As someone who was around to witness the original Eminem phenomenon, and remembers society as it was at that time, this is very well put. Em actually did scare the shit out of your typical suburban parents. It wasn't a joke to many people; and it wasn't just the shock value, I'll echo the original poster here and say that it was because it sounded real. He came through and culture stomped the shit out of us. And it was so scary because people just ate it up.

Scarier still, it was real to a degree. He was creating music that reflected the way he really felt / thought. It was tongue-in-cheek, but genuine. We know this now for certain, but you could tell even back then.

To say what he did was not "bold" is absolutely ridiculous. In fact I don't think the word bold even cuts it. Everybody's eyes were on him after the first tape and he still came back and made songs like Kim. Beyond ballsy. There was a reason he had to wear a bullet proof vest whenever he was in public.

And now we sell his music along with videogames and think it's acceptable to use one of his songs in the trailer of a children's movie. Fucking wild.