I went back over some old school Eminem songs and they made me think how they differ from other rap songs. Back when Eminem sold god knows how many millions of records a lot of people stopped and asked themselves how he managed to achieve such incredible fame. What made Eminem stand out, (obviously aside from being white) is that he was provocative and vulgar enough to appeal to the gangsta rap crowd, but despite all his controversial content his cultural values were really in line with those of mainstream America. The branch of social psychology known as cultural psychology postulates that cultures differ among themselves on several dimensions some of which include individualism/collectivism, power distance, and masculinity/femininity. The dimension on which African American culture and mainstream European American culture differ the most is that of individualism versus collectivism. Individualist cultures tend to very focused on self reliance, This is also the biggest difference between the lyrical content in Eminem's work in contrast to old school Dre, Snoop, and other Gangsta Rap artists that he is known to collaborate with.
The Gangsta Rap genre transformed hip hop and the music scene in the early nineties, and kids all over America had that indescribable feeling of bad assery when putting on their original Dre, Snoop or Warren G debut albums. But despite the solid foundation and marketing of African-American "cool", white kids just had an incredibly hard time relating to black collectivist mentality. Look at any one of the original east coast or west coast gangsta rap videos, and they almost always show the entire neighborhood either partying their asses off or at a picnic. Even the grandparents and the little kids are there all eating chicken wings and enjoying life. Think of such texts as Biggies "my whole crew is loungin", Even though they market and portray themselves as uncanny bad ass gangsters, The gangster mentality in all of these songs basically says life in the ghetto is insanely hard, but we're not going to dwell on that, it made us the silky smooth hard asses we are today
Contrast this with Eminems albums which basically sound like we're witnessing a therapy session with him, he's unhappy his father left at a very early age, he's mad at his mother, he's debating whether or not the highs and lows of drug abuse are worth it, he's not sure whether or not. There is really intense focus on himself and his emotions, thoughts, relflections. We hear about the frustrating and bad sides of success and what is he, this poor nobody from a trailer park to make of all this. Boo-hoo, these millions are just not "me". Instead of labelling him a whiny pussy we call him brave for opening up and sharing his true emotions with us, like he's laying it all out there "raw". Furthermore we call this the introspective "side" of his persona, because he can be the bad ass and obnoxious yet lovobale slim shady when he wants to be, but the introspective, vunerable and mature marshall mathers when he's feeling deep and setnimental. Think of someone like eazy-e, who talks about who he hangs with and talking about the different shades and sides of their personality. They would be labelled crazy, selfish
Eminem on the other hand wants everyone to fuck off, yet we commend him for being true, when others would label him as self absorbed and selfish. He rarely mentions his band D-12 in any of his solo albums. (All of a sudden I've got ninety some cousins...hey its me) in Marshal Mathers and "All of a sudden I've got ninety some cousins" "Do me a favor and do not come and speak to me if I'm eating or feeding my daugther)
The whole concept of life choices, which are incredibly important to individualist ideologies don't really exist in black culture. Think of Eazy-e's lyric in real motherfuckin' G's "I never met an OG who ever did shit wrong" and "How could a nigga go so quick from wearing lipstick to smoking chronic at picnics" proclaiming that there are no two ways to go about being a gangster, and what we might call experimenting with his image or his lifestyle choices is just Dr. Dre being a poser and a bitch. A bitch will always remain a bitch in the ghetto, there is no upward mobility or choice in the matter. Eminem frets over every single last choice he makes, and the jist of his songs is yeah maybe I fucked up maybe I didn't, these were my choices. I lost my temper and hit a bitch but she deserved it. I smoked weed
Its this meta analysis of everything that makes him so popular. A lot of teenagers are growing up, seeing that everything isn't so clear cut. Eminem i Eminem feeds off of individuality, choice, and freedom of speech.
In White America Eminem sings "I met Dre....and I lit a fire up
Under his ass, helped him get back to the top, every fan black that I got, was probably his in
Exchange for every white fan that he's got". Eminem emphasizes both his and Dre's individuality,
The Gangsta Rap genre transformed hip hop and the music scene in the early nineties, and kids all over America had that indescribable feeling of bad assery when putting on their original Dre, Snoop or Warren G debut albums. But despite the solid foundation and marketing of African-American "cool", white kids just had an incredibly hard time relating to black collectivist mentality. Look at any one of the original east coast or west coast gangsta rap videos, and they almost always show the entire neighborhood either partying their asses off or at a picnic. Even the grandparents and the little kids are there all eating chicken wings and enjoying life. Think of such texts as Biggies "my whole crew is loungin", Even though they market and portray themselves as uncanny bad ass gangsters, The gangster mentality in all of these songs basically says life in the ghetto is insanely hard, but we're not going to dwell on that, it made us the silky smooth hard asses we are today
Contrast this with Eminems albums which basically sound like we're witnessing a therapy session with him, he's unhappy his father left at a very early age, he's mad at his mother, he's debating whether or not the highs and lows of drug abuse are worth it, he's not sure whether or not. There is really intense focus on himself and his emotions, thoughts, relflections. We hear about the frustrating and bad sides of success and what is he, this poor nobody from a trailer park to make of all this. Boo-hoo, these millions are just not "me". Instead of labelling him a whiny pussy we call him brave for opening up and sharing his true emotions with us, like he's laying it all out there "raw". Furthermore we call this the introspective "side" of his persona, because he can be the bad ass and obnoxious yet lovobale slim shady when he wants to be, but the introspective, vunerable and mature marshall mathers when he's feeling deep and setnimental. Think of someone like eazy-e, who talks about who he hangs with and talking about the different shades and sides of their personality. They would be labelled crazy, selfish
Eminem on the other hand wants everyone to fuck off, yet we commend him for being true, when others would label him as self absorbed and selfish. He rarely mentions his band D-12 in any of his solo albums. (All of a sudden I've got ninety some cousins...hey its me) in Marshal Mathers and "All of a sudden I've got ninety some cousins" "Do me a favor and do not come and speak to me if I'm eating or feeding my daugther)
The whole concept of life choices, which are incredibly important to individualist ideologies don't really exist in black culture. Think of Eazy-e's lyric in real motherfuckin' G's "I never met an OG who ever did shit wrong" and "How could a nigga go so quick from wearing lipstick to smoking chronic at picnics" proclaiming that there are no two ways to go about being a gangster, and what we might call experimenting with his image or his lifestyle choices is just Dr. Dre being a poser and a bitch. A bitch will always remain a bitch in the ghetto, there is no upward mobility or choice in the matter. Eminem frets over every single last choice he makes, and the jist of his songs is yeah maybe I fucked up maybe I didn't, these were my choices. I lost my temper and hit a bitch but she deserved it. I smoked weed
Its this meta analysis of everything that makes him so popular. A lot of teenagers are growing up, seeing that everything isn't so clear cut. Eminem i Eminem feeds off of individuality, choice, and freedom of speech.
In White America Eminem sings "I met Dre....and I lit a fire up
Under his ass, helped him get back to the top, every fan black that I got, was probably his in
Exchange for every white fan that he's got". Eminem emphasizes both his and Dre's individuality,
No comments:
Post a Comment