The Eminem Blog

As Giles Foden espressed it before, ‘Stan’ is a masterpiece of work. Mr Foden says that ‘Stan’ has the depth of the Shakespeare verses. I totally agree with him on the fact that ‘Stan’ is great poetry.
As a French citizen, I dare comparing ‘Stan’ to Rimbaud’s ‘Le Dormeur du Val’. Even if the story is different, the structure of both works is similar. Rimbaud’s poem first pictures a sleeping man, lying down in the grass near a river.
Gradually the reader understands that the young man is a dead soldier: ‘he’s white as a sheet and he’s got two holes on his right side’.
The pictures drawn in Stan’s story are similar. It’s the story of a fan writing to his favorite singer : he shares pains and sorrows with him, tells him that his girlfriend is pregnant.
Of course, he’s disappointed, because Eminem is late in answering his letters.
Gradually, the listener understands that Stan is sick (‘sometimes I cut myself to see how much it bleeds, it’s like adrenaline, the pain is such a sudden rush for me’) and his passion for Eminem becomes more and more obsessional.
The last picture is terrifying : Stan driving his car off the bridge with his pregnant girlfriend inside….
Stan is also a warning for each fan and listener not to misinterpret Eminem’s words and this song really proves Eminem doesn’t want his words to be taken litterally.
For those who still think he’s a violent mysogynist, remember who ties his girlfriend up : it is Stan ,not Eminem. Eminem tells Stan to treat his girfriend better ‘I really think you and you girlfriend need each other/Or maybe you just need to treat her better).
He never encourages him to act foolishly (‘I’m glad I inspire you,but Stan why are you so mad,try to understand that I want you as a fan. I just don’t want you to do some crazy shit.”)
Who said Eminem is a bad influence?

While the Marshall mathers Lp is known as the most provocative of Eminem’s albums, the Eminem show is getting more personal and also more introspective.
Eminem exposes his life like a show to his public.It’s like a total exposure, something he wants to share with his public.
Some of his songs like “Cleaning Out My Closet”,”Soldier”,”Saying Goodbye To Hollywood”,”Hailie’s song” are personal.Some others like “White America”,”Square Dance” do raise political debates.
Eminem also targets his enemies like Moby in his album.
“Cleaning Out My Closet” is an emotional and moving song. This songs helps Marshall to work out his hatred for his parents. Often misunderstood for the hate he feels towards his own mom, his hatred is justified,though. Debbie emotionaly abused her son, she’s also responsible of his drug addiction: she put him on “ritalin”( which is a medication for hyperactive kids) when he was little.
Woul you forgive your mom if she said she wished you dead? I guess the answer is no.
Moreover,if we take a deeper look at “Cleaning Out My Closet”, we clearly understand that this song has not been written to express selfish views. It has also been written to prevent from children abuse.
This song helps many young people who come from disfunctional families to work out their problems with their parents and to express the rage they feel inside. Hailie’s song is a beautiful hymn of fatherly love and an expression of Eminem’s real side.
According to a new survey, Eminem is “more truthful” than President George W. Bush. How is that possible? Simply because the youth is fed up with empty political speeches. Eminem clearly shows the hypocrisy of politicians.The assassination of Dick Cheney in the “Without Me” video is a symbol for freedom of speech.
Eminem fights for the right to say ” something you might not like” (Square Dance”). He doesn’t rap to please people, he speaks his mind.He is an engaged artist.
The “Eminem Show” is excellent. It reveals the mind of a genius, as Eminem expresses it so well in “My Dad’s Gone Crazy”:
My songs can make you cry, take you by surprise at the same time, can make you dry your eyes with the same rhyme/see what you’re seein’ is a genius at work, which to me isn’t work, so it’s easy to misinterpret it at first”
Eminem masters his art.
If you haven’t done it yet,go buy the album!

