Eminem

there was that fandom map of pop/rap/rock stars feature in the NYT a few weeks ago, and it was notable how many fans Em has in places where rap is not traditionally very popular--i.e. trump country in the great plains and midwest

Love this woke sexist and liberal pro-military garbage. https://t.co/kDD8oVPAoA

— San (@sansdn) October 11, 2017

go back to ILE bud

shocking that the guy who made his bones rapping about murdering his wife isn't a devout socialist

it's not even really about the lame #resistance sentiments tbh it's just that he sounds like a middling slam poet and the portentous staging makes it sound even worse

I can't say I really dug this (it just didn't seem very good tbh - and BET Awards rap ciphers are usually one of my favorite annual events) but y'know whatever good for him for using his platform in this way.

how much are we looking forward to Trump's clapback and a week of more dumb grandstanding/media attacks

I disagree – his enjambments, pauses, timing are his best in fifteen years.

I'm not debating the musical merits of the freestyle (i wasn't the biggest fan), I do think that it was a worthwhile message--how many white pop stars have spoken out this forcefully against Trump?

as long as you think calling Yam a bitch is socialist, voodoo

"FDT" is a million times more forceful (even with the Secret Service-prompted edits) and is actually listenable

(I get that it's not strictly a fair comparison)

there's tons of media figures goin after Trump, but idk what constitutes "white pop star" these days tbh (or why I should care since they're such a minor part of the media landscape at this point - Em himself is mostly irrelevant)

as long as you think calling Yam a bitch is socialist, voodoo

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, October 11, 2017 10:20 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

forgot my sarcasm font at home i guess

That Eminem, how dare he!

em is mostly irrelevant to people who actively pay attention to rap music, but he's got huge allegiances in parts of the country where rap is less popular

it's cool, you can just call them deplorables.

Em just did.

he's got huge allegiances in parts of the country where rap is less popular

Yes, and he's used this to devastating effect. Just remember how powerful "Mosh" was!!!

lol otm

tbf I will fully cop to my ambivalence being at least partly rooted in the fact that I've never liked him. His technical skill is undeniable but his exploitative combo of self-absorption and opportunism (not to mention his 4chan-style LOOK HOW OFFENSIVE I AM schtick) has always put me off.

I remind myself every few months that his sales have remained impressive for years:

In the United States, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling more than 792,000 copies in its first week, becoming the second-biggest debut of 2013 and the second-largest sales week of the year, only behind the debut of Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, which bowed at number one with 968,000 in March. The Marshall Mathers LP 2 logs the sixth-biggest sales week of the past five years. The album also marks Eminem's seventh No. 1 album.[106] In its second week the album dropped to number two, selling 210,000 more copies.[107] In its third week the album returned to number one on the Billboard 200, selling 120,000 more copies.[108] In its fourth week the album dropped to number two on the Billboard 200, selling 199,000 more copies.[109] The album sold 1,727,000 copies in the United States in 2013, making it the second best-selling album of the year.[110] As of April 2015, the album has sold 2,244,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen Soundscan

TMMLP 2 was released before Soundscan included streaming. I wonder how a new album would sell now.

opportunism otm - one of the other reasons I am so fond of "FDT" is that it predates the commodification of Trump-bashing

Yes, and he's used this to devastating effect. Just remember how powerful "Mosh" was!!!

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Wednesday, October 11, 2017 10:40 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

people should only make political statements with music if it causes demonstrable changes to the political environment

I was referencing the fact that it sucked

tbf I will fully cop to my ambivalence being at least partly rooted in the fact that I've never liked him. His technical skill is undeniable but his exploitative combo of self-absorption and opportunism (not to mention his 4chan-style LOOK HOW OFFENSIVE I AM schtick) has always put me off.

^^^

This is pretty much where I fall too. I didn't like him in 1999, don't like him now, and have always thought of his critical cheering section as suckers and enablers. So now we're supposed to line up behind this toxic asshole just because he's anti-Trump? No thanks.

xxxxpost that "Rap God" video from his last album has 570,000,000 Youtube views.

Some tough customers in here

i'm not arguing that it's a good freestyle but a few of you seem to argue that he shouldn't have done it at all, which I think is blatantly wrong

(not to mention his 4chan-style LOOK HOW OFFENSIVE I AM schtick)

honestly i know 4chan has to come up in every thread but can we correctly place Eminem in the context of 80s and early 90s shock rap and not something that did not even exist at the time?

those things are connected!

ilx fifteen years ago ilx now basically the same people being wrong about rap music and rappers. cypher was fire though. eminem is one of the greatest rappers ever. i don't even fuck with him and i don't think i ever made an ilx post about eminem before.
i mean i'll take some of whatever like some bullshit criticism it's not an important moment or whatever and he says he likes the military so it's garbage, but you know based on the reaction of people it was directed at, made for, i think it was successful and important.

basically the same people being wrong about rap music and rappers...eminem is one of the greatest rappers ever.

self-pwned

also eminem is actually really popular on ilm no?

i put ass like that at #1 on my 2005 pazz and jop

i meant it in a in a respectful rap canon joe budden traditionalist way, where you nod along with his inclusion in a top 20 and say something like "yeah, em got bars," rather than in a visceral emotional response or true respect for his artistry.

ha yeah no worries that makes sense I was just goofin on you. like I said I don't question his technical virtuosity and yeah of course he would show up "Best Rapper Ever" lists.

