From all his albums, the Marshall Mathers Lp has raised the most controversy. Eminem’s rhymes have shocked a lot of people . Among them, the GLAAD (Gay And Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation who have spoken against his lyrics. Eminem has also been protested against by the same association. The whole controversy can be summarized in three points (in the Glaad’s point of view):
-the inserability of Eminem’s music and his violent lyrics
-the refusal of Eminem, Interscope Records and Universal Music to take personal responsability for the lyrical content of the Marshall Mathers LP
-the Grammy nominations: on the 21st of February 2001, they protested against his nomination in L.A.
The big problem is always the misinterpretation of Eminem’s lyrics. The GLAAD in particular took exerpts of his lyrics to make a real monster of Mr Mathers. If he really was that homophobic, why would he have performed ‘Stan’ with Elton John?
I am an adult woman who enjoys very much tracks like ‘Kill You’. I don’t feel insulted nor humiliated by those lyrics.Why? Simply because I know Eminem is joking during the whole song.He adds ‘I’m just playing ladies, you know I love you’ at the end of his song.Why did the Glaad and other conservative people just ignore this sentence?
To me, Eminem’s lyrics are not more dangerous than watching ‘Scary Movie’ or playing some violent game on the playstation.
Slim Shady is a fiction…Slim Shady is mean ,violent in his words, but he is NOT Marshall Mathers.
Like he expresses it himself, Eminem’s music is his therapy.’Kill You’ helped him to work out his problems with his mom as well as the song ‘Kim’ helped him to express his problems with his ex wife Kim. Moreover, the song ‘Kim’ is a deep expression of (unhappy ) love.
Among the provocative songs, you can count ‘The Real Slim Shady’ where Eminem disses people like Christina Aguilera for her personal comments about Kim and the content of Eminem’s lyrics.In this fake pop music world, Eminem has the honesty to show when he doesn’t like somebody.
‘The Real Slim Shady’ has also shocked a lot of people because of its sexual content. A Colorado radio station has been condammned to pay 7000 $ for playing the uncensored version of ‘The Real Slim Shady’. Mtv also censors words like ‘clitoris’ in that song as if it wasn’t a part of the human body.
‘The Way I Am’ expresses Eminem’s pressures on the way to the top.
In his song ‘Who knew’, Eminem points out that he is not the one to be held responsible for some teenagers crazy behavior. It’s the parents’ responsability to take care of their kids.And for the parents who are really worried about the ‘Marshall Mathers Lp’ lyrical content, clean versions do exist. Why not buy them?
Eminem is all about Freedom of Speech. People shouldn’t deny him the right to say what he wants, even if they strongly disagree with him.
The First Amendment of the American Constitution allows the Freedom of Speech to any citizen. Marshall Mathers has the right to use it, and even to be politically incorrect.