It feels like ‘Stan’ has always been a part of our cultural lexicon. What better way to describe an obsessive fan than the term Eminem coined on The Marshall Mathers LP? In June 2018, it even became an official term that the Oxford Dictionary acknowledged. But where did it even come from?
Producer The 45 King beats floated around Interscope Records before eventually landing with the Detroit MC and his manager, Paul Rosenberg. He immediately took note of the Dido lyric, “But your picture on my wall.” His mind started to wander to the kind of fans who live and die behind an artist’s work.
“When I heard the words to that song, I was like, ‘Yo, this is an obsessed fan,’” Eminem told VH1. “Dido’s words instantly put me there. Usually, as I’m writing, the concept will form as I go along. But ‘Stan’ was one of the few songs that I actually sat down and had everything mapped out for. I knew what it was going to be about.”
Ultimately, Em wanted to convey that anyone who reached such a deep, uncomfortable relationship with him because of his work was in the wrong. He explained that, even though he rapped with dark imagery, fans weren’t supposed to take him at face value.
Eminem created new Slang with ‘Stan’ back in 2000
“Anybody who lives and breathes for an artist in music or movies is taking it too far. They probably have something mentally wrong with them to begin with. It’s going to make them do something f**ked up,” Eminem continued.
“That’s basically what I was trying to say. ‘Don’t take everything that I say literally’ – I hate saying that because I want people to take everything I say literally, because I’m evil and I am all that evil stands for. There is a positive message in my music, and it’s ‘F**k you.’”
How did Eminem land on the term ‘Stan’? That part isn’t actually that deep. While fans thought he was intentional with combining ‘stalker’ and ‘fan’, his manager Paul Rosenberg called it a “happy coincidence.” “It was just the name that rhymed with ‘fan’, and he just created it based on that,” he told The Independent.
“I didn’t realize at the time how impactful [‘Stan’] was going to be, and certainly didn’t think 25 years later we’d be sitting here talking about a film we made based on the song,” Rosenberg added.
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc
The post The Story Behind ‘Stan’: The Eminem Song That Added a New Word to the Dictionary appeared first on VICE.
