Category: Eminem

Transcendentalism, the idea of being yourself, ridding yourself of your materialistic values, acknowledging your uniqueness, and doing things on your own, not letting others do it for you. Transcendentalism was practiced during the 18th century and their ideas are still being practiced to this day. The changes in society and advancement in technology have given birth to a need for transcendentalism because of our dependence on technology to do things for us. The ideas that the transcendentalists believed in about doing things on your own, and re-evaluating yourself to realize what you want to do in life, are seen in music and writing today. In Eminem’s song ‘25 to Life’, he speaks about how he devoted himself to rap and how he realized he was being mistreated and disrespected, and instead of letting it continue he decided to resolve his problem with his job by himself. Eminem’s song ‘25 to Life’ portrays re-evaluating yourself by showing that he’s not being treated right, his song also conveys self-reliance by stating what he’s going to do and the effect of him doing it, additionally in his song he expresses spiritualism by stating the way he feels after he comes to his realization.

‘25 to Life’ is about Eminem’s thinking about how he is being treated by the job he’s in, and not just letting them get away with it, so he decided to leave. You can see self-reliance in the quote where he says he won’t “keep chasing ‘em” anymore and he is going to be taking his life back. This shows that he wants to be free, respected, and break free from the direction he’s going. Emerson, the philosopher, said something similar: “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events”. Eminem shows and Emerson believed that you should trust in yourself and that every heart is different. Eminem’s song continues with the idea that he doesn’t want to be disrespected and he wants to leave. “Now my respect I demand it. I’ma take control of this relationship to command it, and I’ma be the boss of you now goddammit”. This goes with a quote from Thoreau: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer”. Eminem in the song doesn’t want to keep working for a job that doesn’t respect him so he wants to change his job to something that gives as much as he gives.

In the song ‘25 to life’, Eminem was evaluating his life, and the choices he made to get where he is now, seeing all the things he did and went through for the job. “Took me for granted took my heart and ran it straight into the planet into the dirt can no longer stand it”. This quote explains how he feels at the time he feels like he’s being treated like dirt. This goes with a quote from Emerson: “Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles”. These quotes relate to each other because for Eminem he sees how they treat him and he realizes that what he’s doing will not make him happy in life. Another example of an examination of self-expressed in Eminem’s song was when he says, “take away their freedom like you did to me treated like they ain’t worthy of you”, showing that he knows that his freedom was stiped away and is treated like this not meant to be there. This can also relate to Henry David’s quote “Humility, like darkness reveals the heavenly lights”, which means that the problems in your life reveal what you truly want to do in the end. Moreover, this relates to Eminem’s quote because once he realizes all the wrong in his life and it clears a path giving him a realization that it’s not what he wants.

In Eminem’s song ‘25 to Life’, he realizes that he wants to change what he’s doing in life and decides to act upon that thought. In Eminem’s song, he says, “I’m addicted to this pain, the stress, the drama I’m drawn in so I guess I’m a mess cursed and blessed but this time I ain’t changing my mind I’m climbing out this abyss”. This means that he’s going to leave no matter what, this relates to what Emerson says, “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events”, meaning trust your gut because everyone is different and accept that what goes against it is not meant for you, as well as his other quote, “Always do what you are afraid to do”. These quotes connect with Eminem because at this point he realized that he kept backing away from leaving, and now he’s not backing down he is going to leave and he won’t let anything stop him. Another quote from Eminem that represents self-reliance is when he says, “I told you, you’d be sorry if I fucking left, I’d laugh while you wept”. This quote relates to Emerson’s quote “Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect”, because Eminem didn’t conform and stay, he went through with what he said and left.

In conclusion, Eminem’s song ‘25 to Life’ portrays the re-evaluation of self and self-reliance. In his song he shows re-evaluation of self when he says “took me for granted took my heart and ran it straight into the planet into the dirt can no longer stand it”, “take away their freedom like you did to me treated like they ain’t worthy of you”. His song shows revaluation when he says “I told you, you’d be sorry if I fucking left, I’d laugh while you wept”, and “now my respect I demand it I’ma take control of this relationship to command it, and I’ma be the boss of you now goddammit”. I believe that Eminem’s song connects to the transcendentalist ideas because the lyrics in his song relates to lots of the ideas by famous philosophers, it shows that these ideas are still being used to this day whether intentionally or unintentionally it’s still being used. In the end, it proves that we all still follow and practice these ideas so on the inside were all transcendentalism without knowing it.

