Guilty Conscience

"Guilty Conscience" is a song by American rapper Eminem, featuring American hip hop record producer Dr. Dre. It was released as the third and final single from Eminem's The Slim Shady LP (1999). It was also released on his 2005 greatest hits album Curtain Call: The Hits. It samples I Will Follow Him by Little Peggy March. The song is also mentioned in another Eminem song, "The Way I Am", in which one of the lyrics in the song say that "Guilty Conscience" received poor responses; "Oh, it's his lyrical content - the song 'Guilty Conscience' has gotten such rotten responses". "Guilty Conscience" features a duel between the two rappers playing the roles of good and evil in someone's head in the manner of a medieval morality play, i.e., the angel and devil on a person's shoulders competing for possession of the person's soul. Dr. Dre is the angel; Slim Shady the devil. The song contains spoken parts and sound effects describing several conflicting scenarios building tension and curiosity, narrated by Mark Avery. Eminem is generally credited for writing Dre's verses as well as his own. The first verse of the song features the story of Eddie, 23, a frustrated young man about to rob a liquor store. Dre warns Eddie not to go through with it, telling him that the witnesses will report the robbery to the police, that it will be mentioned on the news, and that Eddie will end up on the most wanted list. Slim Shady urges Eddie to go through with his plan; he tells Eddie to go to his aunts' house and disguise himself so witnesses would not recognize him. Shady uses the poverty of Eddie's family to justify the robbery, and in the unedited version, tries to persuade Eddie to murder the store clerk, whom Dre says is "older than George Burns". Though in the song alone the end is ambiguous, the music video depicts Eddie ultimately deciding not to go through with the theft and walks away. In the next verse, the 21-year-old Stan takes an underage girl upstairs during a rave party. In the Director's Cut music video, the scene takes place at a fraternity party. Eminem attempts to convince Stan to date-rape the girl over Dre's protests and warnings about jail time for statutory rape, and it is left somewhat vague whether or not Stan goes through with it. This is not the same Stan as featured in Eminem's popular track Stan. Dre refers to the 1995 movie Kids in which the climax scene shows a teenage boy date-raping a girl who is infected with HIV. In the uncensored version of the song, Slim Shady suggests unprotected sex in an earlier refrain. Shady also references Funkdoobiest front man Son Doobie. In the edited version, the intensity is toned down and Slim suggests leaving the girl passed out on her parents' doorstep. The scene, especially the edited ending version, is reminiscent of a famous scene from the movie Animal House. During the narration of this scene, the song "Hoochie Mama" by 2 Live Crew is heard playing in the background at the party. In the third verse, Grady, a 29-year-old construction worker, comes home to find his wife having sex with another man in bed. In the unedited version, Slim Shady demands that Grady brutally kill his wife. When Dre tries to cut in, Slim tells Grady to leave his wife and take their kids with him, bringing up Dre's violent N.W.A past accusing him of hypocrisy, including when he says "You gonna take advice from somebody who slapped Dee Barnes?" and again when he says, "Mr. Dre, Mr. N.W.A, Mr. A.K. coming Straight Outta Compton, y'all better make way. How in the fuck are you gonna tell this man not to be violent?" In turn, Dre argues that Grady doesn't need to take the same foolish path Dre himself once took, saying "Been There, Done That". In the end, Shady's taunting pushes Dre into agreeing that Grady should murder both his wife and her lover. This particular ending caused a lot of controversy, especially since it was left in the edited version of the song. This song was referenced multiple times in Eminem's next album, The Marshall Mathers LP.