Guess who’s back, back again? [Mamashaal's] back, tell a friend!
Let me start off by apologizing. I am sorry I haven’t written a single word on this blog for two months ( I blame my immune system, stress and the stuck fast-forward button on my Life Remote Control). I assure you, I am not dead, I have not been married off secretly at the Afghan border and I have not decided to ditch writing for pursuing my biologically programmed career as a Pakistani doctor (ha!)
But enough of that, let’s get down to business. I’ve decided to put politics on the side for a bit and start off with a somewhat lighter subject, just to get started.
Eminem.
I remember the first time I heard him. I was 11 years old, and very new to the world of hip-hop and rap. I had just bought a bootleg rap CD (my first ever) during my stay in Pakistan. It was Jay-Z and this “Dynasty Roc La Familia” album that had caught my eye, and I admit, the only reason why I bought the album was because the front cover of the album was cool. When I listened to it, I was ashamed and fascinated by the lyrics. I knew my parents wouldn’t be happy with my music selection but God DAMN the music was great. So I hung on to the bootleg CD, and since it was my only hip-hop CD, I listened to it over and over, and over again. The beats and flow sounded so sweet in my ears, just like honey in warm milk. The lyrics were sounded so amazing to me since I was a goody-two-shoes and rap was quiet the opposite. I was simply hooked, addicted and obsessed with Jay-Z.
Roc La Familia
My room changed. The poster of Leonardo a.k.a Mr. Titanic (yes, yes I know! Shame on me) and the poster of Britney came down and up came two H-U-G-E posters of Jay-Z. My parents did not like the change at all. Britney was pretty innocent around that time (that’s seems like a long, long, long time ago, doesn’t it?), so my parents didn’t like the idea of me looking away from a virginal icon to this thug and gangster that talked about ”the hood” and “the crack game”. Nevertheless, I kept the posters up and the CD in the stereo.
As I stated, Eminem walked into my life (don’t I make this sound like a love story?) at the tender age of 11. I was 4th/5th grade at that time, and I clearly remember I had just completed a science test and the teacher had let us have our break 10 minutes before time. There was a girl in my class that had heard of Eminem and had brought his CD, The Marshall Mathers LP, to class. She put on the record and hit play. My ears sharpened and my feet started tapping along to The Way I Am. This was different than Jay-Z. It wasn’t better, nor was it worse, but it was different. It was so much angrier, so much darker so much crazier. Eminem sounded so bitter, snappy and harsh. It was also much more mature and x-rated. Since the CD I had of Jay-Z was a collaboration collection, Jay-Z had not fully spilled his talent, and so Eminem’s lyrics were mindblowing. His words were complex, his beat was heavy and his flow epic.
From that day, I kept an open ear for this Mom hating, fan hating, fame hating, childhood hating white man. He seemed so talented and the following year, I bought my first real and authentic rap CD.
The Eminem Show.
My mother was horrified to say the least. She was there with me when I bought it, but she had not the slightest idea of what or who Eminem was. It was only when I placed the red CD in my stereo when my mother discovered Eminem. She didn’t like it. But since I had been acting (somewhat) normal after listening to Jay-Z, she decided to let me listen. She’d keep a very close watch on me. Any “rebellious” behavior and rap would be history.
The Eminem Show
Eminem is like religion. Either you hate him, or you love him, and no matter what, the media is always around him, and someone you know is bound to like him.
What’s always astonished me about this (little) white man, is the amount of hate and bitterness he can store within him. Almost all his lyrics are aimed at his drug abusive mother, his cheating wife, the society, how pissed off he is with the political system. And then there is the occasional mockery at rappers, singers and politicians.
I’m anti-Backstreet and Ricky Martin
with instincts to kill N’Sync, don’t get me started
These fuckin brats can’t sing and Britney’s garbage
What’s this bitch retarded? Gimme back my sixteen dollars
- Marshall Mathers
“Fuck money, I don’t rap for dead presidents. I’d rather see the president dead.”
-We are America
Aimed at President Bush while he was still in office, the Secret Service actually investigated on whether or not it was a legitimate threat. Seriously.
