I felt like utter crap today, so I sat around watching television all day long. Yay me.
And, ahead of watching a VH1 Ultimate Albums thing on The Marshall Mathers LP, I was starting to think that there might be some redeeming value in Eminem's music that I had missed.
I would like to officially declare that a wrong answer.
I listened to stories about how songs like "Stan", "Kim", "Criminal", "Kill You", and "The Way I Am" were crafted, how the label hacks and the producers and the public responded to 'em, and I repeatedly heard the argument put forth that the anger expressed was artistic in nature, not homophobic or woman-hating or any other kind of hating, for that matter.
And I'm dizzy as sin, so I can't remember the exact quote, but it's like Eminem says something to the effect of "I write about raping or killing five or six times, then write the flashing-neon lyric that says that I'm kidding, and it's like the critics ignore the lyrics that say I'm kidding and focus on the rape and the killing."
Well, duh.
I have a friend who just got pregnant. Completely by accident, mind, but the life is on its way nonetheless. The son or daughter in question is coming into a world where different elements of the culture are out to destroy themselves, where too many people running massive businesses like lining their pockets with ill-gotten dough, where we're still not sure as a culture whether we have a religious faith that binds us together or not, where kids kill themselves every day and other kids think about killing themselves every minute of their lives and have to fight to find reasons to live in every moment.
And that's just in these here United States. If we go to Europe and beyond, matters are even more effed up. (Ah, if only Amelia didn't know how to find this page...another expletive works there far, far better...)
All right, here's the crux of the matter: which lyrics does this kid need to hear worse in his world?
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ian S.
I more or less agree with this, but from a different angle. See, I *liked* the Slim Shady LP. It was refreshingly free of the stoopid gangsta/pimp schtick nearly all rap drowns in these days, and the backing tracks by Dr. Dre and the Bass brothers were quite listenable. Plus, he rhymes with "Marty Schottenheimer", which I give bonus points for.
The Marshall Mathers LP I liked less, because the nihlism was starting to become draining. When I ripped it to listen to, I omitted "Kim" entirely because it's simply beyond my threshold of violence and I'm uninterested in trying to find any other value in it.
Finally when The Eminem Show came out I got it on MP3 before even buying the record. I gave it a listen, declared it unlistenable because it was so nihlistic (as I've told my friends, you KNOW an Eminem disc is in trouble when the skits aren't even funny). Then I read the rave reviews in Spin and other mags and figured maybe I'd missed something. So I gave it another listen, but concluded that I hadn't - rather, music seems to have become like modern art, where critics will extravagantly praise total crap just so they don't seem unhip. I deleted the MP3s, and I'm definitely not buying the album.
2 - Jon Dyer
"Hello my name is Jon, and I like Eminem."
I'm glad that you are interested in music that expresses a positive message, and I admit that the latest Eminem album is not half as good as the Marshall Mathers LP, but this seems like more of an attack on the artist rather than a review of any Eminem album.
I do like his earlier albums. I grew up on Slayer, NWA, The Misfits, etc. whose messages are much angrier than anything that Mathers has come up with. And NWA was saying all the same stuff 20 years ago, and never got half the popularity of Eminem. Why? I would venture it's because they were not white and suburban, and white America wasn't really ready for them.
This is no secret, and is even expressed on Eminem's new album on a track called "White America".
It's just like all the boy bands: it's a business plan. And that's fine. The reason that Eminem is big, is because he's clever, he's shocking, and he's white.
But, it's just music. Kids need angry music just as much as loving, caring music. Sometimes love songs or self-depricating whining can make me much angrier than anything Mathers can put out. As long as kids have loving parents, they can listen to whatever the heck they want to. Music companies don't raise our kids, and neither does Eminem. They're not supposed to.
Despite having some of the angriest musical tastes, but I have yet to kill anyone, and I'm all for being happy. Like most people, I know that it's music, not a life plan. If kids are angry, it may help kids to release some of that anger. It also may make them laugh. Or it may be something that they get to feel rebelious about.
