Whatever You Say I Am_ The Life and Times of Eminem - Anthony Bozza [30]
Rock and rap stars have long stirred controversy and the best of them have done so with an inherent sense of the improperly funny. But most do not or cannot integrate it as well as Eminem does. From Marilyn Manson to N.W.A to Ozzy Osbourne to fellow Detroit native Alice Cooper (whose slapstick gore was as hilarious onstage as his booze-soaked behavior was problematic offstage), musicians dubbed “controversial” never turn sinner to saint, as Eminem has, in the space of just one album. Marilyn Manson, America’s most hated musician before the release of The Marshall Mathers LP, was targeted by morality watchdog groups such as the PMRC and blamed by a number of mainstream media outlets for coloring the lives of Columbine killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. Unlike Eminem, Manson’s art did not contain any kind of explanation or image disclaimer to tip-off the literally-minded that he is not a cult leader, despite his stage surname. As happened to Eminem in Daytona, Florida, in 2001, Manson has been banned from performing in several U.S. cities and boycotted by activists for the point of view expressed in his music. In spite of an eloquent defense of free speech in interviews as well as his 1999 autobiography, The Long, Hard Road Out of Hell, Manson has never been entirely accepted in the mainstream, with or without his stage makeup and prosthetic breasts. It has taken Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper twenty-odd years and their middle-aged bloat to become cuddly elder statesmen of rock in the eyes of America. Both have grown up and, as a key point in the metamorphosis, generally sobered up into respectable, average citizens, the kind of guy who loves his dogs (like Osbourne) or loves golf (like Cooper). In comparison, Eminem circumvented one-dimensional shock-rapper status with cunning, by issuing his defense with his offense and serving them up with a wise-assed grin. This was the only way that Eminem’s views of society, himself, and everything in between could have made it into so many homes, both as an intruder and welcomed guest.
Fans in Times Square await their hero on MTV’s Total Request Live, November 8, 2002.
A good deal of Eminem’s zaniness relies on his gift for mimicry, lending him comedic possibilities that other rappers do not have. He can halt his most self-important swagger, as he does on “Criminal” from The Marshall Mathers LP, with a wacky voice introduced flawlessly into a verse. He has pulled off manic imitations of his mother (“My Dad’s Gone Crazy” on The Eminem Show); rappers Snoop Dogg (“Bitch Please II” on The Marshall Mathers LP), Method Man (“Get You Mad,” from King Tech and Sway’s This or That), and Slick Rick (“Quitter,” unreleased on album); as well as South Park characters, including Eric Cartman, the obese, careless, short-tempered kid (“Marshall Mathers” and “The Kids” on The Marshall Mathers LP, clean version). All of the voices and backup vocals on his albums, unless otherwise noted, are by Eminem, including the high-harmony parts sung in “Hailie’s Song,” from The Eminem Show. But even when imitating others, Eminem is one of the easiest rappers to understand, with enunciation that remains crystal clear regardless of the slang, mispronunciations, or truncations he employs to force dissimilar syllables to his rhyme patterns. “The way he raps is one of the main things that sets him apart,” says Village Voice critic Sasha Frere-Jones: “People shouldn’t discount for a second how important that is to him being popular. The first time I heard “My Name Is,’ I was walking into the Virgin Megastore, and it was so loud and crowded, but I heard his voice and knew it was him, over everything. He has the kind of voice you can recognize from one thousand feet away.”
In his early freestyle days, Eminem also had a visual rap style that was as impossible to miss as the color of his skin. “I remember the first