I have a different opinion than most of you...Say Goodbye to Hollywood came on shuffle the other day and I still think that song sounds fantastic. Does it sound like today's production? No. However there's tons of "dated" production that I still listen to and love - Tupac's material comes to mind first, but 2004 Kanye, early/mid 90's Wu-Tang, lots of early 90's west coast music (e.g. Doggystyle) also fits this profile.
I digress...I think it's most important to pick beats that suit the artist, not the era, and the Eminem Show is a good example of that.
Also if you're comparing it to the current trends, there's a still a shitload of us that don't like a lot of the trap inspired beats and modern day beats - so it'd still be found appealing to a large audience. I'm not hating trap inspired beats or modern hip hop it's just a lot of the huge artists right now just aren't for me.
Yeah, anyway, they fit the time perfectly. While they aren't my favorite and certainly haven't aged well, they fit the whole "show" or "carnival" theme he had going then.
And to my point... how could a 8 or 10 year old (or however old you were) know what worked at the time?
