Now this looks like a job for me
So everybody just follow me
Cuz it feels so empty without me..
Cuz we need a little controversy..
And
with that Eminem aka Marshall Mathers aka Mr. Controversy sets the
nasty ball rolling for his latest album The Eminem Show.
Around 30 Eminem fans were injured at a concert in Washington last
weekend, as the infamous rap superstar made his long-awaited return
to the live arena.
In the video of his lead single "Without Me" he dresses
up like Osama bin Laden and spoofs "The Sally Jesse Raphael
Show".
He has made a fortune out of his domestic woes and by pissing off
his contemporaries. If you can handle it, here's what the rapper
says in "Without Me"
Chris Kirkpatrick,
you can get your ass kicked
Worse than them little Limp Bizkit b**tards
And Moby, you can get stomped by Obie
You 36 year old bald headed fag blow me
You don't know me, you're too old
Let it go its over, nobody listens to techno
So as we can
clearly see, it's time for some good ole Eminem flavoured controversy.
Em's still pissed
off with the world, and why shouldn't he be, his last album Marshall
Mathers LP debuted at #1 on the US charts. The album rose to
the top on the success of the suicidal fan song "Stan"
and won the toilet-mouth rapper 3 Grammy Awards!
The Eminem
Show, releases in June and features Eminem's mentor Dr. Dre
and some very wicked songs.
While detractors might be a little jaded with his gay bashing- wife
cursing- bad mouthing his mom and pissing-off-authorities, his fans
lap up every dose of f**k this and f**k that.
The
only unexpected victim of Em's vitriol this time happens to be Em
himself! In "Say Goodbye to Hollywood," and "Say
What U Say," Em talks about his failed relationships and even
how he's thought about putting a gun to his head.
Musically the
album has been described as a hybrid mix of rap, rock, hip-hop and
metal. Something like a Kid Rock meets Staind meets Eminem. Catch
the video of "Without Me" on MTV and you'll know what
we mean.
Eminem has two
loves and two hates. The loves of his life being hip-hop and his
daughter Hailie (who sings a few lines on "My Dad's Gone Crazy").
His two hates being his mom Debbie (she sued him for emotional distress)
and his ex wife Kim (she sued him too).
The collision of these loves and hates inspire his music and his
life.
Eminem is the
trailer trash kid that America loves to hate. He has been labeled
as a misogynist, a gay basher and an overall menace to society.
And what was his response? He duetted with Elton John at the Grammy's!
Eminem's lyrical
virtuosity earned him the respect of Dr. Dre who signed the artist
on to his Aftermath label. The white rappers debut The Slim Shady,
hit No. 2 on the Billboard album charts with the breakthrough success
of the single "My Name Is."
With this he became the bad boy equivalent of 2Pac, the lyrical
homie of Ice Cube and the white rapper that Vanilla Ice will never
be.
"I'm not
alone in feeling the way I feel," he says. "I believe
that a lot of people can relate to my sh*t--whether white, black,
it doesn't matter. Everybody has been through some sh*t, whether
it's drastic or not so drastic. Everybody gets to the point of 'I
don't give a f**k.'"
And when you hear an 18-year-old girl from suburban Mumbai mouthing
his explicit lyrics, you think, maybe Eminem's does strike a chord
- all across the world.
"I Just
Don't Give A f**k," and "My Name Is," became rap
anthems to be mouthed confidently in front of your parents, coz
they were way too fast for them to understand what was being said
anyways.
Like many other
rappers, Eminem's rise to stardom was far from easy. After being
born in Kansas City and traveling back and forth between KC and
the Detroit metropolitan area, Eminem and his mother moved into
the Eastside of Detroit when he was 12. Switching schools every
two to three months made it difficult to make friends, graduate
and to stay out of trouble.
Rap, however,
became Eminem's solace. Battling schoolmates in the lunchroom brought
joy to what was otherwise a painful existence. Although he would
later drop out of school and land several minimum-wage-paying, full-time
jobs, his musical focus remained constant.
Eminem released
his debut album, Infinite, in 1996. He rapped in such a manner
that he was accused of sounding like Nas and AZ.
"Infinite was me trying to figure out how I wanted my rap style
to be, how I wanted to sound on the mic and present myself,"
he recalls. "It was a growing stage. I felt like Infinite was
like a demo that just got pressed up."
Even though
Infinite flopped, Em bounced back with the Slim Shady
EP. A scathing, caustic bunch of songs that struck out at everybody
and anybody.
The
lyrical gymnast earned further recognition when he won second place
at 1997 Rap Olympics in Los Angeles. It was here that Em made his
radio appearance and wowed the audience with his furious lyrical
delivery.
A certain Dr. Dre heard Em, got in touch with him and the rest as
Em would say is f***ing history!
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