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I
was shy. So very shy as a child that I could not bear to even watch
two people kiss on television while in the company of a coed
environment. So you can very well imagine the reaction I had when
George Michael?s ?I Want Your Sex? came blaring on Mrs.
Rosenberg?s radio. I was in a carpool with her eldest and youngest
daughters and someone else who I can?t recall right now. Sorry to my
most anonymous carpool veteran.
Michael
sang, ?there are things that you hide and things that you
don?t.? And on that note, I hid my face. I turned bright red.
A red so vibrant that it should only be reserved for Santa Claus
costumes. I wanted to be anywhere other than in that car.
Unfortunately, I was sitting in between the Rosenberg daughters so I
couldn't open the door and jump out. I desperately wanted to do one of those Fall
Guy stunts I had just seen Lee Majors perform the other night. Man, I had
to act quickly before he said the s-e-x word. ?Mrs. Rosenberg,? I
piped up. I could not believe my own nerve. ?Could you turn the
station from this song? I find it inappropriate.? Please, Mrs.
Rosenberg. Only you can make this awkward atmosphere in the car turn
from the thickness of cottage cheese to something more digestible.
?No,?
Mrs. Rosenberg said, ?I like this song.?
.............................................................................................
While
that George Michael incident was many years ago, I still find that I
am unable to listen to that song. It just makes me feel really weird.
Uncomfortable like being in a really tight shirt. And while admitting
this publicly may label me as a ?prude,? I am fine with that. Only
because a year ago George Michael proved to me that sometimes saying
those very words could get you into a lot of trouble. Especially when
you say it to an undercover cop in a public bathroom.
But
despite my ever- increasing passion for music, I still try to draw the
line at what is inappropriate. I cannot tolerate the degradation of
women in nu-metal and hip-hop. I cannot condone any sort of violence
in music, regardless of how ?metaphorical? it is. Artists are naïve
in thinking that their music does not have an impact on the millions
of doe-eyed impressionable youth. They hold on to every note, every
beat, every word like it is the bible. Moses has nothing on Nelly.
Abraham cannot sell as many albums as Jay-Z. It is sad but true. Not
that I think every child on a subway should be bopping his head while
reading Genesis (and G-d forbid should they be listening to Genesis.
Or even Phil Collins solo albums). I merely insist that artists should
be held responsible; from N.W.A. popularizing gangsta rap to Public
Enemy popularizing anti-Semitism (did Jew eat?). Rationalizing
that they are artists carrying on in Lenny Bruce?s righteous example
has almost become a cliché. If we say it enough, they spew, then and
only then will we be able to move on. We must take the weapons of hate
and belittle them.
But, hey, I say, does calling that girl over there ?a ho? really make the
world a better place? Maybe it does. Although, I truly don?t think so.
To
quote Peter Parker?s Uncle Ben, ?with great power comes great
responsibility.? Sadly, most artists forget the latter half of
Ben?s sage suggestion and go straight to focusing on the power.
Fight the power, Chuck D lashed out. Well, the new 2002 version would
advise up-and-coming artists to embrace the power. Embrace it and make
it your ho.
..........................................................................................
Now
herein lies the problem. After this little preachy tirade, I need to
come clean. Yes, I too need to clean out my closet.
At
the risk of appearing hypocritical, I proclaim that Eminem is an
absolute genius (can you see me hiding under my desk fearing the
backlash?)
How
could he say that, asks the reader (you) to the writer (me)? How could
he (me again) have said that Eminem is a genius especially after he
(me?ok, you get it) complained
about the misogynistic and violent tendencies of music with Marshall
Mathers III (Em?s real name for the pop culture-impaired)
fore-fronting as one of
the most controversial rappers recording today.
Before
I get to your questions, which you may have or may not have asked,
let?s go through Eminem?s wrong doings first:
-Violently
accosting the homosexual lifestyle
-Threatening
to kill his mother and his estranged girlfriend, Kim
-Angrily
spouting hateful messages to most pop musicians on the radio (which
some may see as a good thing. Pssst, Christina, can you hear me? PUT ON SOME
CLOTHES!)
