In the mid-to-late 80s, Rakim revolutionised rapping. His flows eschewed the rigidity of MCs before him and instead snaked between beats, his fluid rhymes appearing within the words themselves rather than just at the end of bars. Eminem took that and pushed things into overdrive, rapping with a manic speed and erratic rhythm. His multiple personas — chiefly Slim Shady, Marshall Mathers and Eminem — allowed him to play with pitch and speed, in the process forging an inimitable delivery style.
It cleared the way for other rappers to be experimental and bold with their flows; Kendrick Lamar , who flips between voices and personas often within verses, is a leading example. When Eminem dropped a video, it was an event. His videos were cinematic, varied, unforgettable and unlike anything else that came before them. He took inspiration from Michael Jackson inasmuch as he made music videos into their own entity, and delivered them to the unexpecting hip hop world.
Much of hip hop in the 90s was fuelled by uber-masculinity — a reflection of the unsettled, violent environment from which much of it sprung. Biggie and Tupac often found themselves in introspective moods and, at times, started to peel back the bravado, but it was Eminem who shone a soberingly bright light on the darkness within.
He rapped without blinking, dredging up his traumatic childhood, his violent thoughts and his addictions, all while managing to score hit single after hit single. Rather, it is central to his constructed tough- white-guy image.
Hence you hear from Eminem and Dr. Unfortunately, the Hollywood mythmakers Brian Grazer, Scott Silver, and Curtis Hanson the producer, screenwriter, and director, respectively, of 8 Mile have so distorted the Eminem story in pursuit of box office glory that it will be quite a while before some of his more innocent fans — including many women — get a better handle on who and what the artist represents.
There is no honest way to predict definitively what course this debate will take. Give them credit. While possible, this is highly unlikely.
Rapping and joking about sex crimes have the effect of desensitizing people to the real pain and trauma suffered by victims and their loved ones. The process of desensitization to violence through repeated exposure in the media has been studied for decades. In the U. Sadly, millions of American girls and women have been assaulted by American boys and men. Thousands of gays each year are bashed and harassed by young men. For these victims, this is not an academic debate about the differences between literalist and satirical art.
It hits closer to home. What began as a tentative dance has become a passionate embrace. In fact, he loves you. You know, underneath that gruff exterior, between the lines of those nasty lyrics, lies a tender heart that has been hurt, a good man who just needs more love and understanding.
This is a myth that battered women have been fed for centuries! That his violence is her responsibility, that if only she loved him more, his abuse would stop.
How could he? He loves his daughter! His defenders — including women — will utter some of the most discredited myths about abusive men as if they have special insight! The fact is, most batterers are not one-dimensional ogres.
We all know that heterosexual young guys are forever struggling to figure out what girls want. That girls want to be treated with dignity and respect? Girls and women, even those who have been coopted into Eminem-worship, want to be treated with respect.
Eminem is popular with white audiences in large measure because the African American gangsta rap icon Dr. Dre himself is one of the most misogynous and homophobic figures in the history of rap music.
In other words, Eminem and Dre are modeling a perverse sort of interracial solidarity that comes at the expense of women. But Marshall Mathers, if he ever was an underdog, has long since crossed over into the role of bully.
With melodic beats courtesy of Dr. Dre, Bass Brothers, and others, Eminem was bringing oddball raps to an operatic-like stage. Infinite and The Slim Shady LP studied the great albums of the underground and the mainstream, and blended the architecture of the two.
By the s, entering his thirties, Eminem raised the stakes. The Marshall Mathers LP swapped some of the stand-up-like elements for more personal writing. Instead, the caricature became more of a character. Eminem no longer had to rely upon making fun of Pop tart felatio and Sonny Bono to get into American living-rooms. Entrenched in feuds with Benzino, Ja Rule, and others, Eminem started making war-crying records. Fans hung on every word, as Eminem chronicled his paranoia, his anger, and a multi-millionaire on the edge of sanity.
Angst, depression, addiction, and an agitation with Hip-Hop and the world beyond would drive the conversation.
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