10 Albums Turning 20 In 2019

The rap world was in a difficult spot in the late '90s. While artists like Jay-Z were absolutely annihilating the competition, a lot of pop stars (i.e.boy bands) were utilizing rap tendencies, often to disastrous results. Authentic rap was starting to get lost in the shuffle. Then all of a sudden, a punk kid from Detroit changed everything.

Eminem came from a rough upbringing, and he lays it all out on this record. Each track is littered with quotable lyrics that amused teenage kids and pissed off all of their parents.

The album's opener "My Name Is" displays Eminem's snarky flow with a tale about his broken home and rise to success. On "Role Model," Em tears down the stereotypical role models of old. But the standout is "'97 Bonnie and Clyde," where Em talks about taking his daughter to the pier so that he can dump his girlfriend's corpse into the river. This twisted form of storytelling foreshadowed epics like "Stan" further down the road.

While some people thought Em was a commanding presence behind the mic before, no one knew that he would blow up to this degree. Little did we know Em had only begun to impress us.