“Look. If you had… One shot, or one opportunity. Would you capture it? Or just let it slip?”. Does it familiar to you? Does it remind you anyone? This was a part of Eminem’s famous song, ‘Lose Yourself’. His stage name ‘Eminem’ was formed from the sound ‘M and M’, which referring the initials of his true name ‘Marshall Mathers III’. The album featuring the song ‘Lose Yourself’ ranked the first on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart that year with over 702,000 copies sold in the 1st week. Have you or your friends ever heard of Eminem?

Nowadays, hip-hop culture has been popular throughout not only America but also other countries like China. In the history of rap, Eminem is definitely the most celebrated and debatable white rapper. He once was known as the GOAT (Greatest of All Times) in the hip-hop world. However, his great reputation brought him not only tremendous wealth and high social status, but also ethical responsibilities. He was soon catapulted into the vortex of moral controversy after being celebrated among hip-hop world.

This essay will explain his moral responsibility as a famous singer and evaluations on his reactions to these criticizes.

The first main point is that Eminem performed an art form originated by blacks who suffered from white oppressions as a white artist. The art form ‘rapping’ was a musical form of vocal delivery that mainly depends on rhythmic sentences consists of rhyme words, originated among African-Americans, particularly MCs— microphone controllers. Even now, rapping is considered as a unique artistic part in black culture. Meanwhile, the white involvement in black art forms is immediately problematic. A common viewpoint is that the history of black music has been a continuous one of whites’ lucrative expropriation of black cultural forms. From the perspective of elder black artists, there are two major problems with Eminem’s celebrity. White kids want their own rap hero rather than black rap stars. Since then, rap will no longer be a symbol exclusively for African-Americans. During that period in America, the conflict between the black and white races was so serious that every artist had to avoid racism problem though examining their works. Because popularity can enlarge their influences, while art can change people’s mind. The exist of a famed white rapper proved that Caucasian can not only play their own music but also black music well, even better than African-American themselves. Thus, as Eminem’s success implied a gap of capability between two races due to the unique property of rap. Another point is that there will be more white artists imitating Eminem since he gained a lot of attention and wealth, so the history of black music has been a continuous one of whites. How did Eminem react in his songs? He announced his racial identity and verbally attacks dissenters in lyrics. He situated himself as a victim of discrimination by implying people that for a long time he was attacked in his race by critics. He did garner sympathy though this way, but it is still considered as a fault that white artist chose an exclusive art form of African-Americans.

The second main point is that Eminem should be responsible for the influence of his songs and his behavior in reality that beyond the lyrics, since rapping had enormous audiences especially teenagers among almost every country in the world. Rap is arguably the most dominant force in popular culture. American teenagers rate rap as their favorite musical genre, and rap has reached ascendancy globally. Nearly every country in the world features some form or mutation of rap music. Every well-known rap star should confront the bad influences of hip-hop culture. It is undeniable that music had his educational function, and there is relationship between juvenile delinquency and rap music. Cutler (1999) explores how a white teenager from one of New York City’s wealthiest neighborhoods aligned with hip-hop by adopting African-American vernacular English and stereotypical features of urban street culture such as gang membership and drug use. Eminem repeatedly take violent, guns or drugs and other contentious topic as the theme of his songs. Therefore, a considerable amount of teenagers did imitate what described in Eminem’s songs, and he was called into question soon. He mentioned these in the song ‘Sing for the Moment’:

“They say music can alter moods and talk to you

But can it load a gun for you and cock it too

Well, if it can then the next time you assault a dude

Just tell the judge it was my fault and I’ll get sued

See what these kids do is hear about us totin’ pistols

And they wanna get one ‘cuz they think the shit’s cool

Not knowin’ we’re really just protectin’ ourselves”.

In the lyrics, Eminem described a ridiculous example to present the satire fact that there are actually not direct connections between songs and crimes, but government, public and parents blamed the increasing juvenile crimes on the rappers instead of examining their education. However, this response will definitely satisfy people, since there still teenagers who cannot distinguish the difference between artworks and reality and blindly imitating what lyrics mentioned existing. After a short period, Eminem seemed picked up his ethical responsibility though releasing albums that describes positive attitude towards life or states social problem. For example, in the song ‘Stan’ he raps:

“I just hope it reaches you in time.

Before you hurt yourself, I think that you’d be doin’ just fine

If you’d relax a little. I’m glad that I inspire you, but Stan

Why are you so mad? Try to understand that I do want you as a fan.

I just don’t want you to do some crazy shit”.

