Eminem
The first time I ever heard of Eminem was during my first year of college, when MTV started playing his "My Name Is" video. The song was catchy in a retarded sort of way, and the video was funny, so I became a fan. Back then, it seemed like I was the only one, everyone else thought I was nuts for liking it.
Not that I blame them, cause you gotta admit, both the song and the video were pretty ridiculous. First off, it's this skinny white guy rapping in a high voice, to a beat that sounds like it belonged in an 8-bit Nintendo game. In the song, he's talking about impregnating Spice Girls, his mom doing drugs, and stapling his junior high teacher's nuts to a stack of papers. The video shows him in all these random situations, dressed up as Bill Clinton in one scene and then Marilyn Manson the next. And there was also the cameos by Gheorghe Muresan and Dr. Dre, which made absolutely no sense at the time. I mean, who the heck was this guy anyways and where did he come from?
Obviously, a lot has changed since then. Unless you live in a cave, you know that Eminem has become one of the biggest if not the biggest star in the music scene. Controversial among older people, but almost universally admired by anyone under the age of 30 - male or female, white or black (or yellow), it didn't matter. Every radio station plays his songs, and it seems like people can't get enough of him. These days Eminem is cool, he's hot, he's talented, and he can do no wrong.
For me, I guess my opinion of him went in the opposite direction as everyone else in this country. Yeah, I liked him in those early days, and continued to listen to his music while he was getting blasted by the media, liked a couple of his CDs enough to buy them, went to see his movie when it came out, and I still like some of his stuff.
But after listening to his latest CD (Encore) for a month or so, I'd have to say that I'm really Eminem-ed out. I'm sick of him, I don't enjoy his music or his videos as much, and I'd go as far as to say that some of it actually irritates me now.
Some of it is probably just overexposure, but one thing that bothers me is how he keeps trying to make himself look good by talking about his daughter. At first maybe it was nice to mention Hailie in his interviews or even dedicate a song to her on his CD. But now it's like he's just flat out using her name to promote his image.
In his latest song to her, "Mockingbird", he starts by saying:
"Hailie, I know you miss your mom
and I know you miss your dad
Well I'm gone
But I'm trying to give you
The life I never had"
It's not like he's a blue collar worker trying to grind out a living, never able to be at home because he needs to work 2 jobs to support his family. He makes it sound like he wishes he could spend more time with his daughter, if only he didn't need to work all the time to provide provide for her. As if the millions he has already made isn't enough in itself to give her a more comfortable life than any of us can imagine. If you choose to spend more time on your rap than on your daughter, fine that's your decision, but at least don't make it seem like you're doing it all for her sake. You're not.
Later on in the song he goes:
"all I ever wanted to do
was just make you proud"
More BS. What daughter wouldn't be proud of a dad who raps about all of his family's dirty laundry for the rest of the world to hear? I know I would love for everyone to know exactly how my mother is a psycho bitch, my grandmother is a psycho bitch, and how my dad wanted to kill them both. And every time I get to see one of his videos on TV, where he's either dressed up like Pee Wee Herman or streaking naked through the streets, I would be so beaming with pride.
It's not that I necessarily fault him for rapping about his most personal thoughts and private issues. And if he wants to continue pushing the boundaries of decency in his music videos, that's his decision, not mine. He could have a lot of motives for the things he does; maybe he legitimately wants to express himself artistically, maybe he's doing it all to get revenge on people, maybe he likes the attention and glory, or maybe he just wants to sell some records. But there's no way anyone could ever argue that Eminem is a man driven by a desire to make his daughter proud.
Then there's the song "Like Toy Soldiers", where he talks about all the battles and rivalries he's gone through in the rap world. I still like the song, but he could not possibly sound more self-serving in the lyrics. First of all, the guy is 32 years old now, when is he going to grow up and stop acting like he's in high school? And then, he again brings up Hailie as a convenient excuse to battle Ja. Are we really supposed to believe that Eminem wanted so bad to be the bigger man and ignore the battle, except for the one fact that the other guy mentioned his daughter's name in a song? Even if what he says is true, what's his point? Wow, what a saint he must be, let's all worship him now!
He also talks a little about having to sit back and stay out of Dr. Dre's beef with Suge Knight in the song. Who exactly does he think he is? If Dr. Dre can't handle his own business, you think he really needs help from Eminem, to protect him from Suge Knight of all people? I can't imagine Suge Knight really ever feeling threatened by anyone in the rap world, least of all Eminem, yet here he is, talking like some sort of bigshot thug kingpin that rules the streets. Whigga please.
One other thing about the song, I remember not too long ago Kellen Winslow Jr. got blasted by the media for comparing himself to a soldier. I know Eminem's song is titled "Toy Soldiers" but that's only the chorus, in the rest of the song and in past songs he talks a lot about being a soldier. I'm not so so sure that a college football player calling himself a soldier is much worse than a rapper doing the same, but I don't see anywhere near the outrage against Eminem than we saw for Kellen Winslow. It could just be the timing, but I found that to be interesting.
I think the thing that bothers me most is how his videos are marketed so much to kids. At first I figured, maybe his videos just happen to be colorful, so we should just give him the benefit of the doubt. But by now, it's become pretty obvious that he's trying to sell more CD's to little kids. Almost all of his major videos are so cartoony (actually the recent one for "Mosh" was an actual animated cartoon), and in the "Just Lose It" video he even features little kids dancing. It doesn't get much more obvious than that. I mean, it's one thing to make songs filled with obscenities and "adult" topics, but marketing that same music to kids is just wrong. I'd call him shady for doing that, but I guess he already calls himself that. Darn.
*****
In financial news, shares of Symantec Co. dropped 6% on the stock market today. Experts blame the fall on its recent deal to buy Veritas Software, but I'm sure readers of this blog know better. The real story is that my 11/11/04 entry that I wrote to bash their Norton AntiVirus product finally made its impact on shareholders.
Let this be a warning to all of you large corporations out there - better be nice to me or else you may suffer a similar fate. At the moment, Urban Outfitters is getting dangerously close to making it on my blacklist, but we'll have to see about that.
