Editing The Marshall Mathers LP (section)

=== Censorship ===

[[File:Hope Columbine Memorial Library.jpg|thumb|left|Lyrics referencing the [[Columbine High School massacre]] were censored on ''The Marshall Mathers LP'']]
In his book ''Edited Clean Version: Technology and the Culture of Control'', author Raiford Guins writes that the clean version of ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' "resembles a cross between a cell phone chat with terrible reception...and a noted hip-hop lyricist suffering from an incurable case of hiccups."<ref name="Guins12">Guins, 2008. p. 12</ref>

This version of the album often either omits words completely or obscures them with added sound effects. The clean version of the album did not censor all profanity. Words like "ass", "bitch", "goddamn", and "shit" were uncensored. However, on the track "The Real Slim Shady", the words "bitch" and "shit" were censored out, as its radio edit was mainly used. References to violence and weapons were also significantly altered, and the titles to the songs "Kill You", "Drug Ballad", and "Bitch Please II" are censored on the back cover.<ref name="Guins12" /> The song "Kim" is removed completely and replaced by "The Kids", a ''[[South Park]]''-themed track about drug usage and the American youth which is also featured on the special edition of the album.<ref name="Bozza83">Bozza, 2003. p. 83</ref>

Special attention was given to editing aggressive and violent lyrics that were aimed at police, prostitutes, women, homosexuals, bullies, minors, and schools. In response to [[Columbine High School massacre|the attack]] that had occurred at [[Columbine High School]] in April 1999, names of guns and sounds of them firing were censored.  Interscope Records insisted on censoring the words "kids" and "Columbine" from the line, "I take seven [kids] from [Columbine], stand them all in line" from "I'm Back", even on the explicit version of the album. Mike Rubin of ''Spin'' called the censorship a "curious decision, given that lyrics like 'Take drugs / Rape sluts' are apparently permissible". Eminem commented on his lyrics regarding the shooting, calling the specific Columbine incident "so fucking touchy." He elaborated being saying, "as much sympathy as we give the Columbine shootings, nobody ever looked at it from the fuckin' point of view of the kids who were bullied — I mean, they took their own fucking life! And it was because they were pushed so far to the fucking edge that they were fucking so mad. I've ''been'' that mad."<ref name="sinsandsorrows" /> The full line appears uncensored in Eminem's song "[[Rap God]]" from ''[[The Marshall Mathers LP 2]],''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131014/ENT04/310140108/Emimem-strikes-again-Rap-God-single | title=Emimem strikes again with 'Rap God' single | work=[[The Detroit News]] | date=October 14, 2013 | access-date=October 15, 2013 | author=Graham, Adam | archive-date=October 15, 2013 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20131015122839/http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131014/ENT04/310140108/Emimem-strikes-again-Rap-God-single | url-status=dead }}</ref> although it remains censored on the clean version.

The line "It doesn't matter, [your attorney Fred Gibson's a] faggot" was also censored from "Marshall Mathers"; the line refers to his mother Debbie Nelson's lawyer, who assisted her in filing a lawsuit against the rapper for defamation regarding lyrics from ''[[The Slim Shady LP]]''.<ref name="emvsmom">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7-GZm2de98C&q=eminem+fred+gibson&pg=PA36|title=Eminem vs. M.O.M|last=Herzog|first=Kenny|work=Spin|publisher=Spin Media LLC|date=December 2008|access-date=February 9, 2014}}</ref>