Trickster was an unstable danger to himself and others,

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Speaker 2: but only lyrically in theory anyways. But right now, with

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Speaker 2: the barrel of his gun jammed into the face of

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Speaker 2: Doug Dale, things weren't looking so lyrical. Doug tried to

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Speaker 2: make sense of what was happening. It was a Saturday afternoon,

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Speaker 2: early summer, the perfect day to finally trick out the

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Speaker 2: sound system on his ride. He was in the parking

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Speaker 2: lot of the Detroit Record Shack in Royal Oak, watching

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Speaker 2: the Text do their thing. When Eminem came around the corner.

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Speaker 2: Doug noticed, of course, it was eminem, musical rival to

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Speaker 2: Doug's employers, the insane clown Posse. Doug said nothing, just

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Speaker 2: turned back to the Text wiring his truck, and then

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Speaker 2: before he knew it, Eminem had his peace stuck in

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Speaker 2: Doug's face and looked to have gone full tweak. His

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Speaker 2: hand on the pistol was steady, but his voice shook.

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Speaker 1: What did you say to me? This wasn't beef shit,

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Speaker 1: Eminem and ICP talked to our records. Was one thing.

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Speaker 1: This was not that, this was real. This was dangerous.

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Speaker 2: But when the audio texts poked their heads up from

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Speaker 2: the car to see what was going on, some shady

85
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Speaker 2: shrank from the unwelcome attention and split. Eminem tried to

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Speaker 2: forget the incident, but it was impossible. What he remembered

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Speaker 2: most clearly wasn't the rage of the adrenaline, or even

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Speaker 2: the reason he pulled the gun in the first place.

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Speaker 2: It was the look in Doug's eyes over the gun's sightline.

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Speaker 2: That look said one thing. Come on, man, you're better

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Speaker 2: than this, mister Mathers. The judge's voice was loud, commanding.

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Speaker 2: Eminem pulled his thoughts out of the past, away from

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Speaker 2: Doug Dale at the other end of his gun. He

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Speaker 2: scowled and looked up toward the judge, Denise Langford Mars,

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Speaker 2: who called the court to order for his sentencing. He

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Speaker 2: had pled no contest to carrying a concealed weapon, a felony,

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Speaker 2: as well as to a misdemeanor church brandishing a weapon

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Speaker 2: in public. Knowing full well that with the no contest plea,

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Speaker 2: the judge could serve him up five years in state prison.

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Speaker 2: Eminem and his attorneys hoped the fact that he'd left

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Speaker 2: the gun empty would be enough to warrant a sentence

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Speaker 2: of probation instead of prison. His contrition was real. Prisons

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Speaker 2: scared the hell out of him. Eminem was on trial

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Speaker 2: for brandishing a weapon, but it felt like he was

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Speaker 2: on trial for something else. For corrupting America's youth. He

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Speaker 2: had been targeted by Tipper Gore's lobby of concern trolls,

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Speaker 2: the PMRC aka Parents Music Resource Center, and the editor

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Speaker 2: of Billboard had issued a whole column scourging Eminem as

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Speaker 2: exploitative and toxic to American culture. And now he had

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Speaker 2: offered himself up on a silver platter, living down to

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Speaker 2: their expectations, playing the perfect straw man. So if they

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Speaker 2: were going to make an example of him, it was

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Speaker 2: now or never. For all the culture warriors who wanted

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Speaker 2: to see the infamous Eminem tried for corrupting America's youth,

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Speaker 2: this was their chance. It didn't matter to them what

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Speaker 2: actually happened. Or how real his contrition was. The judge

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Speaker 2: patted a big stack of papers by her side and spoke,

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Speaker 2: mister Mathers, this is just a sample of all the

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Speaker 2: free advice I have received from citizens around the country.

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Speaker 2: It seems everybody has an opinion as to what I

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Speaker 2: should do with you. Stoic as this expression was, Eminem

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Speaker 2: couldn't help but flush with embarrassment. Imagine that people, ordinary people,

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Speaker 2: people he didn't know, taking time out of their ordinary

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Speaker 2: lives to write to this judge with suggestions on how

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Speaker 2: to punish him, him or who the hell was he?

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Speaker 2: Why did they care? And did the judge just say

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Speaker 2: just a sample? Look at that stack? Who had time

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Speaker 2: for this? Didn't people have better shit to do? Judge

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Speaker 2: Langford Mars pulled one sheet from the top and began

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Speaker 2: to read, please sentence Eminem to write a song with

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Speaker 2: clean lyrics. Lass burbled up from the audience in the courtroom,

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Speaker 2: and the judge pulled another and read throw the book

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Speaker 2: at me on her Eminem deserves to rot in jail

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Speaker 2: for the rest of his life. Throw away the key

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Speaker 2: and the last stopped. Eminem felt rage. It hit him

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Speaker 2: like a kick to the gut. It was familiar, almost comforting,

137
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Speaker 2: and here was the hate he knew was lurking out there.

