Criminal is the closing track on Eminem's third studio album The Marshall Mathers LP, released in 2000. The song became one of the album's most talked about cuts for its provocative lyrics and theatrical delivery, and it has remained a staple in discussions of Eminem's early work. Short excerpts later circulated on soundboards and social platforms, where creators isolated the most intense vocal moments for edits, reactions and transitions, giving the decades old track a second life as a reusable meme sound.