{"id":3489,"date":"2016-07-01T12:36:18","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T07:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3489"},"modified":"2016-07-01T12:36:18","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T07:06:18","slug":"reconsidering-eminem-in-a-post-metoo-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3489","title":{"rendered":"Reconsidering Eminem in a Post-Me Too World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

D<\/span><\/p><\/div>

\u00e9j\u00e0 vu is the feeling of having lived through an experience before it happens to you, and 2018 was thick with it. Stories of <\/span>harassment<\/span><\/a> in Bollywood and the media industry eerily echoed events that have already transpired. A liberal director, known for sensitive portrayals of women in his films, was accused of disgusting behaviour; you decide whether I\u2019m talking about Woody Allen or Vikas Bahl. A stand-up comedian was finally called out after indecently exposing himself to a shocking number of women: I could be talking about <\/span>Louis CK<\/span><\/a> or Utsav Chakraborty. Men who claimed to stand for liberal values, who anointed themselves champions of equality, were found to be predatory parasites putting up a performance for the sake of public perception.<\/span>\n\nMusically too, this year has felt like a throwback for me, thanks to the return to relevance of one Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, aka Slim Shady, aka the Rap God. 2018 began with <\/span>Revival<\/span><\/i>, a brand new Eminem album after a gap of five years. And then, last month, he surprised everyone with a surprise release called <\/span>Kamikaze<\/span><\/i>. Of course, it wouldn\u2019t be an Eminem album release if it didn\u2019t cause outrage, and like clockwork, accusations of <\/span>homophobia<\/span><\/a> and fading celebrity were flung at the rapper. Cue the d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/span>\n\nEminem and controversy go together like McDonalds burgers and <\/span>indigestion<\/span><\/a> \u2013 the latter inevitably follows the former. It\u2019s a trend he began all the way back in 1999, with his mainstream debut <\/span>The Slim Shady LP <\/span><\/i>leading to much pearl-clutching among audiences that had never encountered his chaotic blend of raw talent and twisted intellect, backed by the production genius of Dr Dre. He rapped about murdering his wife, assaulting pop culture figures, and created fantasy scenarios of gruesome violence, and nobody could look away. Slim Shady, the Mr Hyde to Marshall Mathers\u2019 Dr Jekyll, became a character whose skin he slipped into when giving voice to some of the darkest thoughts expressed through the medium of hip-hop.<\/span>\n\n

The sins of the Harvey Weinsteins and Louis CKs of the world are as heinous as the ones Slim Shady rapped about committing: The only difference is theirs were real while his were fictional.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nThe Slim Shady character has always been a villain, a conduit to the murkiest corners of Em\u2019s psyche. It\u2019s a persona he\u2019s cultivated for years, one that surfaces when he\u2019s writing and performing. But is the real Slim Shady also the real Marshall Mathers? When his newest album, <\/span>Kamikaze<\/span><\/i>, contained a lyric where he used a homophobic slur against fellow rapper Tyler, the Creator, he was quick to issue a <\/span>public apology<\/span><\/a>. \u201cI think the word that I called him on that song was one of the things where I felt like this might be too far,\u201d he said in an interview a few days after the album released and he was called out online. However, he did go back to using the act of sucking dicks to belittle another man in his very next release, the single <\/span>Killshot<\/span><\/i>. Even if it might be hard to spot sometimes, there is a difference between the Marshall Mathers who has previously expressed support of gay marriage and the Eminem\/Shady hybrid that spits insults from the mic.<\/span>\n\nIf you go by the art he created, Eminem was the polar opposite of today\u2019s entertainers that are currently being exposed as frauds. The sins of the <\/span>Harvey Weinsteins<\/span><\/a> and Louis CKs of the world are as heinous as the ones Slim Shady rapped about committing: The only difference is theirs were real while his were fictional. Eminem\u2019s demons have lived in the spotlight for us all to see, while the real danger came from those public figures who put up a fa\u00e7ade of correctness, only to let their demons come out in secret, where they caused real damage.<\/span>\n\nIn 2018, with the benefit of the knowledge we have today, it\u2019s easy to look at Eminem\u2019s body of work and dismiss it as an offensive collection of regressive ideas. But there is another way to look at Eminem as well, and that is to recognise that the performer and the person are separate entities, and one may not necessarily resemble the other. It\u2019s a notion that could serve us well, as we learn that the <\/span>\u201cwoke\u201d, liberal men<\/span><\/a> who seemed to say all the right things and support the right causes are not what they seemed. Slim Shady might be a rapacious, predatory, wolfish character \u2013 but so are the many who are now being exposed.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eminem and controversy go together like McDonalds and indigestion \u2013 the latter inevitably follows the former. Today, it\u2019s easy to look at his body of work and dismiss it as an offensive collection of regressive ideas. But, maybe, there is another way to look at the controversial rapper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":3490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[2588,726,6655,6656,727,664,6657,6658,6659,6217,6660,4951,6661,6662,6663,6664,6665,6666],"class_list":["post-3489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-metoo","tag-eminem","tag-eminem-beef","tag-eminem-birthday","tag-hip-hop","tag-homophobia","tag-machine-gun-kelly","tag-marshall-mathers","tag-mgk","tag-misogyny","tag-oddfuture","tag-rap","tag-shady-aftermath","tag-slim-shady","tag-slur","tag-stan","tag-the-creator","tag-tyler"],"yoast_head":"\nReconsidering Eminem in a Post-Me Too World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Eminem and controversy go together like McDonalds and indigestion \u2013 the latter inevitably follows the former. 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