Eminem "the Real Slim Misfit"

Victor Pike

Prof. Robert King

College Writing II

11 May 2010

The Real Slim Misfit

Eminem is a disgrace to the music industry! This is what some would say about him. Many others also believe that he is a very talented man. There are many controversies surrounding this famous rapper, father, and actor. Eminem is one of the most controversial people ever to take the stage. But like many other controversial musicians, he is a very successful rapper. Eminem has benefited from people misunderstanding him. The more people that discover his unique style and talent, the more money he makes. The biggest surprise to most people in the hip hop community is the fact that he is white. Throughout the history of hip hop most artists have predominantly black, some artists such as Vanilla Ice and House of Pain have been white but they were all very short lived. Eminem has come up through much adversity in a black man's world to come out on top as one of the greatest rappers ever. Chris Rock was quoted in one of his comedy sketches saying "It's the end of the world, the best rapper is white and the best golfer is black"; I thought that was a very appropriate quote signifying what kind of situation Eminem has been put into. In one of his songs he says "look at my sales, let's do the math, if I was black, I would've sold half" (Eminem, White America). Eminem is a prime example of what a misfit is, he has been willing to go extremely out of the norm and risk destroying his reputation like others before him, he has turn all his weaknesses into his strengths through his lyrics and because of the fact he is different he has turned into a worldwide pop icon.

Their have been other musicians in the past who have been quite different in their music or appearances but have made a long lasting impression throughout history. Elvis Presley was in a very similar situation being a pioneer to rock and roll. A lot of white society accused Elvis of playing black music or being a black lover. Elvis was heavily influenced by southern rhythm and blues artists who were dominantly black. Like Eminem, Elvis grew up in a society where certain music styles were a heavy influence to him and he did not let the color of his skin affect what music he wanted to make. Others such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, and Gene Simmons of Kiss have all been quite different and misfits in their own way as far bringing new ideas of music to the world even through hatred towards them, but because they dared to be different and step out on a limb in what they believed in we now remember them as some of the greatest most influential artists of the past century.

Part of being a misfit is being unique. Eminem is unique in the way he makes his music. Eminem's lyrics often ask Hip-hop listeners to look past his whiteness; these lines actually serve to reinforce his consciousness of his position as a hip-hop minority. "Eminem's lower-class background is key to his legitimacy and to his complication of hip hop's representations of wealthy whites rushing to profit from rap" (Hess 382). First, he emphasizes his genuine love of hip-hop and the adversity he faced on his path to a rap career. His lyrics reflect his actual biography within a poor, urban location; at the same time he emphasizes his whiteness to persuade listeners that he does not attempt an imitation of blackness. He works to diffuse his listeners' rejection of a white artist by anticipating their arguments, for example in his song Without Me he says "I'm the worst thing since Elvis Presley. To do black music so selfishly. And use it to get myself wealthy. There's a concept that works. Twenty million other white rappers emerge." Eminem knows that people are going to ridicule for being a white rapper so he uses what they are going to say as ammunition against them. Eminem's producer Dr. Dre has been a major contributor to Eminem's success. With Dre's guidance, Eminem has established a new form of white authenticity by dramatizing his struggle as a white rapper in a black hip-hop world.

Marshall Mathers or better known as Eminem has a very unique style to his music. He has three personalities he uses when recording and performing music. These personalities complement each other, contradict, and sometimes fight with each other. The voice of SlimShady, arguably the most well known and the most troublesome of the three, symbolizes the darkness, the profanity, the violence, the misogyny, and the homophobic artist that is despised. Eminem, a character that has slowly reemerged as the artist evolves, presents a critique of American society, addressing social topics from topics ranging from poverty to religion. Amidst these two main characters, is the voice of Marshall Mathers himself who simply shares the story of the man behind the music. Eminem has made controversial lyrics about an array of subjects ranging from killing his wife, his mother, racial issues, and current events. He has a song called Kim where he talks about killing his wife lyrics such as "AH SOMEBODY HELP! Don't you get it bitch, no one can hear you? Now shut the fuck up and get what's comin to you You were supposed to love me (Kim choking) NOW BLEED! BITCH BLEED! BLEED! BITCH BLEED! BLEED". Songs such as this has led to a court ordering Eminem and his on and off again wife Kim to stop making disparaging remarks about each other. Another song called Cleaning Out My Closet talks about him growing up with his mother and puts her down with lyrics such as "but put yourself in my position, just try to envision witnessin' your Mama poppin' prescription pills in the kitchen, bitchin' that someone's always goin' through her purse and shits missin', going through public housing systems, victim of Munchausen's syndrome". Lyrics from this record led to a lawsuit from his own mother. Lyrics such as these have been one of the biggest reasons Eminem has become so popular. He has flirted so much with controversial lyrics and has been willing to go where most artists would not and because of it he is always in the news and magazines and continuously gaining popularity.

Eminem was born into being a misfit. His father left him when he was born and his mother was forced to move from Missouri to the streets of Detroit Michigan. For Eminem, growing up in a predominantly black neighborhood was tough. He grew up in a trailer park with his mother and had dropped out of school in the ninth grade, Eminem was quoted saying

"I don't like to give the sob story: growing up in a single-parent home, never knew my father, my mother