-Regularly
intimidating Moby, a wimpy vegan musician who wears glasses
-Sampling
Aerosmith (?Dream On,? no less)
-Shouting
rude and profane-full messages to Tipper Gore and Lynne Cheney
-Says
a lot of dirty, naughty ?bathroom? words
Indeed,
this young man from Detroit has made a lot of enemies and always
speaks his mind freely. Obviously he?s never sat at my dinner table,
where we?re told that if you have nothing nice to say, then hold
your breath and count to ten. Organizations and political figures have
outspokenly opposed Eminem?s lyrics and his hateful message. Even at
the Grammys, GLAAD (Gay Lesbian Something Something Something) stood
outside protesting the event with their signs and slogans because that
evening, Mathers was
nominated for multiple awards. The Grammy committee even went so far
as to ask Em to perform that evening, which he graciously complied with a
stirring version of ?Stan? [how confused was everyone when he
performed his hit song with Elton John, instead of Dido, the original
performer. Elton John, an advocate of gay rights and an open
homosexual himself! Surprise, surprise. John was even quoted later on as saying that he
was proud of that performance, citing Eminem as a genius].
Much
like the great influential musicians of the past, Eminem too is an eye in
the hurricane of controversy (see Elvis). Principals, parents, rabbis, priests all
shake their heads disapprovingly at Matther?s antics. How can we
condone his message, they question. How can we allow our children to
buy these curse-ful albums? How do we let Eminem get away with
poisoning the minds of the masses?
To
which, Em answers and says, it?s not me, people. It?s Slim Shady.
So get off my back.
...............................................................................................
I?ve
always wondered how rappers make such a smooth transition into acting
while rock stars fail at it miserably. For every Mos Def, there?s a
Madonna. For each Ice Cube, there?s an unfortunate Bon Jovi. With
the rare exception of a Sting performance (Dune, Lock Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels) or a Dwight Yoakam role (Sling Blade, Panic
Room),
rock stars, overall, are pathetic actors. Why is that, I?ve asked
myself. How could it be that the so-called representatives of the
Ghetto are so much more thespian-ish than our private schooled
prep/rock boys are?
And
only until recently did I come up with an answer. You see, rock stars
don?t act well because they?re not used to acting. There?s no
need to act or pose because rock n? roll never really required a
mystique (which is why the press resents Belle &Sebastian ?
because they shun journalists and remain withdrawn). No secret
identities. No alter egos. Thurston Moore, boringly enough, is just
Thurston Moore?a guy who writes arty rock tunes. Jeff Tweedy is to
no surprise a guy from the Chicago named Jeff Tweedy who has a wife
and two kids. When a man picks up a guitar and plugs it into an amp,
he is basically saying, what you see is what you get (obviously, there
are exceptions but?). I am just a rock star. I write songs about
broken hearts, dead end jobs, and again, broken hearts. All things
that the public can relate to. In fact, these rock stars are so
regular--like you and me?that we wonder why a major label paid so
much for that shlepper in
the first place.
And
all these things that rock n? roll lacks?the glamour, the
controversy, the nastiness--rap definitely provides. While it can be
cliché and expected at times, the rap world supplies us with the
abundance of drama that rock lacks. There are East/West feuds. There
are the alter egos like Ghostface Killa, Ice-T, P. Diddy, Rakim, and
many others (do we even know their real names?). There are the cars,
the women, the gold and the unlimited supply of fancy alcoholic
beverages (pass the Courvesier). All these absurdities, none of which
the public can relate to. All these things are beyond our grasp,
financially and realistically. The images that these rap stars create
along with their labels are just that: creations and images. We are
being entertained and they are acting. Busta can?t be Busta all the
time. And Ludacris certainly cannot be that retarded?it has to be an
act. It just has to be or we are in some serious trouble.
And
now onto Slim Shady, the creation of both Marshall Matthers and Eminem,
who is perhaps one of the most imaginative and complex characters of
pop culture today. While
Marshall Mathers III has been around since October 17th,
1972, the man you see on MTV is only a few years old. Slim Shady, the
alter-ego of Eminem is the discipline-less youngest child to Mathers? responsible father-like figure (his undying devotion and
love for his child, Haile, is almost beautiful and inspirational).