Eminem is a unique rapper in the sense that he sings on whatever he wants, however he wants and whenever he wants. He’s horribly crude, and incredibly honest. Unbearably annoying to listen to at times, and then magnetic at others. Unlike other rappers, Eminem doesn’t take himself seriously and his lyrics often portray irony, mockery and humiliation all directed at himself and his alter ego, Slim Shady.
I came to the club drunk with a fake ID
Don’t you wanna grow up to be just like me!
I’ve been with 10 women who got HIV
Now don’t you wanna grow up to be just like me!
I got genital warts and it burns when I pee
Don’t you wanna grow up to be just like me!
I tie a rope around my penis and jump from a tree
You probably wanna grow up to be just like me!!!
-Role Model
You can’t miss me, I’m white, blonde-haired
and my nose is pointy
I’m the bad guy who makes fun of people that die
in plane crashes and laughs
As long as it ain’t happened to him
Slim Shady, I’m as crazy as Em
-inem and Kim combined
-Criminal
But controversy surrounds Eminem for a reason. His lyrics are said to be soaked with violence, immorality and inhumanity. He’s had protests held against him, he’s had journalists slant him, he’s had parents publicly call him a crazed addict (to which Eminem rapped, “As if you didn’t experiment!” with Jay-Z) and he’s had politicians defy him. Not to mention Republicans hate each and every part of his body and would probably put the CIA on his butt if he weren’t such a huge icon. And I won’t argue on that point. It is true that Eminem and his lyrics are beyond what can be seen as acceptable.
Bitch I’ma kill you! You don’t wanna fuck with me
Girls neither – you ain’t nothing but a slut to me
Bitch I’ma kill you! You ain’t got the balls to beef
We ain’t gonna never stop beefing I don’t squash the beef
- Kill You
His earlier albums are unbelievably edgy, and not in a good way. The moment he opens his mouth, you just know that hate is going to pour out. But to those who believe that that is a valid summary of Eminem, I could not disagree more.
It is very true that his earlier albums seem to almost preach hate, but that in itself is a wide generalization. Eminem is far beyond and above that. What’s to understand is that Eminem’s albums are a mixture of his real personality, Marshall Mathers, his stage personality, Eminem and his exceptionally violent and annoying alter ego, Slim Shady. His songs are a gateway to his mind, and no human’s mind is clean. With his rough background, Marshall Mathers combines all three schizophrenic personalities and moulds them together to create an album that is sometimes hard to grasp. His three personalities take over at different times at different stages of the album, and it’s difficult at times to figure out who’s singing what. Since first-time listeners don’t understand immediately, Marshall Mathers is immediately put out on the fire line, under the accusation that he’s a cold blooded killer. He isn’t. Slim Shady is.
The truth of the matter is that there is more to the character of Marshall Mathers, Eminem and Slim Shady then what meets the eye. Violence, drugs, curses at *Nsync and self aimed humor is all a part of Eminem (and Slim Shady). It’s a trade mark, but as Eminem has grown over the years, so has his music. And, in my opinion, he usually hit’s his peak when he lets Marshall Mathers shine through.
While Eminem/Slim Shady sings about the darker side, Marshall Mathers opens up to his personal life. His daughter and his love for her. There are songs that he sings (or tries to at least) are heart touching. He lets people understand that he tries his best to be a father, tries to explain to people that entertainment is what it is. Entertainment.
It’s all political, if my music is literal, and i’m a criminal how the fuck
can I raise a little girl
I couldn’t, I wouldn’t be fit to.-Sing for the moment
Marshall Mathers brings controversy to the table, claiming in his videos what we all have thought at some point or another. That Osama Bin Laden is dead and in order to control the public the government is making up stories, lies. He raps about how America should come together, how people should be happy with who they are and they way they are.
But often those parts of the album are overlooked, and it’s a shame. Because Eminem is nothing without Marshall Mathers and vice versa.
So, after a 4 year long break, after a drug-abuse problem at it’s peak, Eminem/Slim Shady/Marshall Mathers is back with a new album (and in his words, only high on rap, although there are some songs on the album that I doubt a sober man can write and rap about) But can he deliver?
Relapse
I was sick in bed when his new album came out a few days back, but maybe my condition rubbed off a bit on my mom, because she politely agreed to buy the album and place it on my lap.