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Speaker 2: It reinforced one of his guiding principles in life, that

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Speaker 2: people sucked. The judge looked down at him from the bench.

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Speaker 2: I assure you, mister Matthers, this was far from the

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Speaker 2: worst punishment offered. The words pissy, condescending, as fuck in

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Speaker 2: a word, well judgy, and it hit him low, made

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Speaker 2: him sick to his stomach. She was looking down on him,

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Speaker 2: literally high up on her bench. He took her taunting

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Speaker 2: verbal hits, and he was nine years old all over again.

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Speaker 2: But instead of being seated in the courtroom, he was

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Speaker 2: curled up on the tiled floor of the school bathroom,

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Speaker 2: who with a schoolyard bully beating the piss out of him.

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Speaker 2: He didn't remember the moment that his head had been

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Speaker 2: shoved into the steel urinal handle. He just remembered the

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Speaker 2: ringing sound afterward, and then the smell of the floor

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Speaker 2: half piss, half ammonia. Then the punches, the kicks. It

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Speaker 2: wasn't even the physical pain, he remembered. It was the humiliation,

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Speaker 2: how unnecessary it was reduced to a piss soaked punching bag.

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Speaker 2: The judge gave America more time in her court and

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Speaker 2: read another letter. Mister Eminem needs to have his mouth

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Speaker 2: washed out with an old fashioned bar of soap, somehow

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Speaker 2: innocent as this one was. This was the one that

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Speaker 2: pissed him off the most. It was so lazy. Where

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Speaker 2: was the piss, pardon the pund where was the passion?

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Speaker 2: Come on, America, You're better than this. But Eminem swallowed it.

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Speaker 2: He endured every insult quietly, his stoically, but inside one

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Speaker 2: and only Slim Shady did unspeakable acts to that concerned

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Speaker 2: letter writing citizen with that seemingly innocent bar of soap.

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Speaker 2: Eminem felt Slim's violent urges transform into an itch to

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Speaker 2: write in his notepad, and he controlled himself across the courtroom,

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Speaker 2: down the barrel of a different kind of gun. Eminem

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Speaker 2: felt the balance of power level between his eyes and

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Speaker 2: the woman holding his feet in her hands. So mister

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Speaker 2: Mathers said the judge, what should we do with you?

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Speaker 2: Marshall Mathers didn't know what to do with himself. Christmas

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Speaker 2: was coming. It was also his daughter, Hayley's first birthday,

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Speaker 2: and it was winter in Detroit, and he was basically homeless.

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Speaker 2: He bounced from couch to couch, from his mom's trailer

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Speaker 2: to Kim's place or to Kim's family's place. But now

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Speaker 2: Kim's was out. They were fighting again, and Kim was

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Speaker 2: even threatening to keep him from seeing Haley on Chriss.

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Speaker 2: Making matters worse. His manager at Gilbert's Lounge, the local

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Speaker 2: diner where he was a dishwasher and sometimes lime cook,

180
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Speaker 2: was threatening to cut his shifts again. Whenever he was

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Speaker 2: at work. Kim and his mom kept calling the restaurant

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Speaker 2: line incessantly demanding to speak with him about whatever it

183
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Speaker 2: was that happened to be pissing them off at the moment,

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Speaker 2: it was becoming a real problem. Added all up and

185
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Speaker 2: presence for his daughter were not looking likely mery fucking Christmas,

186
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Speaker 2: which is why he snuck in through the back, hoping

187
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Speaker 2: not to be seen. He was late again, but only

188
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Speaker 2: because he took the bus. He was at a warehouse

189
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Speaker 2: show late last night, pushing copies of Infinite, the lp

190
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Speaker 2: he cut with local producers the Bass Brothers, but no luck.

191
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Speaker 2: So he took his lumps and indulged in sleeping late

192
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Speaker 2: and ended up missing the first bus. But if the

193
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Speaker 2: second bus had been on time, that wouldn't have mattered,

194
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Speaker 2: and why was he already making excuses to the shift manager?

195
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Speaker 2: In his head, fucked this noise. Marshall hustled through the

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Speaker 2: tunnel to the kitchen. He passed his favorite waitress Jen

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Speaker 2: on her way to the floor with an order. She

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Speaker 2: winked at him, and he hushed her with a finger

199
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Speaker 2: to his lips. As they crossed. He ducked into the

200
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Speaker 2: cook line, tied his apron, and sidled up to his

201
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Speaker 2: friend Mannix, who had hooked him up with this diner

202
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Speaker 2: gig and had a basement studio where they messed around

203
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Speaker 2: with beats. Yo, how was the show last night? Mannix

204
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Speaker 2: didn't miss a beat, but Marshall wasn't in the mood.

205
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Speaker 2: He just wanted to forget his garbage life and failing record,

206
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Speaker 2: lose himself in the job. For a minute, Mannix read

207
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Speaker 2: his sour look you stay with your mom again or something. Marshall,

208
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Speaker 2: already going by eminem, shrugged. He pulled his first order ticket.