And they may forget about it next week...
3 - Chuck Pearson
Many thanks for the comments, both here and through e-mail. Double props to Howard Owens, who sends along a link to one of his writings that I think addresses a lot of what Jon addresses directly.
I freely plead guilty to addressing Eminem more generally as an artist than reviewing any of his albums, per se. Surely I haven't plowed any new ground in that department. And I'm all about claiming our responsibilities as parents and all that. Of course, you have to deal with the fact that not all parents are concerned about their kids as we are, but that's another argument.
Or is it? My biggest concern is that an environment where hate and violence is glorified isn't one that we want the kids who are growing up to be tomorrow's adults to grow up in. It's one thing to be angry, or to write angry lyrics - and whereas I don't have any Slayer or NWA in my collection, Public Enemy and Ben Folds Five have their places. [I don't claim to be harder-than-thou by ANY stretch. If I did, I would disavow all the Christian stuff. :)] It's quite another to so clearly and pointedly fantasize and glorify extreme violence in one's lyrics, and to direct hatred at (insert your favorite aggrieved group here). Eminem's stuff disturbs me greatly, and I'm a hundred times more disturbed that Interscope would spend millions upon millions to market Eminem's messages.
And perhaps that's the overriding detail that I'm on about.
(But the dude rhymed something with Marty Schottenheimer? Heh. Shows you how informed my takes are...)
chuck
4 - Ashley Cornish
I think you are pretty cute for turning 30
5 - amy marion
well i think that he is good and every one should shut the **** up.
6 - Brianna
Well on his song, i dont remember what song that it is, he says "got a new baby sister, she dont understand" does he really? can anyone give me the scoop???<3 brianna <3
7 - Kellie
Does anyone have a REAL address for Eminem, where he will actually get my letter? PLease help.
8 - Eric Olsen
Kellie, I am certain his website has a place for fan mail - I'd try that.
9 - asdf asdf asfd
Eminem is the bomb no one could rap like him do not even try because you are not going to do it
10 - Ray
Eminem is cool he could rap and do anything i always listen to his music and i always admire it if any one got a problem with it just kiss my natural white ass and if you do not like Eminem it is because you are jealous of him and you are trying to be like him but no one in the world could be like him i send eminem a letter but he never gets it could anyone help me and tell me his adress please i would give you anything
11 - Old Fart
I hated Eminem out of principle, without ever having listened to his music. Then one night I rented the DVD of "8 Mile". The following weekend I bought a copy of the DVD. Two weeks later I bought "The Eminem Show". Now I "get" Eminem.
At the end of "My Dad's Gone Crazy", Hailie says, "You're funny, Daddy." And I say, "Yup." He's funny, all right. He's also piercingly honest and direct. And he's offensive too, no question about it.
We need offensive artists. We always have needed them. I called a friend of mine and told him that we no longer had the Mothers of Invention or the Sex Pistols, so thank goodness that Eminem is with us.
By the way, I'm 51 years old and a kindergarten teacher.
12 - Rodney Welch
"Piercing honesty" and offensiveness are pretty thin pegs on which to hang one's artistry, especially for someone so shallow as Eminem. My daughter got me "The Eminem Show" for Christmas, and while I have a certain liking for the rhythm, Eminem's excrementious mouth wears me down after about ten minutes. Ironically, he's not honest or offensive in a way that means anything, that shakes you up, that gets under your skin -- it's just the ravings of some bi-polar inner city youth (or thereabouts) who hates his mother and ex-wife and hopes to see both burn in hell. Oh, and he loves his daughter.
Hate is far more satisying to feel than to hear. That line of Bob Dylan's keeps coming to mind: "If there's an original thought out there, I could use it right now."
13 - daphne
hey marshall you make new e-mail adress you do add me please ok
from daphne
14 - daphne
hey marshall do you make new e-mail adress you do add me please ok
from daphne
15 - chris georgeou
eminem rules! #1 rapper. u haters should get a f****** life. now beat it.
