The following link is a 60 minutes interview with Eminem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-svXcxBYdk
In this interview with 60 minutes, Eminem is asked why in the song “Kill You,” does he rap about hating faggots and killing lesbians. The answer boils down to being a product of his surroundings as Eminem responds by saying, “in the scene I grew up in, those words were thrown around constantly in places like battling.”
Although in class we analyzed Eminem through his music videos and lyrics, we only touched the tip of the iceberg. Our approach in class was to analyze the personas of Eminem through his songs, similar to what we did with Tupac, however with Eminem, we left out a tactic that we used with Tupac but not with him. This was the history of Marshall Mathers, who he was before the term Slim Shady even came into fruition. The interview with 60 minutes probes the mind of Eminem by giving us glimpses into his childhood, without a Dr. Dre beat in the background. What is revealed is a kid who got beat up before, during, and after class. He dropped out of high school in the 9th grade, and frequently participated in battles, specifically free styling back in forth in a competition where the goal is to “out diss” the other person through your clever and assaultive rhymes and gain the respect of the crowd.
Chris asked the question in class, why does Eminem use violence in his lyrics? We touched on things such as shock value but never really came upon anything concrete. After listening to this interview though, its seems that Eminem was just doing what everyone around him was doing and what people were doing to him. Its hard for us to understand, and by all means I’m not claiming that I have figured Eminem out, but Eminem was the subject to a lot of violence both physically by bullies, and metaphorically through rapping. The vocabulary he used is what every other rapper around him used and in order to win battles, he needed to go the extra mile in being, extreme, vulgar, and offensive. I even brought up the shallow comment that he does it because it sells but he really does it because that is who he is. I think it is tough for the average middle class teenager to relate to his level of expressive violence because few of us have ever been the subject of multiple beatings or were raised in the projects of Detroit. Nevertheless, we are all the product of our hometowns, schools, friends, and parents; everyone is impressionable in same shape or form. I don’t think Chris says “you all” so many times just to make us chuckle but rather it is something he grew up around. Eminem mimics his rap style during battles, replaces his opponent with various subjects that have hurt him in some way, and makes records out of them. Effectively, introducing us to the Real Slim Shady.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that the violence in Eminem's music is very much influenced by his upbringing. In many of his more violent songs by his alter-ego Slim Shady, there are constant references to an impoverished upbringing, failing out of school, an absent father, and an abusive mother. This is the most apparent in his song "My Name Is", which I think indirectly introduces the character of Slim Shady as being an alter-ego created by a young Marshall Mathers in response to all these childhood traumas. This is sort of a crude interpretation of the song of course but I believe there is some truth to it, especially after watching the music video which makes the connection more direct.
ReplyDeleteBecause of this, I think the reason why Eminem's work now doesn't have the same kind of vitality today as it did before is because these childhood traumas and insecurities and damage caused from them has faded now that he is older. One can rap about the misogyny and problems with authority they have as a result from being abused by their mother and having an absent father, or the resentment for growing up in poverty (I hate making these kind of simplistic connections but I'm saying this for the sake of argument) for only so long until it becomes tiresome and a reflection of an inability to move on as a person or evolve as an artist. In his personal life, Marshall Mathers has kids now, has developed a more mature attitude towards relationships and his sexual insecurities (he would never make a song like “Kim” now at this point in his life), and has many years of fame and success. All these factors have unavoidably changed his music, some might say for the worse. Christopher Lirette mentioned that in his song “The Way I Am” Marshall acknowledges this inability to follow up on his early work when he says he doesn’t know how he’s going to top My Name Is.
The conflict between Marshall’s past self and rap and his current situation is also described in his recent song "Beautiful":
“I took my bruises, took my lumps,
Fell down and I got right back up,
But I need that spark to get psyched back up
And in order for me to pick the mic back up…
Up and try to make an attempt to vent,
But I just can’t admit
Or come to grips with the fact that I may be done with rap.”