A look back at Eminem’s first show in the UK, which rocked the rap world

Eminem was the biggest rap star in the world in 2000. The white boy from Detroit had made a big splash in popular music with The Slim Shady LP and the obscenely vulgаr lead song “My Nаme Is” the previous year. By the time he released his follow up, The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem was a real star.

Even though selling records is great, the real money was in going on a world tour before files made things faster. Emeinem would have to go on tour, and he would have to do it huge. He did it with screams, thrills, and enough space in the newspaper columns to make The Beatles blush.

The first stop on Eminem’s tour was in England at the Manchester Arena. On stage, he brought the shоcked value that had only been in his songs and videos to life. The rapper put on a hockey mask that looked like Jason Voorhees, pulled out a chainsaw, and caught the scary images in his songs. It looked like Alice Cooper had turned his attention to hip hop.