209
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Speaker 2: Mannix shrugged too. He knew better than to try to

210
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Speaker 2: engage Marshall in a conversation when he was in a

211
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Speaker 2: bad mood. He turned to the grill, just as their

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Speaker 2: manager poked his head in from the tunnel. Hey Marshall,

213
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Speaker 2: talk to you for a minute. And there it was,

214
00:12:56,760 --> 00:13:01,079
Speaker 2: the other shoe dropping finally and met Mannix's gaze, saying

215
00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:08,560
Speaker 2: with his eyes see as he walked to his doom.

216
00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:13,160
Speaker 2: Fired a week before Christmas. Of course, the sad part

217
00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:16,240
Speaker 2: was he didn't even blame them. He was missing shifts again,

218
00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:18,560
Speaker 2: pushing the new record, and Mom and Kim called the

219
00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:20,480
Speaker 2: restaurant at all hours demanding to.

220
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Speaker 1: Talk to him.

221
00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:24,120
Speaker 2: Up until then, it had been a good year. He'd

222
00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:27,280
Speaker 2: worked hard, sixty hour weeks for Haley, but it had

223
00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:33,679
Speaker 2: all come to this getting fired. He dragged himself, dejected,

224
00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:36,640
Speaker 2: exhausted to his mother's trailer, but when he reached for

225
00:13:36,679 --> 00:13:40,080
Speaker 2: the door, a wiry, wild eyed punk burst out, rand

226
00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:42,080
Speaker 2: him in the gut with something heavy and knocked him

227
00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:46,840
Speaker 2: back onto the crabgrass. He heard a thud and cracking glass.

228
00:13:47,160 --> 00:13:49,640
Speaker 2: Then the punk was tussling with him, rolling him over

229
00:13:49,679 --> 00:13:53,440
Speaker 2: into the dirt. Adrenaline flooded his system. Eminem felt the

230
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Speaker 2: fight rise up, surpassing the dejection. He felt alive, and

231
00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:00,320
Speaker 2: with a sharp kick, he separated from his attacker, looked

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00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:02,600
Speaker 2: up and saw the thief clearly for the first time,

233
00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:05,760
Speaker 2: all skin and bones, minus a few of the usual teeth.

234
00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:09,320
Speaker 1: He was nothing but a scarecrow, tweaker, piece of shit.

235
00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:14,199
Speaker 2: Eminem screamed that these spattering ram had been Eminem's mother's TV,

236
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:17,280
Speaker 2: which now sat broken at the bottom of the trailer steps,

237
00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:19,120
Speaker 2: just another junkie robber.

238
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Speaker 1: The ship was practically weakly now, once.

239
00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:24,280
Speaker 2: He'd come home to find the trailer emptied out, everything

240
00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:27,920
Speaker 2: gone except the bed. Earlier in the year, Kim scraped

241
00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:30,760
Speaker 2: together college savings fund for Hayley. Just a few hundred

242
00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:34,280
Speaker 2: dollars had been stolen from her place, and the scarecrow

243
00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:35,680
Speaker 2: caught his breath, saw.

244
00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:38,160
Speaker 1: The broken TV and panicked. He took a few erratic

245
00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:43,640
Speaker 1: paces around the debris. Eminem saw his chance.

246
00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:46,920
Speaker 2: He sat up and felt his head swim the exhaustion,

247
00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:49,800
Speaker 2: the adrenaline. He could barely tell what was real and

248
00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:53,000
Speaker 2: what wasn't anymore, but he lunged forward, grabbed the biggest

249
00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,280
Speaker 2: shout of glass from the broken TV that he could,

250
00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,560
Speaker 2: and their eyes met over the makeshift blade, cutting the

251
00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:00,640
Speaker 2: hand of the man wielding it more than anything else.

252
00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:03,400
Speaker 2: But even through his high the tweaker could see in

253
00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:06,160
Speaker 2: those diamond cutter blue eyes. That this guy had nothing

254
00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:08,360
Speaker 2: left to lose. He was a man who had hit

255
00:15:08,480 --> 00:15:12,240
Speaker 2: rock bottom. And Eminem saw something in his scarecrow attacker's

256
00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:15,240
Speaker 2: eyes too. He saw the kind of desperate hollow man

257
00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:17,680
Speaker 2: he could become if he didn't figure his shit out,

258
00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:21,880
Speaker 2: he'd wind up just another slim and shady criminal. The

259
00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:25,080
Speaker 2: tweaker held up his jittery hands and slowly backed off

260
00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:29,040
Speaker 2: into the darkness. Eminem held his snapped expression until he

261
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:30,080
Speaker 2: was sure he was gone.

262
00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:33,080
Speaker 1: Only then did he turn back to the trailer door.

