Eminem proves to 80,000 Slane fans there is life after Slim Shady

What so instantaneously made Eminem a global superstar more than a decade ago, aside from complex rhymes and the fact parents hated him, was his willingness to play with alter-egos — multitudes of them, if the videos to hits from ‘My Name Is’ (1999) to ‘Just Lose It’ (2004) are anything to go by.

With chameleon ability, Eminem flaunted a sense of glee at his naughtiness, but also hinted at a much darker side, thrilling audiences and selling more than 65m copies of his first three albums. However, therein he sowed the seeds of his own downfall: ‘I’ve created a monster, ‘cause nobody wants to see Marshall no more, they want Shady I’m chop liver,’ he says in ‘Without Me’. The caricature bad-boy rapper, smoking a fat pound of grass and spitting in your onion rings, doesn’t allow for artistic growth. Hence the diminishing returns since Encore; hence self-indulgent nonsense such as ‘Like Toy Soldiers’, all anger, no wit.

And now 80,000 Irish fans have endured the schlep to Slane, run a gauntlet of more than a 1,000 gardaí, security guards, and stewards, and averted their eyes at the sight of socialite solicitor Gerald Kean in a bling-encrusted baseball cap, and they want entertainment. With a new album due and the bar set high by young upstarts Tyler the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt earlier in the day, does the biggest artist of the previous decade try to stay relevant, or give the crowd what they want: The hits and a good time?

Admirably, Eminem attempts to keep a foot in both camps by opening with a new track ‘Survival’, a hook-heavy declaration of intent chock with references to fighting back, taking last chances, and having enough in the tank; the newly mature artist determined not to rest on laurels. It debuted on the trailer for the new Call of Duty video game last week, perhaps a sign that the main concern for rap stars is now multi-platform media strategies, not keeping it real.

It isn’t long until the show starts to drag amid a slew of anti-Bush administration songs; Eminem’s trademark midtempo backing beats provide no hiding place for sub-standard lyrics or subject matter. But when on form, Eminem still has panache aplenty. The barely contained aggression of ‘Criminal’ and ‘Fast Lanes’ traces the talent for menace from the first decade of his career to the next. The crowd laps up ‘Lighters’, and ‘Stan’ remains one of the most brilliantly sinister songs ever written.

Then it’s back into the trenches until Eminem uncorks the powderkeg of ‘My Name Is’, ‘The Real Slim Shady’, and ‘Without Me’, the hare-brained party anthems that once made him the biggest star on the planet. An encore of ‘Lose Yourself’, soundtrack to the film in which Eminem played a meta Eminem, suggests while the Detroit rapper will forever be defined by his origin story, there is life outside the alter-egos.

58 arrests

There were 58 arrests and five reported assaults at Saturday’s Eminem concert at Slane.

Gardaí yesterday said 22 people were arrested for public order offences, one for driving under the influence and 35 for minor drug offences. There were five reports of assaults.

A spokesperson said provisional figures for arrests and detections are “very much in line with previous events of this scale”.

Gardaí and prompters MCD thanked the residents of Slane and the 80,000 fans who attended.

Superintendent Michael Devine said: “The vast majority of fans heeded the advice given in advance of the event, which ensured everyone had a safe and enjoyable experience.”