Stan (song) - Legacy

Legacy

The song is perhaps Eminem's most critically acclaimed song and has been called a "cultural milestone" and referred to as "Eminem's best song" by About.com. Analysing "Stan" in the Guardian newspaper, writer and literary critic Giles Foden compared Eminem to Robert Browning.

At the 2001 Grammy Awards, when he was facing all manner of criticism from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation over his lyrics, Eminem responded by performing "Stan" with singer Elton John, who is openly gay, singing Dido's lines. Many of the profanities were substituted, for example, "You're like his favorite idol" in line of "You're like his fucking idol," and "stuff" for "shit". Recordings of this performance were available for download on Eminem's official website Eminem.com and, later, on his 2005 greatest hits release Curtain Call: The Hits.

Christian rap artist KJ-52 recorded two songs: "Dear Slim" and "Dear Slim, Part II," attempting to contact Eminem and talk to him about his own faith and help him through his troubles. The lyrics to "Dear Slim" reference the obsessed fan in "Stan." Various instruments within the song "My Life" by The Game were taken from Stan.

Rapper Canibus released a response track to this song entitled "U Didn't Care", in which Canibus, portraying Stan, accused Eminem of not caring about him at all.

"Stan" has entered into the lexicon as a term for an overly-obsessed fan of someone or something. The term is especially popular in the rap community; in "Ether", the anti-Jay-Z diss track, Nas notably called Jay-Z a "stan" of both himself and The Notorious B.I.G..

"Stan" has been listed by many as one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time. It was ranked #3 on a list of the greatest rap songs in history by Q magazine, and came 10th in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com. Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time ranked it #290, one of Eminem's two songs on the list along with "Lose Yourself;" in the updated 2010 list, it was ranked at #296. It ranked #45 on About.com's Top 100 Rap Songs.

The song ranked number 15 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop, and number 2 on their Countdown Millenium Songs. It was also named the 46th Best Song of the decade by Complex magazine, and the 10th Best Song of the decade by Rolling Stone magazine. The song also ranked #2 on Complex's "The 100 Best Eminem Songs."

In 2009, rapper Swizz Beatz said he submitted an idea for a song for Eminem entitled "Stan 2". When Eminem turned it down, Swizz took it back and will use it for his album, Haute Living. The song would be entitled "Anne", feature rapper Lil Wayne and would maintain the theme that Swizz had in mind, but on April 27, 2011, Swizz said that he had given the song to Lil Wayne in exchange for a verse on his new song. "Anne" did not appear on Lil Wayne's ninth studio album, Tha Carter IV.