Slim Shady can say what he wants, do what he wants, and, if you will,
front whoever he wants ( I love using the word ?front.? Makes me
feel so street. Word). And at the end of the day, there are no
apologies. Every time you hear Eminem say something controversial, he
insists it?s not him saying it but rather Slim is. For real, dawg.
In fact, on the new album, The Eminem Show, he raps on the first
single, Without Me, ?I?ve created a monster ?cuz nobody wants
to/see Marshall no more/they want Shady I?m chopped liver.? Ya?
see, what Marshall is saying is that in case you missed the joke, in
case, you have no imagination and take things too literal, this is not
for real. I am entertaining you. This violent, sexist, angry character
is a creation just like Robert DeNiro created Travis Bickle in Taxi
Driver. Like Christian Bale created Patrick Bateman in American
Psycho. Marshall even goes as far as spelling it out on the new album.
At the end of revealing the hypocrisies and the problems with our
wonderful country (?White America?), he laughs and then
says--without any beats, without any samples??I?m just playing
America, you know I love you.? Now, within a second of each other,
Shady raps in his nasal-y angry voice and then reveals himself as
Marshall, displaying his
true colors. Relax, he says to you, the concerned listener. It?s all
an act.
So why are we mad at Mathers for creating a character
and bringing it to the public? Why is he any different than an actor
who picks a controversial role? Maybe Anthony Hopkins should be more
responsible when he decides to portray a cannibal? Maybe I will see Hannibal
and then be in the mood for an IRS agent with some
fava beans? Is it a double standard to expect something of a musician
that we don?t expect from our writers and actors? And now that
Mathers has made a transition into acting? playing
himself, no less (acting as an act-the ultimate irony)?are we yet aware that he is capable of creating an
image? Or does it still make no sense to you? Huh?
What do you say?......Answer me.
To Be
Continued
? Please let me know what you?re thinking
so I can incorporate it into Part 2 - theadwiz@aol.com
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READER
COMMENTS
From Yoni Mernick
Anybody can say what they want about Eminem. But at the end of the
day, He's the one with all the number one albums, songs, movies... the
guy with number one soundtracks, songs of the year, and nominated for
so many freakin' grammys. Regardless of what his critics or alot people say, THE GUY IS TALENTED... and people have to start
getting used to that. (Or he'll make you get used to it)
From
I must disagree.
As Courtney Love recently said: "Eminem is the first corporate
sponsored rebel" That is the key to the whole Slim/Marshal/Eminem
mystery. It's not like he "becomes" Slim at certain moments.
He becomes whatever sells at the moment.
Having said that: I love love love Eminem (Can I just say, if he were
frum he would have gone to Nvei and be working at a Kosher Pizza
store....) and what makes him so great (if a sell-out) is that he can
be part Slim Shady and part Marshall and part Eminem ALL AT THE SAME
TIME. Ya dig?
From
Elisha Mayer
Arye,
enjoyed
your piece on Em. now
hear my thoughts, please.
Music
is different than movies. Movies are an escapist opportunity.
You go to the theater, you get the popcorn, the soda, your girl,
some chocolate if you're feeling rich, and you sit in a dark
room, knowing you're going to occupy a couple of hours being
entertained by actors. Even the most realistic thrillers never
really get beyond the medium that they are. They're actors on
a 2 dimensional screen who are trained and paid to act, to laugh, to
fly in red capes, to be pre-cogs and solve pre-crimes, to
cry, to die, to wield a Jedi saber, to Whatever...but the
viewer knows the whole time that it's acting. It's like those
3D simulations on the Imax. I went to one once when I was
little...and they announced at the start that if you get too
dizzy during the flight simulation portions, just close your eyes
and you will stop feeling nauseous after a few seconds. And it
worked. It's no different with movies. You can close
your eyes, or turn away, or hold your ears, and as soon as the image
stops penetrating your senses, it's gone. If I can't see
Freddy/Jason, then he can't hurt me. Kinda like the theory
behind the Nightmare on Elm Street series. If you just stay
awake and don't dream, then you'll be okay. You can be in
control. And with movies you are in
control. Not only because you can get up and leave, or turn
away, but mostly because you know, going in, that you are gonna get
10 dollars worth of 2-3 hour entertainment, and then it's over.