(but I still don't like him)

fwiw I loved the Slim Shady and Marshall Mathers LPs

in a time where frightening things are happening and a lot of the criticism is wrapped in humour and cynicism and everything feels hopeless, it was heartening to see not so much em doing what he did, saying what he did--i think it's powerful because it's cringey and sincere--but the reaction to the cypher, and not so much the fuck donald trump part but the expression of solidarity with people who are under attack. right?
can you just say you fuck with it on that level before going in on em is a washed up horrorcore rapper that's about to drop a single with pink?

that was basically my first post on this topic

let's talk about mysonne now.

respect knuckles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE7P09ftXKU

knuckles?

I've posted this before, but again, it takes balls to say this to your fanbase:

and any fan of mine
who’s a supporter of his
im drawing in the sand a line
you either for or against
and if you cant decide
who you like more in your split
on who you should stand beside
ill do it for you with this
FUCK YOU

Yeah whatever... he is a has been and he's rich as fuck already, why would he give a fuck? Well, he has an album coming out in the following months and he's really popular in states where Trump won by a wide margin like Wyoming, North and South Dakota. Source: (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/07/upshot/music-fandom-maps.html)

Eminem, the 44-year-old rapper from Detroit, has remained popular, with several hits in recent years, including “The Monster,” featuring Rihanna, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard top 100 in 2013. His fan base is strongest in whiter and more rural places: West Virginia; southern Ohio; eastern Kentucky; deep north Maine; the Ozarks in Missouri; across the Great Plains. And, of course, Eminem is popular in his hometown, Detroit.

He's pretty much turning on the people that gave him half or more of his fortune. This is for me the real meat not the rap itself. Look, I've never really liked him and it doesn't surprise me a bit he's popular in white rural America... they probably take the homophobia and mysogyny and all the shock factor at face value, but that statement against his own fans in the end is pure mad passion.

it takes balls to do things that have actual stakes. this has none.

When you're totally familiar with rap music pic.twitter.com/UVFRHw21Yf

— Mark Agee (@MarkAgee) October 11, 2017

more like mark diceman

a thing that i'm finding funny is that a lot of the people who are praising eminem for "best political writing" for this cypher praised the eric garland game theory thing

Tweets that didn’t age well. A four act play. pic.twitter.com/jrNklSsVgX

— Jordan Strack (@JordanStrack) October 11, 2017

I liked at the time (and still like) the first three Eminem albums - if only Encore was anywhere near as great and he'd stopped there. I'm not really interested in any of his post-comeback stuff.

it takes balls to do things that have actual stakes. this has none.

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Wednesday, October 11, 2017 1:34 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

heh wait to see if it has impact before jumping to conclusions? it may matter to some people.

Don't think DJP suggested otherwise!

The assertion was "Eminem uses the same 40 words" and I posted that to show he's no more or less verbose than the average rapper, which I think we all should be able to agree uses more than 40 words

From B.I.G. and Paris, Three Times Dope, and some we'll never see, and PRT

I don't think this is the right line, but I can't figure out what the right line is

"and Sondoobiest(IlovethepornosIusedtosee)"

I strike a still pose and hit you with some ill flows
that don't even make sense, like dykes usin dildos

dumbass eminem. some dildos can also be used to store important paperwork and objects (medicine, keys, etc). so you see, it turns out that some lesbians DO have a use for dildos

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2020/11/british-woman-covered-in-eminem-tattoos-breaks-record-640261

It’s very annoying that the albums don’t go in chronological order after Kamikaze

bloke in the baseball cap looks like fred durst from a distance

"I really want to meet Eminem and I think this might help!"

stan is not a subtle song

and this is quite the interpretation of the concept

congrats 2 British Lisa Loeb

i am losing it to be quite frank pic.twitter.com/pKUGFluxlb

— jodran (@femcelgirlboss) March 2, 2021

That is the single most embarrassing thing I've seen come out of Tik Tok yet. Shut it all down.

just learning about genz vs millennial wars on social media and am very amused

I mean, the most positive thing I can say about that video is that the time she took to record it probably meant one less minimum wage earning store manager getting berated for being out of something. That cadence and delivery before she started the actual rapping is way too finely honed from years of condescendingly mocking baristas.

Don't Even Ask Me to Condescendingly Mock a Barista Until I've Had My Coffee

I Got a Condescending Barista Mocker Permabanned

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FIQQVWNE1U

.@minions got my back. Shout out to Gru and them… pic.twitter.com/zRWaqCF3u4

— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) May 8, 2022