Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
This is almost a backward step from the Jehst one. This was the first album I got as a kid, when I was about 11. I've got this aunty, a cool aunty, who posted it to me for my birthday. It's a very funny present to give to an 11-year-old boy. It was the first album I had that I could play on my personal Walkman. I could talk about Eminem forever, and his effect on my life. They could all be Eminem albums, on this list. The fact that he's one of the biggest-selling artists of all time is extraordinary, considering his stance: he's very 'anti', and controversial, and offensive. And it's amazing that he's managed to become a mainstream figure despite all of that. But he's incredibly smart as well. And as a teenage boy, the stories in there about having parties and having fun, that whole world that he's created, you can put your headphones on and it makes you feel cool. When, as a teenager, you don't even know if you are cool. It was completely irresistible to me. I know every single word to every single song on that album. From start to finish. I could do it now, in one go. And it just comes so naturally 'cause I've listened to it throughout my life. It's funny, eccentric, and at the time it was weird, and he was very bold and brash, but it's also so clever. He's one of those people, like Prince, where you look at it and think, "Fucking hell, how did he do it? Where's that come from?"