Last week I was buying some detergent at a local laundromat in rural Nebraska. This is what was occupying my mind: “See, I don’t give a fuck, that’s the problem/ I see a motherfuckin’ cop, I don’t dodge him.” Now, based on my limited experience with law enforcement, I’ve found most cops to be cordial, beneficent protectors of the law. Yet, at that moment, I didn’t just want to fuck tha police, both physically and figuratively; I wanted them lynched, drenched in gasoline, and burnt alive. It’s one thing to get a catchy couplet stuck in teenagers’ heads; it’s another to convert half the nation into murderous psychopaths hell-bent on riot and rape. N.W.A. accomplished the latter.
Straight Outta Compton was not the first gangsta-rap album, nor was it the first album to use such disconcerting and scabrous blasts of sound, but the music was revolutionary for two reasons. First, Dre and Yella took the vitriolic, cacophonous rampage of Public Enemy and discarded all the motivation and history behind the anger; second, they sampled laid-back jazz, psychoastral-lovetron p-funk, sweetly romantic soul, na’ve doo-wop, Martha Reeves, Charles Wright, Marvin Gaye, and proceeded to lay it under the most gruesome narratives imaginable, dead hos and cop killers. This is tantamount to using a “Happy B-Day, Grandma” Hallmark card to inform a family you just slaughtered their grandmother. It’s cruel, duplicitous, perverse, horrifying, hilarious.
In some ways, it’s the archetypal rap album, the one you would send into space if you wanted to ignite a stellar holocaust. It unites the paranoia of It Takes a Nation of Millions with the chill of The Chronic, while still retaining an old-school, Run-DMC-style playfulness. The opening squall of “Straight Outta Compton”, “Fuck tha Police”, and “Gangsta Gangsta” is still as confrontational and decimating as it was at the dawn of the 1990s. The bass throttles, the funk combusts, and the sirens deafen as Eazy-E dispenses with tired romantic clich’s: “So what about the bitch who got shot? Fuck her!/ You think I give a damn about a bitch? I ain’t no sucker!” And this is the least misogynistic of N.W.A.’s albums.
In the remaining ten tracks, the group depicts a paranoid, conspiratorial wasteland where faggot cops “thinking every nigga is sellin’ narcotics,” where niggas often are selling narcotics to buy gats to kill cops, where bitches have two functions in life– to suck dick and get shot when they stop– and where there are two only professions: bein’ a punk and shootin’ punks. The mind itself is a ghetto and the ghetto is universal. A lot of people, for whatever reason, take offense to such ideas. William S. Burroughs writes the same thing and gets hailed as the greatest writer of the twentieth century. There is no hope, no messages, no politics, rarely an explicit suggestion of irony. The only respite is “Express Yourself”, the sweetest anti-drug song to ever take place in a correctional facility. Musically, the rhythm pummels and the scratches are strong but sparse; lyrically, Dre says it best: “It gets funky when you got a subject and a predicate.” For all the genius, there are some tracks that simply can’t compare to the classics. “If It Ain’t Ruff”, “8 Ball”, and “Dopeman” are triumphant rap songs, but they consist of minimalist beats and the silly battle raps that N.W.A. helped eliminate.
Efil4Zaggin, meanwhile, is about as close as you can come to a death metal/hip-hop hybrid. People will get hurt here. The group, sans-Cube, is simply trying to further their status as icons of shock-rap. Unlike someone like Alice Cooper or Marilyn Manson, though, N.W.A. sounds like they’ve actually gone insane: The song titles alone (“To Kill a Hooker”, “One Less Bitch”, “Find ‘Em, Fuck ‘Em and Flee”) are enough to send some people into seizures. I have no idea what Eazy-E was doing between albums, but it clearly involved a lot of sadomasochism and PCP– his lyrics are revoltingly unlistenable: “Yo, I tied her to the bed/ I had to let my niggaz fuck her first/ Loaded up the 44, yo/ Then I straight smoked the ho/ ‘Cause I’m a real nigga.” The main musical motif is the Psycho theme.
The songs here sound like the Bomb Squad in the graveyard Superfly got buried in. “Approach to Danger” is essentially rapping over a Halloween FX record. It’s complexly debauched, fantastically jagged terror-hop that at its best challenges anything on Fear of a Black Planet and at its worst challenges anything off Dre’s 2001. It’s also much funnier than Straight Outta Compton. Eazy-E’s Ten Commandments on “Appetite for Destruction” sets the bar so high on his first command that he can barely think of enough vices to finish it. In the skit “Protest”, an N.W.A. concert turns into a scene from Platoon. Eazy also sings on two tracks, one of which (“Automobile”) may as well be titled “With a Little Help From Your Pussy”. Ten seconds can barely pass before someone is murdered or raped. It’s the sound of an expletive anger at its breaking point.
The reissues sounds pretty tight, but high-quality audio was never really the point. The supplementary tracks are a more interesting point of discussion. Straight Outta Compton adds extended mixes of “Express Yourself” and “Straight Outta Compton”. The former may be a better song, but only because it uses more of the Wright sample, whereas the latter regrettably decides to disturb the propulsion of the original by inserting spoken dialogue. The B-side, “A Bitch iz a Bitch”, however, is one of Cube’s finest moments, beginning as a specification of what he means when he curses, and ending with a tirade against a “contact-wearin’ bitch.” Efil4Zaggin just adds the 100 Miles and Runnin’ EP, which is fairly superfluous. The title track, though, is easily one of the best rap songs of all time– N.W.A. if commissioned to write a James Bond theme.
After listening to this again, it reminds you how ludicrous this whole Eminem controversy was. More than a decade ago, N.W.A. was instructing suburbia to smash bitches’ brains in with a cock in one hand and a glock in the other. In comparison, Eminem’s harshest lyric ends up sounding like, “I may slightly disagree with certain tenets of popular ideologies.” When Eminem rapes and kills his mom, it’s because of a long-standing psychological disorder that relies on a complicated relationship with his family. When Eazy-E does it, it’s because nothing good was on TV that night. These are the most nihilistic, apolitical recordings since the Nixon tapes. Anyone who disagrees is a cracka-loving faggot.
-Alexander Lloyd Linhardt, October 3rd, 2003
www.pitchforkmedia.comRap lyrics shouldn’t be taken literally…