263
00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:39,160
Speaker 2: Inside he assessed the damage, drawers and cabinets emptied, everything

264
00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:42,200
Speaker 2: scattered around the floor. The day's mail was still in

265
00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:45,280
Speaker 2: the kitchen counter, looking like nothing had happened. On the

266
00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:48,400
Speaker 2: floor court documents. His half brother Nate had been taken

267
00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:51,400
Speaker 2: by social services almost a year ago. His school had

268
00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,920
Speaker 2: accused their mother of instability and abuse. Someone had tossed

269
00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:58,120
Speaker 2: out the phrase munchaus and by proxy, and now she

270
00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:01,480
Speaker 2: was fighting to bring Nate home. Maybe they were all

271
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:04,360
Speaker 2: sick one way or another, but at least for a

272
00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:06,800
Speaker 2: few hours, Marshall could be sick on his own in

273
00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,920
Speaker 2: his way. Nobody around here treated anybody else like a

274
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:12,920
Speaker 2: human being, not his mom, not his girlfriend, not his job.

275
00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:15,800
Speaker 2: The closest person he got to tonight was the raggedy

276
00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:18,000
Speaker 2: ass robber. All we had to feel like a real

277
00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:22,160
Speaker 2: person was to lash out. He could feel his jangling nerves,

278
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:25,800
Speaker 2: his unleashed fury, the whole malsterm of pain and passion

279
00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:28,920
Speaker 2: inside him expand out into the empty space of the trailer,

280
00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:31,360
Speaker 2: giving him at last, at least the small room to

281
00:16:31,400 --> 00:16:34,320
Speaker 2: Breathe Suddenly he really needed to take a shit.

282
00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:37,080
Speaker 1: Hold up, this is true.

283
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:41,120
Speaker 2: Eminem claims the concept of slim shadey came to him well, well,

284
00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:43,160
Speaker 2: you know, laying a log cabin, as Eminem calls it,

285
00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:48,400
Speaker 2: on the Marshall Mather's LP two, Sitting on the throne

286
00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:50,960
Speaker 2: like fat Elvis, he busted out his notebook and started

287
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,480
Speaker 2: scrawling random lines into it, page after page after page.

288
00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:58,360
Speaker 2: After that first exhale of solitude, now he was breathing

289
00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:00,480
Speaker 2: all the grit and grime of the world back in

290
00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:04,880
Speaker 2: literally and transforming it into lyrics on his infinite LP.

291
00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:08,200
Speaker 2: He had mostly wrapped about his impending fatherhood, his love

292
00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:10,840
Speaker 2: for is at the time unborn daughter, the warm and

293
00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:14,880
Speaker 2: fuzzy stuff. But even that was fueled by darkness and trauma,

294
00:17:15,320 --> 00:17:18,200
Speaker 2: his burning rage towards the deadbeat dad he hadn't known

295
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:20,960
Speaker 2: growing up, the man who had created and then abandoned

296
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:21,879
Speaker 2: the Mathers family.

297
00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:23,720
Speaker 1: Fuck that piece of shit.

298
00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:27,920
Speaker 2: He would do better, But on infinite em had already

299
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:31,240
Speaker 2: begun to develop a character called the Backstabber, who reveled

300
00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:34,280
Speaker 2: in Marshall's darkness and trauma ate that shit up a

301
00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:37,240
Speaker 2: sort of evil bugs Bondy Grucho Marx is a slasher

302
00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,640
Speaker 2: movie villain alone in a trailer in the last light

303
00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:44,159
Speaker 2: of nineteen ninety six, that character blossomed fully out of

304
00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:46,880
Speaker 2: Marshall Mathers' inner demons.

305
00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:51,239
Speaker 1: Slim Shady was born. We'll be right back after this

306
00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:53,120
Speaker 1: word word word.

307
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:59,360
Speaker 2: Another underground show, some industrial district just south of the airport.

308
00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:03,280
Speaker 2: So sick of this grind. This time is different. It

309
00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:06,000
Speaker 2: was October nineteen ninety seven and M and M was

310
00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:08,480
Speaker 2: taking one last desperate swing at making it in the

311
00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:13,439
Speaker 2: rap game. This wasn't Detroit. This was Inglewood, the Proud

312
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:17,399
Speaker 2: Bird nightclub. The airport to the north was lax. M

313
00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:19,600
Speaker 2: had bit the heads off of all the mcs back

314
00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:22,480
Speaker 2: home and rap battles by this time last year he'd

315
00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:25,440
Speaker 2: vanquished all comers and get the infinite LP produced off

316
00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:26,200
Speaker 2: of it, and.

317
00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:27,480
Speaker 1: It turned out none of it mattered.

