The Real Slim Shady

"The Real Slim Shady" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his third studio album The Marshall Mathers LP (2000). It was released as the lead single a month before the album's release.

The song peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, giving him his biggest hit up to that point. It was also Eminem's first song to reach number one in the UK and Ireland, and the song was the 14th best-selling of 2000 in the UK. It won multiple awards, including MTV Video Music Awards for Best Video and Best Male Video, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 80 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years". It was listed at number 396 on NME's 500 greatest songs of all time.

Production

"The Real Slim Shady" was not originally intended to be part of The Marshall Mathers LP. Jimmy Iovine of Interscope Records wanted Eminem to create a song to introduce the album, similar to how "My Name Is" was the first single on The Slim Shady LP. Eminem, Dr. Dre, Tommy Coster, and Mike Elizondo wrote "The Real Slim Shady" just hours before the final copy of the album was due. The first single was intended to be "Who Knew".

The song's first verse interpolated the 1999 novelty single "Lonely Swedish (The Bum Bum Song)" by Tom Green, and the intro and chorus of the song interpolate the famous catchphrase "will the real _____ please stand up?" from the television game show To Tell the Truth.