If you listen to Infinite expecting the zany, angry, shock-rap of his later work, you will be shocked. This album sounds nothing like The Marshall Mathers LP .
Crucially, Infinite ’s failure was the catalyst for everything that followed. Humiliated and broke, Eminem nearly gave up rapping entirely. But the rejection hardened him. In the months after the album’s release, his life spiraled—he was fired from his restaurant job, evicted from his home, and witnessed a violent assault on his mother. Out of that despair, the voice of was born. The polite, technical rapper of Infinite was replaced by a psychotic, hilarious, and unapologetic monster. As he rapped on The Slim Shady LP ’s “Rock Bottom”: eminem's first album