318
00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:30,679
Speaker 2: He swore last Christmas he'd get real for Haley, go

319
00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:32,879
Speaker 2: straight if he had to, But in his heart he

320
00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:35,440
Speaker 2: felt only despair at the thought, and it gave him

321
00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:39,000
Speaker 2: the creative breakthrough he needed. Now Here he was still

322
00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:43,280
Speaker 2: pursuing rap god fantasies. The rap Olympics was the underground

323
00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:46,199
Speaker 2: battle tournament to end them all. Located deep in the

324
00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:48,960
Speaker 2: belly of West Coast hip hop. Organized by a group

325
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,800
Speaker 2: called the Rap Coalition, which sought to develop rap talent

326
00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:56,399
Speaker 2: without traditional label exploitation, the best freestyle mcs from around

327
00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:58,720
Speaker 2: the country had been invited to roast each other and

328
00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:02,320
Speaker 2: improvised verses in head to head round by round matchups

329
00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:05,600
Speaker 2: for the official prize of five hundred dollars in Rolex Watch.

330
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:08,880
Speaker 2: But the real prize was hidden in plain sight, right

331
00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:11,880
Speaker 2: there in the audience that swarmed with hip hop tastemakers

332
00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:14,040
Speaker 2: and the assistance of every A and R REP in

333
00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:17,280
Speaker 2: Los Angeles County scouting the scene for the next big thing,

334
00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:21,480
Speaker 2: Eminem had finally accepted that there was no white trash

335
00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:24,600
Speaker 2: buried Gordy waiting for him back in Detroit. He didn't

336
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:27,679
Speaker 2: live in the gleaming motor city of decades past. This

337
00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:30,160
Speaker 2: was the nineties. He was one of the forgotten men

338
00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:33,880
Speaker 2: of flyover country. Now just another scarecrow, a straw man.

339
00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:38,080
Speaker 2: Getting ahead meant a bigger city or bust. Eminem had

340
00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:41,679
Speaker 2: no time and even less money. Success was his only option.

341
00:19:41,800 --> 00:19:44,359
Speaker 2: Failure was not hell. The night before we hopped the

342
00:19:44,359 --> 00:19:47,240
Speaker 2: plane here, he'd been evicted from his shitty place. He

343
00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:50,040
Speaker 2: broke in anyway and slept on the cold floor one

344
00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:53,080
Speaker 2: more night, going back home and going back to the

345
00:19:53,119 --> 00:19:56,800
Speaker 2: trailer with Mom and Kim Fock. So it was now

346
00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:00,879
Speaker 2: or never, all or nothing, one night only last chance.

347
00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:07,720
Speaker 2: With his viciousness elevated by his new slim, shady persona,

348
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,560
Speaker 2: he advanced to the first round like a knife through butter.

349
00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:14,080
Speaker 2: With each cutting punchline that he spat out, he sought

350
00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:17,520
Speaker 2: back to his hellish past. Year a night last winter,

351
00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:20,960
Speaker 2: staying with Jen, his waitress friend, he performed ninety seven

352
00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:24,320
Speaker 2: Bonnie implied for the Eminem tune he'd written, where he

353
00:20:24,359 --> 00:20:26,480
Speaker 2: and his daughter Hayley get rid of the corpse of

354
00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:29,840
Speaker 2: his wife Kim and go on the run together. Jen

355
00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:32,199
Speaker 2: was no fan of Kim's. She understood where Eminem was

356
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:34,399
Speaker 2: coming from emotionally, and there was a reason he was

357
00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:37,159
Speaker 2: staying with her, but still she found the misogyny of

358
00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:38,440
Speaker 2: the punchline disturbing.

359
00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:40,240
Speaker 1: Slim Shady was someone.

360
00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:43,879
Speaker 2: She didn't recognize yet here in La, just that he

361
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:46,760
Speaker 2: had seen happen in Detroit over the years. When these

362
00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:49,919
Speaker 2: overwhelmingly black crowds saw what his flow could do, he

363
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:53,280
Speaker 2: became the hot hand underdog, despite the color of his skin.

364
00:20:54,119 --> 00:20:56,280
Speaker 2: Maybe to them he was a carnival act, a freak show,

365
00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:57,679
Speaker 2: but he was also the best.

366
00:20:58,440 --> 00:20:59,800
Speaker 1: He dominated round two.

367
00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:03,400
Speaker 2: He remembered returning to the job at the diner one

368
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,399
Speaker 2: last time, Jen and Mike putting good words and money

369
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:09,199
Speaker 2: coming in me seeing Kim and Haley again, So he

370
00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:11,480
Speaker 2: walked up to the service entrance where his line cook

371
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:14,879
Speaker 2: friend Mannix was smoking out back with another local rapper, Buddha.

372
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:17,960
Speaker 2: Full of rhymes, Mannix must have played the basement demo

373
00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:21,000
Speaker 2: the track rock Bottom for Buddha, because Buddha said, em,

374
00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:23,320
Speaker 2: why are you talking all this guns and rape bullshit?

375
00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:26,840
Speaker 2: That ain't you fuck Buddha? My life is trash enough

376
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:29,080
Speaker 2: as it is. I gotta be me and my rhymes too.

377
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:34,000
Speaker 2: Budda understood Slim Shady after that, so did the crowd

378
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,680
Speaker 2: as MM entered round three. By this time, the West

379
00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:40,520
Speaker 2: Coast crowd was going wild for the Midwest.

