Eminem Goes Political

[Dim]

Usually I really like Juan Coles blog - but there's something in the way academics write about popular culture that just makes me cringe . . .

http://www.juancole.com/

I don't know what Marshall Mathers's politics are. But I do know that they could be of consequence for the youth vote, and his loud pleas for everyone to vote may also have an impact at the margins (this election is about the margins).

That he is issuing a song, Mosh, which directly attacks Bush on the Iraq war may be a sign of the times:


Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell/
We gonna let him know/
Stomp, push, shove, mush, fuck Bush!/
Until they bring our troops home . . .

Let the president answer on higher anarchy/
Strap him with an AK-47, let him go fight his own war/
Let him impress daddy that way . . . No more blood for oil."



In a forthcoming Rolling Stone interview, Mathers says:


"[Bush] has been painted to be this hero, and he's got our troops over there dying for no reason . . . I think he started a mess . . . He jumped the gun, and he fucked up so bad he doesn't know what to do right now . . . We got young people over there dyin', kids in their teens, early twenties that should have futures ahead of them. And for what? It seems like a Vietnam 2. Bin Laden attacked us, and we attacked Saddam. Explain why that is. Give us some answers."



The themes of the lyrics above and the interview are interesting. Mathers obviously had a difficult time in his relations with his parents. His mother was only 15 when she had him St. Joseph, Missouri, and his father was absent. At one point his mother was suing him over his constant insults to and cursing of her. He once told her "You only loved me until I was 8 years old."

So it is interesting that he reads Bush as merely attempting to please a somewhat distant and perhaps often absent father. And he critiques Bush's attempt to impress the old man insofar as W. used other young men's lives up in the process, instead of strapping on an AK-47 himself. Eminem knows about packing heat, and was accused of pistol-whipping a rival from the rap group Insane Clown Posse. (Actually, this would be a good epithet for Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Cheney and Bush).

The other interesting thing about the lyrics above is their invocation of the icon of lower middle class white identity, the "rebel yell." The appeal of the Confederate South for most of them lies not in its horrible race politics or slavery, but in a resistance to the intrusion of the Federal government into their lives.

Eminem cannily turns the Republicans' Southern Strategy against them, calling for a revolt against Bush policies by the guys Howard Dean referred to as having Confederate flags on their pickup trucks. (Although most listen to Country, some of the youngsters are Eminem fans.) Bush now becomes a symbol of grasping, stupid Federal interference, and Iraq is reconceived as a carpetbagging operation. "Until they bring our troops home" is a lyric that makes a moral claim. Bush & Co. have kidnapped US young persons in uniform and are holding them prisoner in an Iraqi cauldron for no good reason. The soldiers are not just soldiers but teenagers, Eminem's constituency.

The song is important as a development in popular culture. But I am arguing that it may also be important in class terms. If any significant number of lower middle class white youth are thinking like this, it could make a difference in some races.

[patriot]

His lyrics don't leave much to the imagination. Maybe he'll go the Pink Floyd route...

Hey you, Whitehouse,
Ha ha charade you are.
You house proud town mouse,
Ha ha charade you are
You're trying to keep our feelings off the street.
You're nearly a real treat,
All tight lips and cold feet
And do you feel abused?
.....! .....! .....! .....!
You gotta stem the evil tide,
And keep it all on the inside.
Mary you're nearly a treat,
Mary you're nearly a treat
But you're really a cry.

[Renard]

I wonder how he will reconcile this with a previous verse where he let us know "I'm the equivalent of what would happen if Bush rapped".

Actual quote.

[mach1]

"[Bush] has been painted to be this hero, and he's got our troops over there dying for no reason . . . I think he started a mess . . . He jumped the gun, and he fucked up so bad he doesn't know what to do right now . . . We got young people over there dyin', kids in their teens, early twenties that should have futures ahead of them. And for what? It seems like a Vietnam 2. Bin Laden attacked us, and we attacked Saddam. Explain why that is. Give us some answers."

Strategy Emiem, strategy. Just like when you take out your
opponent on the record charts by using guerilla style tactics to
get your self some publicity.

MAybe Bush took spome pointers OFF OF YOU in this war to protect your right to spout off about the government with your music.

I guess hes right about those young kids dying. Guess they dont enlist thirty somethings.

And what the fuck, rap music will free the Iraqi people whereas bullets would fall on the ground.

Bush IS a HERO. I hope he doesnt go on though to believe in his own myth too much.

Whether or not he set Sadadm up for a fall is not something I would not care to debate with anybody I know. I dont know anything.