The song ‘Stan’ was ranked at #236 in ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’ by the Rolling Stone magazine. Because this song, the word ‘stan’ was included by New Oxford American Dictionary in 2017, meaning “to be an overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity”. The song ‘Stan’ described a frictional crazy fan who was fascinated by Eminem, sent 3 letters to Eminem, but received nothing. Therefore, the fan decided to revenge, he locked his girlfriend who was pregnant in the trunk and drove a directly in to water. According to Eminem himself, ‘Stan’ was an adaptation from a true story, but not serious like this, and he wrote this song in order to warn his fan. From the audience’s view, even teenager can recognize the crazy things did by ‘stan’, and they probably back to examine themselves spontaneously since they are also the fan of Eminem.

And the last main point is that as an influential artist, it is moral obligation to provide a positive guidance for population. In rap world, racial problem probably is the optimum topic.

According to Edward, racism is a problem that originated from thoughts and formed a strong structure from the top to the bottom in the society. Though race is fluid and unfixed, it produces real effects in the social world. Bonilla-Silva (2006) uses the term ‘racial structure’ to describe how race has historically provided privileges to those with white skin and restricted the distribution of economic, political, and social capital to those with darker skin. And music is a relatively effective way to change people, particularly white adolescents from their mind aspect. The majority of hip-hop audiences are juveniles who readily believe their idols. Therefore, the content of songs should be considered carefully by rappers. Nas (Nasir Jones) is a typical model among all the educational singers. Nas is another rapper whose music and public discourse can help white adolescents disrupt America’s dominant ideology of race. Nas has specifically used his music as a platform to challenge color-blindness and America’s racial politics. Eminem was one of those artists who advocate racial equivalence. But differ from black artists, he undermines racial discrimination by revealing white privilege. In the song ‘White America’ he raps:

“Look at these eyes, baby blue, baby just like yourself

If they were brown, Shady lose…

Look at my sales, let’s do the math If I was black, I would’ve sold half”.

In the lyrics, he pointed out that there is a reason of race in his commercial success. Blue eyes, brown eyes, black, and also ‘blonde’ which mentioned in the song implied racial differences. Besides revealing, Eminem started from another perspective – he was discriminated in the rap world because he is white. There might be factors that I mentioned in the first main point, but it is unquestionably that racial hostility also results in Eminem’s case. In his song ‘The Real Slim Shady’ he said: “Ya’ll act like you never seen a white person before”. Or in ‘White America’ he raps: “When I was underground, no one gave a fuck I was white, no labels wanted to sign me, almost gave up, until I met Dre, the only one to look past”. The lyrics exposed Eminem’s experience as a victim of discrimination. This is appealing not for black but for all the races. In fact, some blacks are abusing their rights and welfares under the flag of racism by raising a small problem into a higher plane of principle.

In conclusion, being a popular white rapper, Eminem may lead to racism and juvenile delinquency. He must be prudent with all the lyrics and his behavior, or there might be serious consequences due to his young audience.

References

1. Stephens, Vincent. “Pop Goes the Rapper: A Close Reading of Eminem’s Genderphobia”. Popular Music, vol. 24, no. 1, 2005, pp. 21–36. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://jstor.org/stable/3877592
2. Williams, Justin A. “BORROWING AND LINEAGE IN EMINEM/2PAC’S LOYAL TO THE GAME AND 50 CENT’S GET RICH OR DIE TRYING”. Rhymin’ and Stealin’: Musical Borrowing in Hip-Hop, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2013, pp. 140–166. JSTOR, http://jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.3480627.9
3. Armstrong, Edward G. “Eminem’s Construction of Authenticity”. Popular Music and Society, vol. 27, no. 3, 17 May 2010, pp. 335–355.
4. http://sdonline.org/36/hip-hop-white-wash-the-impact-of-eminem-on-rap-music-and-music-industry-economics/

Let’s be honest, we all love celebrities. As fans, we can’t enough of their activities, likes, and everything else. Some people are actually really crazy about their favorite celebrities and follow them everywhere. But there’s much more to a celebrity’s life than getting all dressed up and flaunting their luxury accessories or giving some nice interview and hitting the stage in one of their massive concerts. A celebrity is essentially a normal human being. So, it must make them happy when they make the crowds go wild and screaming their lungs out. All celebrities come from all different types of classes and backgrounds. Some of them are already rich, while the others come from a humble background and make massive money with their stardom and fame. Some artists and celebrities have truly an amazing inspirational journey, for example, Michael Jackson who is the ‘King of Pop’. In this paper I will share the most inspirational and moving journey of Eminem, who is also known as the ‘God of Rap’, or even the ‘King of Hip Hop’. Now aged 45, this American artist is a music producer, actor, but primarily a rapper, and best known for it.

Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1972. Eminem’s birth name was Marshall Bruce Mathers III. His mother, Deborah Mathers, almost died while giving birth to him. His father, Marshall Mathers Jr., abandoned his family while he was still a baby. He was raised only by his mother. Eminem’s father further dishonored him whenever he tried to contact him while he was a kid. He had to move back and forth between Michigan and Missouri, as his mother was unable to keep her job for a very long time period. As a result, for moving back and forth frequently he said, “I would change school two, three times a year”, and those days were the roughest and the toughest days for him. Also, Eminem is disapproval about how his mom raised him, and his lyrics showed that. He even accused his mother publicly through his song lyrics for being addicted to prescription drugs and abusing him physically and emotionally.

The travelling lifestyle had a huge impact on his personality. He wasn’t able to make any close friends and he was considered an outcast in every new school he went to. He remembered: “Beat up in the bathroom, beat up in the hallways, shoved into lockers”. He was even in a coma for a week after he was beaten up terribly by a bully in school. He failed 9th grade three times and dropped out of school while he was 17. Although he was a poor at studies. “I found that no matter how bad I was at school, like no matter how low my grades might have been at times, I was always good at English. I just felt like I want to be able to have all of these words at my disposal, in my vocabulary at all the times whenever I need to pull them out. You know, somewhere, they’ll be stored like, locked away”. He liked reading comic books and the dictionary. No wonder, he writes absolutely creative and catchy lyrics for his songs.

As a teenager, he had the biggest passion for language and hip hop. He was totally related to the rage of rap music in the 1990’s. Rap music was mainly black music, so someone who had pale white skin and blue eyes seemed a total misfit in the industry. But nothing could discourage him, and he went into the Detroit rap music scene and frequently competed in rap battles, where two competitors would rap with improvised lyrics to basically insult each other.

With all the respect, Marshall soon started to think of stage name for himself. Originally, it was said to be M&M, after the marks of his name. He later started writing it as ‘Eminem’ and now is styled as EMINƎM. He is also known as ‘Slim Shady’.

During this time, Eminem did all sorts of odd jobs such as dishwashing, while participating in those rap battles. At some point, he was even working 60 hours a week in order support his family. ‘8 Mile’ was his semi-autobiographical movie that showed his life and he was the main lead actor in the movie.

As we all know, nowadays anyone can get better a job through online job portals. That wasn’t the case for him during those days. He had to survive and grow and get through the resources that were available.

He and Kimberly Ann Scott started dating, and eventually had a daughter in 1995, named Hailie Jade Scott, who is now all grown-up. Inspired by his daughter, he released his first ever album, ‘Infinite’ in 1996. The album established his improvisation with lyrics, and his art of storytelling, but it failed and could not make any profit and wasn’t able attract much of the local’s attention. After a year past, he battled in Los Angeles and was one the runner-up in the Rap Olympics Battle in 1997, that was where he met the one and only Dr. Dre, famous, legendary rapper. He was very influenced and impressed with his work that he signed Eminem for his records label, Interscope. In 1999, ‘The Slim Shady LP’ was released by Eminem and was a massive success with an enormous 3 million copies of the LP sold worldwide. He was not planning on stopping nowhere then.

Eminem and Kim got married on the same year. However, 2006 the marriage ended. He was depressed, disappointed and miserable to such an extent that he even attempted to commit suicide by overdosing himself with Tylenol. It was then when he realized that there was no one to take care of his daughter, and he continued with his rap music, and attempted to keep up with Kimberly.

Today, he is recognized as one of the greatest rappers of all time and the biggest influential rapper on young teenagers. He has released a lot of albums already. The most successful album from all the ones he released are ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ in 2000 and ‘The Eminem Show’ in 2002.

He remains controversial for the kinds of lyrics he produces, known to be explicit and guilty of sending aggressive vibes. He is sometimes criticized for glorifying drugs, excessive curse, violence, and homophobia in his lyrics. Yet the rap artist has managed to win the audience and the critics and has won 15 Grammys for all his songs.

From a troubled and traumatizing childhood and an aggressive teenage fighting drug addiction. However, he has still managed to inspire many people with his success and determination towards his songs. He has never been afraid of voicing out his ideas and criticize about what he thinks is wrong. He has already gained the status of a legend with his talent. His net worth right now is about $190 million. His success story needs to be shared and he will always be hailed and known as the King of Hip Hop.