16 - philip stewart
sup em. i am ur #1 fan in nz. get a fucken life all u fucken dickhead haters and put up with his shit.
17 - Kracka
every one knows em is the shit cant no one fuck wit him i been listenin to him for years he is the reson i started rappin you people can say that he sucks or he is a bad influence but in ways he is a great influence in a magazine article some one interviewed people living around him they responded to questions saying he would shake your hand if he met you, use appropriate languge, and people said he was a great father playin basketball with the kids on the block and maken breakfast for his daugter in the mornin, so you can say what you want about him but in the back of your mind you know he is a sick rapper and a good person
18 - Kracka
oh and he is mad funny
19 - sophie
i think eminem is great!!!!
i have loved all of him albums so far.
Especially his new album "The Eminem Show" when i listen to the lyrics i just keep going over and over the same piece of music because its so unbelievable.
Infact i have become so infactuated with the cd i know the lyrics for every single song/skit. Am i crazy? NO i just love him anybody with a contact address please please please tell it to me.
20 - D.Tansy
This crap is NOT rap. It's "POP" music,
losing ground even as I write. Not that
some of it isn't GOOD, and some even
excellent, but 3/4ths is merely mediocre,
and most less.
Consider, "Sing For The Moment" basically
explains this thought. The MOMENT. NOW.
What is Pop, Pop, Popular!
PLEASE feel free to BE the first on YOUR
block to BLEACH your head, cut it like
THIS, and get in LINE!
Hey, KISS did this shit in '74, but only
the extreme had their faces tatoo'ed
with permanent stupidity. Luckily, bleach
wears OFF, and hair grows back!
Mr. Mathers' act is a rehash of every
would-be "Rebellious Youth" scenario ever
devised by a corporate stooge. When he
first came on the scene, he seemed to
have something to say.
Now, (millions of DOLLARS later)
it's pretty obvious Rapboy
follows his LEADER, historical lyrical
HITMAN and BIGDOG, Dr. "MF" Dre, hog of
BIGnuts fame! (Also, provider of
the LOOT!)
As is only natural in this setting, since
it HAS been Dre and NOT "rapboy" who's
been CARRYING this show from jump!
It's like, for every generation, there's
a NEW Jebus!
Eminem AIN'T Jebus! (Luckily, he
probably ain't the "anti-jebus", either!)
21 - Dew
I didn't bother to read the other comments so if I am repetitious, forgive me.
I think most people miss the point of Eminem and songs like Kill you. First of all its not meant for kids. And to say that he should clean up his lyrical content to cater to the lack of adequate parenting is as silly as saying that Eminem is the reason people hate homosexuals.
I myself have been very angry at times and thought of several different ways to release that anger. Most often it comes out in lyric or poem. Once I'm done the emotion has settled. The difference? Millions of people dont hear my outlet. Is that reason for him to tame it. Not at all, that outlet is what made him famous.
I am a huge fan of Eminem's. If for no other reason than because I get it. he embodies, in my opinion, what music should stand for: Release and emotion. If you dont agree, last I checked, all radios, computers, mp3 players, television sets and any other form of electronic transmissions came with an off button...
22 - Andee
I'm sorry for all you people that just hate Eminem. He is a genius, and it is really sad that you can't ingore the hate and see the artist that he is. How about other rappers? They seem to me that they are rapping about almost the sme thing, hwy not pick on them for a change?....Oh I get it....It's becuse he is white and he is supposed to be better then all the other races?...And i thought you people said he was racsist...You people are sad...I feel sorry for you. :-(
23 - Natalie Davis
It is possible to acknowledge his artistry while hating and disavowing his message. I am not a fan, but "Lose Yourself" was just brilliant in many ways. One shouldn't hate Eminem if one doesn't know him personally, though.
24 - Taloran
Why am I not surprised that the majority of the Eminem fans in the comments above can't spell, compose, or, apparently, think?
25 - Natalie Davis
Public schools?