He also stretched the limits of his lyrics when he described in a couple of his songs the events of the shootings at Columbine. He pleads his case for him and Marilyn Manson to not be blamed for the shootings because of their violent lyrics that people think caused the shooters to go off. This was the only issue on his record that was seen as completely obscene and unnecessary and he was censored on one of the songs he talks about Columbine on. The most disturbing song to most critics, however, was the graphic song "Kim" in which he explains kidnapping his wife while his daughter is sleeping and brutally murdering her. In this song, he goes out of his traditional lyrical flow and basically tells the story as a conversation between him and his wife in which he sounds severely disturbed and is constantly screaming at her until the end when he finally kills her. This graphic description was the last straw for most critics as they continued to stop his album from being sold. Instead, this controversy spread to the center of the media and the album was exposed to more people than ever which caused it to be one of the most successful albums of the last five years.
What most people are confused about is why the album was so successful if it was so offensive to so many people. The answer to this question lies in the very basic idea of America, which is freedom. In Eminem's case, the freedom of expression and the freedom of speech to say whatever is on his mind at the time he was writing lyrics for his album. To some extent, Eminem was speaking for everyone who is in favor of freedom of speech. He was trying to push all the censors and critics to get on him so he could show society how they are constantly trying to limit our basic amendment rights. He even tells his audience on this album that the things he says aren't necessarily what he believes and the events he talks about he doesn't actually do, but instead he is just being an artist which means thinking of new ideas to bring up.