I have interviewed Backstab the Kingpin (another white rapper from Detroit who has known Eminem and the context of 8 Mile in the early 90’s). He expresses his point of view on 8 Mile, Eminem, and other artists and gives us his perspective.

“Much of what existed in the 90’s is now gone……In the early 90’s (post L.A. Riots; during the peak of West Coast rap’s success) there was still great tension between whites/blacks in Detroit. At that time rap/hip-hop was black culture and a white b-boy, emcee, or producer was refered to as another Vanilla Ice.
During that time, guys like Proof use to run St Andrews. He has dred locks and ran with this b-boy dreadlock crew, that whenever a white emcee would step to the cypher he’d get barraged with peckerwood/cracker references. I was there> i saw it first hand. I would get dominated away from cyphers but brute aggression. To the effect that I would choose to rap in a corner alone rather than jump in the cypher. I would hit the infamous “hip-hop shop” where when they passed the mic, theyd pass it right by me….This had nothing to do with skill, cuz these people never gave me a chance to spit. It had everything to do with color.
We played a show at Alvins, a bar near Wayne State University that featured Wall Street (royce 5-9 crew) Eminem anchored by hypeman, bizzare, as well as some other groups. I begged my way on stage that night to perform. When my music started and they annouced my name people started to cheer and clap, but when i took the stage, a whiteboy—backed by a mid 40’s black singer who always remained half in the bag—they began to boo. I mic checked and started my 3 song show. Half way through the first song the women in the audience cheered and started dancing. It was just moments after that a crew of dreds began to boo and yell and throw things at the stage. I had a pocket full of cassettes to hand out to the crowd (no cd burners back then) I knew that it wasnt me or my skill but simply my color. This crew of dreds were hating something fierce. and the sound got lower….as i looked over i noticed all kids of guys standing around the mixer…someone had turned my music down intentionally. I started to get mad. Heres me and only 3 other white spots in the whole bar (eminem, kim & another white couple they were with) I started to middle finger the crowd of haters who were tryin their best to yell louder than my performance. They started to get a bit violent and moving towrd the stage—that’s when I started throwing my cassettes give-a-ways at them like a pitcher throws a fast ball. Needless to say I was escorted offstage in a hurry and rushed out the backdoor by the promoter.. He kept yelling at me “your crazy, you need to get the hell out of here!”. I missed Em’s performance that night but was later told by his manager at the time that he got so drunk he was falling all ove the place and skipping his music. My assumption is that he saw what he was up against and had to put back a few…..
DESCRIBE THE DETROIT STYLE…….
Detroit style (as much as the shady camp hates to admit) is derived from Esham the unholy. A solo rapper known for birthing “acid rap” and talking about sick, twisted, “wicked” things such as the devil, murder, drugs, and degredation. Just about every success story to come out of detroit has a touch of “wicked” to them. Most Detroiters know that Eminems “shock” lyrics are directly influenced by Eshams persona. Mix the raunchy metaphors with typical braggadoccio emceeing and you get a detroit lyrical sound. The beats? They tend to me east coast derived, however some west coast/dirty south type of groups like cheddar boys, street lords, mc breed, and other have also found success. But for the most part, detroit hip-hop is based one wicked metaphorical lyrics backed with east coast driven beats.
BRIDGING BACKSTAB WITH EMINEM………The “8 mile” reminds me of that night at Alvins, one thing Em did not do is touch on the reverse racism that I felt back in the mid 90’s, I think this is for obvious reason–his friends and labelmates being all black. Another that I thought was funny is that St Andrews which is protrayed in the 8 mile movie as an all black club was actually a majority white crowd or at least half. One thing I did see when Em blew up is the lack of depth in lyrics. I think he single handedly changed the rap game by making it ok to talk about anything that rhymes.
