Content
The song was Eminem's return after the successful The Marshall Mathers LP, intended as a sequel to "The Real Slim Shady" and essentially saying that he is back to save the world. It also refers to Eminem's role in the music industry and his cultural effects.
The song mocks a number of Eminem's critics, including then-Vice-President Dick Cheney (including his recurring heart problems) and his wife Lynne, the FCC and MTV, Chris Kirkpatrick, Limp Bizkit and Moby. It also lampoons comparisons of him to Elvis Presley as a white man succeeding commercially in a predominantly black art form. A line also attacks his own mother for the lawsuit she filed for the lyrics of his debut single "My Name Is".
The opening lyric "Two trailer park girls go round the outside" is based on the single "Buffalo Gals" by Malcolm McLaren, while the introduction — "Obie Trice, real name, no gimmicks" — is sampled from Obie Trice's own track "Rap Name".
The song was parodied on All That, a skit show on Nickelodeon, as "Without Meat". It was also parodied on MADtv, a skit show on FOX, as "What's on TV?". In the second verse, a line samples the intro from "The Real Slim Shady".
The song was used as the entrance song for Junie Browning at the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 8.
The background saxophone riff was sampled for Drunkenmunky's 2002 club hit "E".
Some of the lyrics are altered on the clean version, such as "This is about to get heavy" replaced "This shit's about to get heavy". Also, "Fuck that, cum on your lips, and some on your tits" is changed to "Jump back, jiggle your hips and wiggle a bit". The censored version also replaces "fag" with "Stan" when referring to Moby, a reference to the popular track from The Marshall Mathers LP (2000).
Read more about this topic: Without Me
Famous quotes containing the word content:
“What is most original in a man’s nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn’t have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.”
—Leonard Cohen (b. 1934)
“It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content ... it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion.”
—René Daumal (1908–1944)
“People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am content with knowing, if only I could know.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)