Eminem delivers alright. He’s cocky, he’s cool and he’s deliberately annoying. He takes a hit at Mariah Carey and her new husband Nick Cannon;
Locked in Mariah’s wine cellar all I had for lunch /Was red wine, more red wine/ and captain crunch/,
Red wine for breakfast/ and for brunch/, And to soak it up and in between snack/, crackers to munch,/
Mariah, what’s ever happened to us,/ why did we have to break up/, All I asked for was a glass of punch/
His skits with his manager Paul are painfully (and often wrongfully) funny;
“Em, it’s Paul, um…I just listened to entire album…you gotta be fucking kidding me. I mean with this Christopher Reeves shit…you know the guy’s dead, right? And then the whole gay, stepfather incest rape thing? I don’t have you’re back on this one, I can’t even fuckin’ handle it. I’m done.”
What’s really joyful (if there is anything like joyful about Eminem), is that he takes others criticism to him. The biggest has always been that all Eminem can do is complain and whine. And this, he uses in his skit, a conversation between him and Steve Berman, the president of marketing at Interscope;
Phone ringing in the background
[Secretary]
Mr. Berman?
[Steve Berman]
What?!
[Secretary]
We have Eminem here to see you
[Steve Berman](Eminem)
about fuckin’ time! Send him in (Steve! Good to see ya man)
Look who decided to show his face!
I hope you’ve had fun in the last 4 years.
(Look man, I apologize again for)
For shooting me?! Do you know I lost the use of my right arm?
(Again, it was a mistake,)
(a terrible mist- are you wearing a bulletproof vest?)
and then you go and you do what?
hide out? stay in Detroit from us 5 years while the music industry melts the fuck down? Do you know how many people lost their jobs because of your fuckin vacation?
(Well that’s actually why I’m here, I was gonna, put out some new music and I wanted to play it for you, and get your opinion)
Do I really need to hear it?
Let me guess, another album about poor me, I’m so famous that it’s ruined my rich little life, and I’m such a tortured artist. Let me make music about it and my tragic love life, am I on to something here?
(Come on man it’s not like that yo-)
You know what? Just hand the fuckin thing over
I’m done talkin to you. Think you can just come and go as you please.
Big selfish superstar
(Steve, I had a drug problem)
Oh poor me, I had a drug problem. Who hasn’t had a drug problem in this town? You know what?
*cocks gun*
(Hey! hey!)
Just lay the shit down on my desk and get the fuck out
(Woah, woah, woah. Jesus Christ man! )
(Alright alright here, fine)
What’s this shit? Two CD’s?
(That’s what I’ve been tryin to tell you man, there’s 2 albums)
Just get out! (Alright!)
Get the fuck out (Alright man, see you later)
(On an additional note, check out the rest of the Eminem and Steve skits from his later albums. Never fail to make me laugh. )
Besides confronting his critics, Eminem revealed two things in this skit. 1) He had a drug problem (which he refers to in many parts of the new album) and 2) There is a Relapse 2 coming out.
Admirable are his guts to openly admit that he’s been on the verge of becoming like his mother, a drug addict, admitting that he’s giving the same impression to his daughter as his mother gave to him.
Yah…Yah…Yah
My mom love Valium and lots of drugs,
That why I am like I am cause I’m like her,
Because my mom love Valium and lots of drugs,
That why I’m on what I’m on cause I’m my mom,
And then there is “Beautiful” in which he tries to sing (doesn’t fail that miserably actually). So it should be a great record, right?
Well, sort of. “Relapse” is a great album, but not Eminem’s best. A good friend of mine said recently “When he came out, he had certain things to rap about. Right now, he seems all over the place”. It’s true that if Eminem wants to stay in the game, he needs to bring something new and fresh to the table. Singing about his violent past and his mother is not new anymore, and even though he has brought in his recent drug abuse problem, there seems to lack something. The “extra” something that makes a rap album different and addictive. The new album lacks songs like “Sing for the moment”, “Soldiers” and ” When the music stops”.
But despite everything, all in all, Mr. Mathers can deliver. Relapse is out, and now, rap fans are waiting for the second part, and wondering what more he can bring to the table.
A lot of people ask me, Where the fuck I’ve been at the last few years
Shit I don’t know, But I do know – I’m back now.-Underground
And for all rap fans, that’s good news. Relapse World Tour?
Until next time (and this time I mean it),
Mamashaal (( desi diva ))