Em refers to such abstract shit as tubby sub buns, post toasties, sulfuric acid and other obscure shit. Now anything is up for grabs when spitting lyrics. Before you only mentioned cool, popular shit, now kids wanna hear raps about how their mom is fucked up…My recognition from hard work. Day in and out doing shows. I’ve done over 75 shows in 2 years. Thats more than most national artists do in that time. I’ve got more hatred from the detroit scene than 90% of the artist from Michigan. It stems from my stance on the powers that be and the upper echelon of the hip-hop artists in Detroit.
I think Eminem has done wonders for hip-hop as wel las white emcees, but I also think he plays a role much larger than he can fill. I am suprised no one has caught up with him and hurt him–quite frankly. since his success, he has not set foot in the city except to film his movie or shoot a video or perform at his only show this summer. This is not his city by any means, but he does bring it a spotlight. I think if he wasn’t so damn popular and sought after the same things that were going on the 90’s would be happening now.
I grew up (in school) in the suburbs so I wasn’t subject to any type of reverse racism during that time. At that time I was siding with the minority becuase I have major native American roots and lived in a racist town called Livonia where blacks got pulled over randomly and often. If you are black–you dont drive thru Livonia at night–you will be arrested for one thing or another. This is why I chose a urban college and left for th city at my most influential years (18-25) I have lived in the cass corridor & brightmoor. Both neighborhoods known to Detroit as some of its worst parts. Run-down bruned up buildings, crack and drugs, prostitution and transsexuals running the streets. Fights, and shooting heard all night. Detroit is not a safe or happy spot. Its a city thats felt years of oppression and contains people who have worked their hands to the bone at factories and auto plants trying to provide a good living for their loved ones. Its a materialistic city that thrives on stepping on the next man to better yourself.
I think if i had $5,000 I could turn it into $10,000 in a few short months–by way of hip-hop. I think if I had $100,000 i could make a half million thru hip-hop in little time. I beleive hip-hop success is all about financial backing and money. In my opinion, most of the best lyricists I have ver met are the ones dirt broke with no money to even record music. The day Eminem gave me his slim shady ep I knew he had major talent, and in my opinion since his initial success, I think he’s gotten worse and worse. I think money has wrecked his pureness and style, and to be quite frank, i think he sucks and i dont listen to him or buy his records. I think his choice to come out with “my name is” as his break out song–broke my spirit in liking him. I know this is somehting you will not agree on but I have a different perspective and was able to hear his early music (which i still have alot of)and hes only a shell of the emcee he once was. I think money fucks everybody up. thats why i choose to stay at the bottom , at least i can stay true to my roots.
MY LYRICS I write for me–I try not to be cleaver, to rhyme key words, to have funny punchlines and to not bite others style- I just write for me and hope other people enjoy it too. I can only hope to find some type of national/international success but if it takes me changing or playing some role (which i know Eminem is doing) then i’ll be happy right here being some local fame rapper who never quite made it. I’d like to send you my entire album. Did I mention I know Deangelo baily–? He’s an idiot!
I wasn’t tryin to shit on your hero I’m just giving you my perspective. I have mad respect for Eminem and the day i saw him at the MTV music awards performing for the first time I stood up cheering. heres a guy, local like me, rapping like im tryin to, who made it! It was a great feeling. But like I say after seeing him develop, it kinda depressed me to see what hes become.
Mz corona in 8 mile–was a militant whore who use to talk shit to me for being white back in the day—she may not remember it but she talked mad shit to me one day at a Wayne State hip-hop convention with her girlfirend while i was posting flyers whe gawked at me–so when we both opened for mc Breed last year, i acted like i didnt know her even though she knew very well who i was then cuz I was making more noise than 80% of the city at that time. But I didnt forget how she played me before Em blew up. Now her little part in 8 mile has got her all famous–how fitting.any other questions id be glad to answer.

