Eminem: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Marshall Mathers LP
5. Dido Owes A 'Thank You'
‘Stan’ is one of the signature songs released from ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ and is widely considered as one of the best tracks of Eminem’s entire discography.
After hearing a sample of Dido’s track, ‘Thank You’, Eminem felt that the lyric described an obsessive fan and was inspired to create the fictional story of ‘Stan’, a crazed fan of Eminem’s that ends up killing himself, as well as his pregnant girlfriend, after having his fan mail ignored by the rap star.
The harrowing verses that make up the story are held together by a sample of Dido’s song that serves as the chorus of ‘Stan’. Dido was a fairly unknown artist at the time and the album that the sample is taken from had a fairly mediocre reception upon its initial release in 1999.
However, following the release of ‘Stan’, Dido’s ‘No Angel’ album became a worldwide phenomenon and has become one of the best selling albums of all time, second only to James Blunt’s ‘Back To Bedlam’ in the UK’s best selling albums of the 2000s.