It ends. You're in control, because you know what you're
getting.
Some
movies may make you think about your life, if their effective, but
that's a new thought stream that the viewer chooses to descend
into.
Music
is different. It's much more subtle. It's in your car,
your shower, your New Jersey shopping malls, your drug store, your
barber shop, your bodega, and eventually, it's in you. It
becomes part of you. And then, when the constant barrage of
music finally stops and you're walking on the street, free and clean
of the droning noise, you start to fill your own head with that
same barrage of music...you start humming it...The Music/ The
Moment...This is how you remind me/ Of what I really am.....Mowing
down your family/ With a pocket full of shells. You get my
drift?
Music
is not escapist in the same way movies are. They are not
limited in their scope and impact like movies are.
They're not over when the album stops playing. They don't end
when the radio is off. Boys who pull shotgun triggers aimed at
their heads and leave a note saying Ozzy told me to do it in Suicide
Solution (Where to hide/Suicide is the only way out...) Or Lars
Ulrich and James Hettfield of Metallica told me to do it in Fade to
Black are sad cases of lost kids who were probably severely
depressed, had little to live for, had lots of pain in their lives,
and the only bit of control they could exert on their own lives
was to finally take their own lives. I can't blame Ozzy for
suicide, nor can I credit Bob Marley for planting the seeds of self-respect in
Black youth. But I can't leave Ozzy entirely blameless either.
Did his song push these kids over the edge? We'll never
know for sure, but the suicide notes seem to imply it.
Em is
talented. The medium that he uses to send his message
exponentially multiplies its volume and how deep it penetrates.
If he wrote poetry then that ends when the book closes. But he
sings his rhymes, and so they stay with us and become part
of us, zig-zagging their way in and out of our craniums and
implanting themselves where we here, where we see, where we speak
and sing. We can't escape them because we can't escape
ourselves.
Last
point. Movies are limited in their scope. The actor is
acting within a context. There are rules. Wizards have
power, Muggles don't...but only in Harry Potter. Superman
Flies, Lois Lane doesn't...but only in Superman. Red is a man
who is known to be able to get things from time to time, but on the
outside of Shawshank he can't make it. These same
actors can then act in a different role. Morgan Freeman
can act like a sometimes drunk military lawyer and do a
convincing job. But he's still just playing a role. Lawrence
Fishburn can be a desperate-trying-to-be-responsible dad in Boyzzz
in the Hood (was that him? I forget.)and then move to Morpheus
in the Matrix. Nobody really believes that Drew
Barrymore can jump kick anything above 2 feet in the air like
she does in Charlie's Angles, or start fires with her mind in the
creatively titled FireStarter, but suspension of disbelief
is a critical component of all movies, and not just for the
sci-fi / fantasy genre. Music isn't limited in the same
way. The context disappears entirely. Public Enemy
or Onyx or Ice-T could look like Erkel for all I know, but
on the radio their angry black male bravado is all I can
see and I start imagining gangs and do-rags and guns and danger.
If they want to sing about killing cops or abusing women,
then all I see and hear is the sentiment, not their acting or
posturing. It's the message. Music is about a
message being conveyed, while movies are more often about a
story.
Is Em
joking? Is he 'just playing' with America? Is Slim just a
character he created? Maybe, maybe not.
But it
doesn't matter. With music, the only thing I can access is the
message and the sentiment, not the context. Tipper Gore and
many before her have tried unsuccessfully to shut the mouths of the
more vicious lyricists. They've lost in court many times against many
defendants. Because free speech is the most important value
of all, right? After all lyrics don't kill people, People kill
people, right?? And it's not as if Eminem and his image and
his messages of violence are being idolized by teens all across
the nation, right??? It's not like anyone is actually going to
be incited to hurt someone else from his words, right???? And
even if they do some violence, that's not Em's fault, because he's
just acting, right?????
If he's
acting let's see his songs get nominated at this year's Academy
Awards.
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