380
00:21:40,119 --> 00:21:42,720
Speaker 1: Kid with the bars. Who was this dude?

381
00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:45,200
Speaker 2: Some of them took a free copy of M's Hail

382
00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 2: Mary mixtape, the Slim Shady Ep. Back on stage, Slim

383
00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:53,600
Speaker 2: himself was focused solely on the wind. Round four was

384
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 2: a formality. He didn't even have to think about it anymore.

385
00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:01,040
Speaker 2: He was unconscious. The words just flowed, leashed a hurricane

386
00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:02,800
Speaker 2: of feeling, and he had finally figured out how to

387
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,159
Speaker 2: stay in the eye of the storm and reap the whirlwind.

388
00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:08,520
Speaker 2: But the closer he felt to the wind, the less

389
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:11,159
Speaker 2: he felt like Marshall Mathers, and the more he felt

390
00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:12,520
Speaker 2: like Slim Shady for real.

391
00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:17,399
Speaker 1: He was so damn deep fuck it.

392
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,040
Speaker 2: If he didn't win, he would just snap, actually become

393
00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:21,120
Speaker 2: a murderous criminal.

394
00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:23,000
Speaker 1: That's what all. Nothing is right.

395
00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:25,360
Speaker 2: If he left all of himself on stage, what else

396
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:28,399
Speaker 2: could he be afterwards except Slim Slim Shady would be

397
00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:32,600
Speaker 2: all that was left. Round five the final. He was

398
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:35,200
Speaker 2: willing to go that far now, in this moment would

399
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:38,280
Speaker 2: be the test. It was clear in the moment that

400
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:41,480
Speaker 2: Eminem had won the night on points. Nobody had seen

401
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:43,520
Speaker 2: the likes of him before, and that had to count

402
00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:46,479
Speaker 2: for something. But somehow, I says to taunt him with

403
00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:49,560
Speaker 2: success and then snatch it away. He lost the final round,

404
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:55,639
Speaker 2: second place, the best loser. As the crowd milled around

405
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,240
Speaker 2: and filed out, Eminem curled up in a corner of

406
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:00,400
Speaker 2: the room with a wet cloth over his head, looking

407
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 2: like a boxer who lost on a standing eight count

408
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:07,399
Speaker 2: so close. He was lost in himself again, confronting the

409
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,280
Speaker 2: life ahead of him, scraping by, dealing with Mom, dealing

410
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:12,639
Speaker 2: with Kim. It was more daunting than the mic had

411
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:16,440
Speaker 2: ever been. Hey you go, Rob tonight man, you got

412
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,920
Speaker 2: a tape. My name's Dan. Eminem peeped out from under

413
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:22,520
Speaker 2: the cloth and saw some dudes smirking in his face.

414
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,159
Speaker 1: Fuck this guy. He just wanted to be alone.

415
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,439
Speaker 2: He offered Dan as ep anyway here, and when Marshall

416
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 2: Mathis flew back to Detroit, he was convinced it had

417
00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:32,800
Speaker 2: been all for nothing.

418
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:35,119
Speaker 1: He was a failure chapter close.

419
00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:39,040
Speaker 2: But back in La Dan with his copy of The

420
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:41,240
Speaker 2: Slim shady ep that EMM had handed out.

421
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 1: Knew he had something special.

422
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:46,679
Speaker 2: He dutifully delivered it to his boss, Jimmy Iaveen, chairman,

423
00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 2: CEO and co founder of Interscope Records, who made sure

424
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,679
Speaker 2: it landed on the workbench full of similar mixtapes in

425
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,480
Speaker 2: the garage of his newest business partner and former top

426
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,920
Speaker 2: producer at death Row Records, Andre Young aka Doctor Dre

427
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:04,879
Speaker 2: and there it sat for months, waiting patiently to go

428
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:29,880
Speaker 2: off like a bomb. John Gerrera looked into the frosty

429
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:32,400
Speaker 2: blue eyes of Kim Mathers as they pulled back from

430
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 2: a kiss, only to see growing panic in her face.

431
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:40,200
Speaker 2: Something was off. Before we could turn around, what felt

432
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 2: like the butt of a pistol, but could just as

433
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:44,200
Speaker 2: well have been a cocked fist cracked across the side

434
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 2: of his head.

435
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:46,639
Speaker 1: You fuck my wife, I'll.

436
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:49,640
Speaker 2: Kill you, screamed slim Shady, but in Guerrera's rattle brain,

437
00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:54,160
Speaker 2: the sound came from anywhere. You fucking lunatic, Kim screamed,

438
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,680
Speaker 2: and launched yourself at her estranged husband. The gun clattered

439
00:24:57,720 --> 00:24:59,639
Speaker 2: clumsily to the ground and into the sight of the

440
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:02,520
Speaker 2: rest of the two am crowd outside Hot rocks a

441
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,480
Speaker 2: neon stained bar in a dance hall in Warren, Michigan.