Backstab the Kingpin

8 Mile is not a biographical movie.It is just a semi biographical story in which Eminem appears as an authentic actor.Jimmy Smith Jr struggles as a white Mc to be accepted among a mainly black audience.He expresses his rage and his frustrations through his music.
8 Mile Road in Detroit between Blacks (7 Mile Road) and Whites(9 Mile Road),but psychologically 8 Mile represents the border that separates us from reality(the problems we may be confronted to(our current standart of life) and the place we want to be (like our dream coming true).
Anybody of us can relate to this psychological border.We all want to escape from our ‘8 Mile Road’ and to fullfill our dreams.
Eminem has shown through his own life story,but also through his semi fictionnal movie a new path of hope to many young white trash and underground people.He has shown that anybody can make it if they try and believe hard in their dreams.
In his song ‘Lose Yourself’,he says:’You can do anything you set your mind to, man.’
If you apply to this, you will be able to escape from your own ‘8 Mile Road’

I have been in touch with another white rapper from Detroit via email whose name is ‘Backstab the Kingpin’. He had known Eminem before he was famous and here he talks about his former performances on stage.

The year was 1996, We were at a joint called Alvins near Wayne State University. I met Em’s manager (Mark Kempf) who connected me with the promoter of the event. I played him some of my songs in our car for him to verify that I was good enough to perform. He gave me the ok and allowed me to perform. Wayne state is on the outskirts of Detroits grimiest neighborhood known as the Cass Corridor. Its a small section of Detroit near the downtown area known for prostitution and crack sales. Em and I were the only white people in the entire building.
Back then, there was no doubt that Proof, Em’s current hypeman, was a complete racist, along with his fellow dreadlock partners. I was the first to take the stage that night. When I came out, the crowd instantly started booing me. the music hadnt even started, and they were booing. I hadnt even grabbed the mic yet and they screamed racial remarks at me. It was apparent it was because of my color. The beat dropped and i started, Most of the woman in the audience started to dance and scream. That only instagated the balck men in the audience to yella dn throw things at the stage. I think this may be where 8 mile might have derived from. the all black crowd hesitant to give some white kid a chance.
By the end of my show, I was escorted off stage for throwing things back at the crowd. The promoter said “man you better go out hte backdoor, unless you wanna get your ass beat to death” I was rushed out the back. I never got to see em perform that night but i heasrd from his manager aftyer seeing me he got real drunk and fell all over the stage and skipped his music alot. He was most likely scared. He showed up only with his girl and another couple. He had no fan base at all.
We exchanged cassettes that night. He gave me the slim shady ep, that had I just dont give a fuck and bonnie & clyde on it. I thought he was hot then and might find some success, but never imagined hed be what he is today. i have much more insite and etails about his camp, how they came up, who he chose to have around him, and what he did before he made it real big……..”

Eminem’s latest protege Obie Trice who’s been signed to Shady Records in 2001 promises to become big in the rap industry.His debut album ‘Cheers’ has been released last week.A chance has been given to Us residents over 18 to win the Golden Ticket (included in the winning Cd package) and to hang out with Eminem in his studio while he’ll be recording his next album.
Obie’s debut album is promises to be successfull.Many great hip hop artists (Dr Dre,Eminem,D12,Nate Dogg,50 Cent,Lloyd Bank of G Unit) have contributed to the album.It’s worth listening to.

I would like to tell you about my incredible story. It has to do with Marshall Mathers III.This man has changed my life in such a positive way.
Marshall has been an eye opener to me.He has changed me mentally and even physically. Ain’t this amazing? It actually is and that’s my story. I discovered Eminem in 2001.
At this time I was a rather old fashioned person (old fashioned in so many ways, i mean the clothing, my way of life, everything!). I used to suffer from a lot of inhibitions and I was very hurt inside. Eminem’s music has cured me from those inhibitions, it has helped me to humor myself. I managed to work out so many problems I had to face with since my childhood. I can relate to many of his songs. I also used to care a lot about what people could think about me. Marshall ‘s “just don’t give a fuck attitude” has helped me always to speak my mind whatever people could think about me!
All those problems I had inside have disappeared. I have lost 13 kilos and it’s all thanks to Marshall. Today, I have a perfect weight and I feel beautiful and balanced.
Marshall taught me never to give up and to believe in myself.
I have written a biography on the talented artist and my biggest dream is to meet him and to thank him in person.
I would like to share my incredible story with the whole world.

Ain’t this amazing?
After bringing back to life a teenager thanks to his music a few years ago, Eminem now brings two rap rivals Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur back to life in one song!
In the track ‘Running’ (Dying to Live) featuring Tupac and Biggie, both rap rivals are rhyming.
The king of rap also used a sampled blues rocker, Edgard Winters, for the chorus.
The beats are built up with piano, violins and bass. A great and authentic masterpiece of work you can listen to on MTV.com.
Eminem is currently working on a future soundtrack TUPAC Resurrection which shall tell Tupac’s life story.