Eminem > Reviews > More Entertaining Than Gruesome Murders

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Not applicable
Value for Money

Advantages:	Lyrical genius .
Disadvantages:	Mothersuing .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Slim Shady is an obnoxious misogynist homophobic scumbag. There is no doubt about that. But will the real Eminem please stand up? No, probably not. As with Ali G. the question is one of intent. Reality or spoof? Sexist or satire? Only they know their own minds. We can never know for sure. And so we have to make a choice: Do we give them the benefit of the doubt, tolerate what they do and admire their talent? Or do we condemn, censor and ban?

Being subversive is a valuable way of debunking society's hypocrisy. Personally, I like to pass comments such as: "Oooh this is entertaining" whenever a bloody murder (or a body being dug up, or a post-mortem) is shown in a popular TV programme or film. This doesn't go down well.
Try it yourself sometime. Being made to face their own rubber-necked voyeurism makes people uncomfortable. It's much easier to condemn others. (Look at the size of that mote in his eye!) I wonder how many of the people complaining about Eminem's lyrics were queueing to see the film "Hannibal" recently?

One of the governors of the B.B.C. has murdered dozens of people. Her name is P.D. James... she writes murder mysteries. So that's all right then. That's fiction. Murder for entertainment. That's fine. But rappers like Eminem can't be classed with proper writers can they? And anyway, Eminem is poor white trash, he can't possibly have the intelligence to invent a satirical character...
Just remind me, who is it that's being accused of prejudice here?

The other day I heard someone describe Eminem as the Shakespeare of his generation. Bizarre, but not without foundation. Maybe he will prove it by writing sonnets and dedicating them to a man someday - well I'm not holding my breath on that one. But there is no doubt in my mind that Eminem has a way with words which comfortably exceeds that of Hannibal author Thomas Harris and his ilk.

Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born on October 17th, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri. He grew up without knowing his father, living in one trailer park after another and being shunted from school to school. Always an outsider, he was victimized by bullies. Once he was knocked unconscious and fell into a coma for five days. It is claimed that this was the trigger for his subsequent anti-social behaviour. The only constant figure in his childhood, apart from his mother, was her brother Ronnie, and he killed himself when they were both 19. Surely his disaffection towards the world is an inevitable consequence of these experiences.

Now I risk being called a lily-livered bleeding-heart liberal who blames everything on society rather than the individual here: but do you really think he would write the stuff he does if he had grown up with nice middle-class parents in Cheltenham? No, you don't.
By the way, if you do call me a lily-livered bleeding-heart liberal I'll smash your face in (...if that's okay with you.)

Some young American misfits get their revenge on society by taking a gun into school and shooting people, but Eminem has found a more dangerous weapon: words.

After investigating the suicide of a 17-year-old Eminem fan, a coroner described the lyrics of "Rock Bottom" as "pretty miserable stuff." I expect he would have said much the same sort of thing about "Romeo & Juliet" though. Imagine the tabloids' reaction if Shakespeare were alive today and wrote "Titus Andronicus" as a rap!

And what about Tennyson:

Come not, when I am dead,
To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave,
To trample round my fallen head,
And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save,
There let the wind sweep and the plover cry;
But thou, go by.

Or in other words:
I'm going to top myself and when I'm dead you can all **** off.
Oh yes, poetry is more than daffodils and urns, and poets have often been controversial figures. Lord Byron was famously described as being "mad, bad and dangerous to know."
Is it all just a case of history repeating?

Does this sound familiar:

"Poetry, dramatic poetry in particular, has a bad effect on its audiences,
who learn to admire and imitate the faults it represents.
We cannot, therefore, allow poetry in our ideal state." ?

The words of Plato in his vision of a perfectly ordered society
"The Republic" ...circa 375 BC.

I could be wrong to give Eminem the benefit of the doubt
(have you got enough rope there yet Marshall?)
but to paraphrase the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard:
If you do a thing, you will regret it; If you don't, you will regret that too.
So choose.

Vex not thou the poet's mind
with thy shallow wit:
Vex not thou the poet's mind;
For thou canst not fathom it.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(Poet Laureate 1850-92)