You want an explantion eneiem..I'll spell it out for you..its because we are not dealiong with en masse a typical enemy...but an a atypical one.

All your rap music wouldnt do a lick of good in helping free people from fear...(it wouldnt be allowed in Iraq!)


so go kick a can in the alley and hope you dont get arrested for disturbing the peace.


Personally, I think in a hundred years maybe your countries two-party system may end. (er, lol!)

Go make some noise about that , dude.

[mach1]

well actually maybe it would

I take that back...

but none of this is either here nor there

as we are not in either 1991 or 2003

so I support your hang in there dawg attitude

that the world would have been a MUCH safer place

with good ol Sadddam mustering up what he can to

intimidate his neighbors and rid his self of threats from within

the old fashioned way....er, archaic way. ala Saddamy style.

[Kasca]

Mathers obviously had a difficult time in his relations with his parents

>>>Yes, and it just got harder; yesterday he lost a second uncle, the one who raised him in his father's absence, to suicide.

>>>Ole Boy's been on Bush's case before:

"Let your hair down to the track, yeah kick on back (boo!)
The Boogiemonster of rap, yeah the man's back
with a plan to ambush this Bush administration
Mush the Senate's face in, push this generation
of kids to stand and fight for the right to say somethin
you might not like, this white hot light
that I'm under, no wonder I look so sunburnt
Oh no I won't leave no stone unturned
Oh no I won't leave, won't go nowhere
Do-si-do, oh-yo-ho, hello there
Oh yeah, don't think I won't go there
Go to Beirut and do a show there
Yeah you laugh till your motherfuckin ass gets drafted
While you're at band camp thinkin the crap can't happen
'Til you fuck around, get an anthrax napkin
Inside a package wrapped in Saran Wrap wrappin
Open the plastic and then you stand back gaspin
Fuckin assassins, hijackin Amtraks, crashin
All this terror, America demands action
Next thing you know, you've got Uncle Sam's ass askin
to join the Army or what you'll do for their Navy
You just a baby, gettin recruited at eighteen
You're on a plane now, eatin their food and their baked beans
I'm twenty-eight, they gon
take you 'fore they take me
Crazy insane, or insane crazy?
When I say Hussein, you say Shady
My views ain't changed, still inhumane, wait
Arraigned two days late, the date's today, hang me

[ROB]

there's something in the way academics write about popular culture that just makes me cringe . . .

I hear ya there.

[britneyfan97]

there is something about eminem opening his mouth and words coming out that makes me cringe.

[seektravelinfo]

I am no fan of his music.
However, he has a rare charisma and a raw talent that I admire, giving street cred to the only minority left that one is still allowed to make fun of: the poor white from the trailer park w/the single mother.
He highlights topical issues of our fucked up class structure that I think gets past a lot of people.
Next Saturday, before elections, he'll be the musical guest on SNL.

[kilroy]

giving street cred to

eminem has 'street cred'? now that's funny.

[Romeo247]

I personally could care less for the little fart.. but this video has some kick ass animation and some damn good points...

enjoy

http://www.prisonplanet.com/video/GNN_Mosh_bb2.mov

[DawnC71]

Hey have you guys heard the CD from that little Chinese rapper....another young vet just home from Iraq (A Marine from K-Bay Marine corps base) had his Mom bring it to the hospital for him and I listened to it and it was actually pretty good....
I like eminem when I am feeling like I wanna kick somebody's ass, but I really like the Hip Hop style of rhyming ......if you ever get a chance to watch Russel Simmons Def Poetry Jam on HBO, I highly recommend it...there are some very talented young people out there rapping about social issues and what not and some of it is very moving, in my own opinion of course.....Oh and by the way.....I am also a huge Walt Whitman, e.e.cummings, H.D. Thoreau, and Maya Angelou fan...among many many many others.....I guess I am a bit eclectic in my taste as far as poetry and I feel that if people find a way to express themselves through the written and spoken word, and ESPECIALLY, if it helps them work out personal issues...I would rather they do that then walk into the nearest Mickey D's with a gun and start blowing people away.
But I can also understand how some might be offended by Eminem and other rappers.....The thing is I dont care of someone calls me a bitch or whatever, even to my face...shit like that just goes in one ear and out the other for me....so why should I care about a rapper who makes a generalized "bitch" comment on a record?
Anyways, just my two cents.....I only have a DOLLAH BILL YAWL....so you owe me some damn change...Bee--yahtches!
Cheers,
dawn