Artist: Eminem
Best Album: The Marshall Mathers LP
Best Song: Mosh
This Letter Could Have Been About: Eazy-E, EPMD, Eric B. & Rakim
Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Not because Eminem is the best white rapper who ever lived (he is) but because he’s one of the best rappers who ever lived, period. Now, Eminem’s music can be hugely problematic– his early albums in particular are full of homophobic and misogynistic lyrics and frankly in a lot of ways are the work of a man who is seriously fucked up in a whole lot of ways, but his talent is prodigious. And, frustratingly, he occasionally lets this weird progressive streak slip; I’ve often wished that I could have an album by Eminem that stripped all of the Eminem out of him and just let him write music without all the baggage, and the closest I ever got was the soundtrack to 8 Mile, which was basically autobiographical.
This was also the first artist where I had real trouble picking his best song, so I’m including three videos instead of the usual one. Note that if Eminem usually offends you, these three songs will not be problematic.
Also, if you’ve never seen 8 Mile, get on that.
Have a video!:
Fuck it, four. Pay attention to the way he plays with vowels:
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I love his work, I definitely think in the past his rep outshined his music.
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I do like his music, but you’re right that sometimes his lyrics can get intense (a lot of artists’ can, like Midnight Oil)… I tried a new album, Relapse, that I found so antagonistic it was hard to pick up another. Thank you for reminding me of that song with Dido! I’d forgotten what it was called!
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I’m not NOT a fan, but I’ve never really gotten into him. Although Lose Yourself is one of my go-to jams.
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I will get on that. My daughter also has a ton of his pictures on my computer. I’m not sure how to feel about that. It is what it is I guess. 🙂
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Love, love, love Eminem! I agree that he is the best white rapper…period.
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He has some competition. Mac Lethal comes to mind. But yeah.
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Interesting thought, stripping the issues away. But then that’s what makes him, right?
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I like some of his music. Not a huge fan though.
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