442
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:07,080
Speaker 1: Screams erupted.

443
00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:10,440
Speaker 2: Everyone scattered, They ran and ducked out of the parking lot,

444
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:13,680
Speaker 2: women falling out of their halpit tops, men oggling them,

445
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:16,520
Speaker 2: others shielding them from the thread of the spinning pistol.

446
00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:19,400
Speaker 1: Someone called the cops, but all.

447
00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:22,000
Speaker 2: The while Kim and Marshall just screamed past each other

448
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 2: in passionate but impotent agony. John Guerrera, six foot two,

449
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:29,119
Speaker 2: a bouncer by trade, stumbled to his feet with a

450
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:30,080
Speaker 2: hand to his head.

451
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:32,440
Speaker 1: How did this little bastard get the jump on him?

452
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,200
Speaker 2: The sidewalk was suddenly painted in siren lights, and soon

453
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 2: Kim and Marshall were in cuffs on the pavement. It

454
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:42,880
Speaker 2: was only a few hours since Slim Shady had pulled

455
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,800
Speaker 2: the same gun on doug Dale from ICP, in two

456
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 2: years since Eminem had been plucked from obscurity to record

457
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:53,159
Speaker 2: with Doctor Dre. Between those two events, everything and nothing

458
00:25:53,359 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 2: had changed. The turning point came a few months after

459
00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:59,560
Speaker 2: his star turn at the rap Olympics. Some say Drey

460
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,439
Speaker 2: heard him freestyle on morning radio, and when hunting for

461
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:05,359
Speaker 2: the tape, some say, the tape had fallen behind Dre's

462
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 2: work bench, and he only found it again in an

463
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:11,359
Speaker 2: active fate. However it happened, Doctor Dre heard Eminem and

464
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 2: called him. Once the pair met in the studio, it

465
00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:15,840
Speaker 2: was just like it had been that night in the

466
00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:17,919
Speaker 2: tiny bathroom of the trailer, or the night at the

467
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,399
Speaker 2: Englewood Club. All his passion was channeled effortlessly in a

468
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 2: stream of consciousness creativity. Two weeks of non stop studio

469
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:29,480
Speaker 2: sessions produced a twenty track record custom built to scandalize

470
00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 2: mainstream America from Pearl clutching Sea to Shining Sea. After all,

471
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,920
Speaker 2: Eminem was a freestyle battle wrapper by trade. His most

472
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:41,879
Speaker 2: finely honed skill was sizing up an opponent, anticipating his vulnerabilities,

473
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 2: and then letting the rhymes flow with intuitive grace, bobbing

474
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:48,879
Speaker 2: and weaving, cutting and slashing, exposing himself to abuse just

475
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 2: so he could go for the juggular and with Doctor

476
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 2: Dre mixing his beats across the board, his most unlikely

477
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 2: dreams coming true before his eyes. Who was his opponent?

478
00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:03,119
Speaker 2: Now America, the America that had created and then abandoned him,

479
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:07,520
Speaker 2: just like his deadbeat dad. Eminem's toxic looney tune act.

480
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:10,800
Speaker 2: Slim Shady was just that an act, but it was

481
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 2: born from a real, primal scream aimed at his family,

482
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:18,000
Speaker 2: his country in its straight laced hypocrisies. The result was

483
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:21,840
Speaker 2: both high and lowbrow, ancient Greek Sigmund Freud meet Beavis

484
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:24,120
Speaker 2: and butt Heead by way of Doctor Dre and voila

485
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 2: a multi platinum album. The Slim Shady LP officially dropped

486
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 2: on February twenty third, nineteen ninety nine, but by then

487
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,240
Speaker 2: the video for the debut single had already taken over

488
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:40,840
Speaker 2: MTV for a month. And what better introduction to slim

489
00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:44,320
Speaker 2: Shady than the single called My Name Is? And The

490
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:47,520
Speaker 2: Slim Shady LP would remain on the Billboard two hundred

491
00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:51,000
Speaker 2: chart for the next one hundred weeks. If Eminem chose

492
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 2: the American establishment as his last best rap battle target,

493
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:59,119
Speaker 2: the establishment responded like some dumbfounded shoke artists sputtering on

494
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:01,639
Speaker 2: the mat and shot like Michael Spinx on the wrong

495
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:05,720
Speaker 2: end of a Mike Tyson uppercut. America was not the

496
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 2: fuck out. In less than a year, em Andre dropped

497
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:14,119
Speaker 2: a sequel album, born in another two week studio session,

498
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:17,080
Speaker 2: fueled by weed ecstasy in an already steady diet of

499
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 2: pharmaceuticals to manage anxiety and insomnia. The result was the

500
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 2: Marshall Mathers LP, named for the man's real and most

501
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 2: vulnerable persona. The album debuted in May two thousand to

502
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 2: one point seven six million sales in its first.

503
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 1: Week, setting a record for fastest selling.

504
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:36,920
Speaker 2: Album of all time by a solo artist, a record

505
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 2: that stood for fifteen years until Adele's twenty five was

506
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:46,200
Speaker 2: released in twenty fifteen. M's battle rap strategy had worked

507
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 2: better than he knew. He had become the vessel through

508
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 2: which America aired its sturdy laundry, but the pressure of

509
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 2: that role put Eminem in a perverse position. He spoke

510
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:58,520
Speaker 2: to in four legions of ignored and disaffected kids, which

511
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 2: tapped into a seismic four and pop culture, which attracted

512
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,240
Speaker 2: the kind of unhinged fans portrayed in his iconic track

513
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 2: stand For All that had changed the money the new house,

514
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 2: so much of the passion and pain behind Slim Shady's

515
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 2: creation remained the same or got worse. Strangers broke into

516
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 2: his house, extended family came out of the woodwork looking

517
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 2: for money. When you use your whole life as a

518
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 2: launch pad to the stars. You can't go home to

519
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:29,000
Speaker 2: scorched Duranth. Slim Shady's portrayal of his mom as crazy, neglectful,

520
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 2: and abusive had provoked a defamation lawsuit from his own mother,

521
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 2: and though he and Kim had gotten married in the

522
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:37,320
Speaker 2: rush of increasing fame, their relationship was.

523
00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 1: As twisted and tortured as ever.

524
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 2: It hadn't help, but on the Slim Shady LP track

525
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 2: Bonnie and Clyde ninety seven, Slim Shady took infant Haley

526
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,200
Speaker 2: on a beach trip to dispose of Kim's body while

527
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:51,560
Speaker 2: explaining the situation to Haley and Baby Talk, and things

528
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 2: were looking even worse after the prequel song Kim Off

529
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 2: the new album depicted Slim's strangling Kim to death with

530
00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 2: lyrics like Bleed, Bitch, Bleed. Unsurprisingly, Kim was considering a divorce,

531
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 2: too famous to go out in public, paranoid that everyone

532
00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:09,360
Speaker 2: viewed him as slim Shady, it was only a matter

533
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,640
Speaker 2: of time before Marshall lost control and Slim escaped into

534
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:20,280
Speaker 2: the world for real. The judge stopped reading the letters

535
00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:23,240
Speaker 2: and set the stack aside. It had been another year

536
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 2: another album in development, talk of a movie about his life,

537
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 2: but behind the scenes, more family drama.

538
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:31,760
Speaker 1: All these gun charges, the threat of jail.

539
00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 2: He felt like he was back at the diner getting

540
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:39,480
Speaker 2: fired again, mister schmuck watching Olli'd accomplished, fallback to nothing, powerless.

541
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 2: But when the judge let him off lightly and only

542
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:46,200
Speaker 2: gave him probation in community service, a calm fell over him.

543
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 2: He was respectful of her stern tone. His only comment

544
00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:52,080
Speaker 2: to the media gaggle on his way out was that

545
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 2: the judge in the court treated me like any other

546
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,040
Speaker 2: human being, which really was all that m and m

547
00:30:57,080 --> 00:31:01,320
Speaker 2: ever wanted. The real dangerous Shady was that he was

548
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:05,280
Speaker 2: a gory public dissection of Marshall Mathers performed by eminem,

549
00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,080
Speaker 2: all the pent up rage of a life spent scraping

550
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,520
Speaker 2: by in the gutter. All those times he'd been ignored

551
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:12,640
Speaker 2: or written off before he had ever opened his mouth,

552
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,760
Speaker 2: every dehumanizing memory freshly dug up and spewed back at

553
00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 2: all his enemies with a twisted joke and a smile.

554
00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:22,720
Speaker 2: But now he had looked down the barrel of the

555
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 2: gun and had a moment of clarity. Unleashing slim Shady

556
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 2: had brought him all the success he'd ever imagine, but

557
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 2: he could never lose himself in the.

558
00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 1: Role of America Scapegoat again.

559
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 2: He didn't need a straw man to battle anymore, because

560
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 2: battling himself would be more than enough work. Marshall Mathers,

561
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 2: underneath it all, knew any other alternative would lead to disgrace.

562
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:56,960
Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan in this This Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created

563
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:59,600
Speaker 2: by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double

564
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,360
Speaker 2: Elvis th Credits for this episode can be found on

565
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 2: the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're

566
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 2: listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for

567
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 2: supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and if not,

568
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Speaker 2: you can become a member right now by going to

569
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 2: disgracelampod dot com slash membership. Members can listen to every

570
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Speaker 2: episode of disgracelan ad free, Plus you'll get one brand

571
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Speaker 2: new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special

572
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Speaker 2: audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. Visit

573
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Speaker 2: disgracelampod dot com slash membership for details, rate and review

574
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Speaker 2: the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and

575
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Speaker 2: Facebook at disgracelampod, and on YouTube at YouTube dot com

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Speaker 2: slash at disgracelampod, rock a rolla. He then