Whatever You Say I Am_ The Life and Times of Eminem - Anthony Bozza [83]
It isn’t Eminem the person or artist whom the artists (for the most part), executives, and pundits of the black hip-hop community oppose; it is Eminem as a symbol of institutionalized, corporate white domination in a genre reserved for blacks that is hard to accept. In this light, Eminem’s popularity is a product of the white system. Denying that Eminem enjoys greater commercial success and a more diverse fan base because of his color is ridiculous; Eminem himself has made the point repeatedly in song (“Without Me,” “The Way I Am,” “Square Dance”) and in print. His popularity with white fans who don’t usually listen to hip-hop is, it can be argued, ethnocentrism, or the preference toward members of your own group. Ethnocentrism isn’t synonymous with the negative implications of racial prejudice, but isn’t terrifically far from them. While true to the hip-hop art form, Eminem is more accessible to his peers because his stories of white angst don’t pass them by; they’re told in Eminem’s distinctive voice with less slang than most black rap. Holding a white fan’s preference for a white rapper against Eminem is as ridiculous as claiming that he does not sell more records because of his color.
“The thing that still bothers me most about the ascension of Eminem is that we live in a country that is obviously majority white,” says Farai Chideya, journalist, founder of popandpolitics.com, and author of The Color of Our Future. “White people, in general, react better to white people as role models and public figures. And there was a long wait for the great white hope of rap. When he did appear, the problem for me was that he received all this analysis and psychoanalysis that black rappers never got. If you look at somebody like Tupac who now has been given this kind of psychoanalysis posthumously, when he was alive he was a ‘bad boy,’ that’s all people thought of him. There was no effort in the media to deconstuct who he is or where he comes from. But as soon as Marshall Mathers appeared they all said ‘Oh, this troubled white youth. May we lay you down on the couch? What is your problem?’ To me it really highlighted the issue that nobody gave a rat’s ass about why young black men felt like expressing themselves in this way, but as soon as a white guy did it then there was an effort to understand.”
If anything, Eminem downplays his race advantage, out of respect for hip-hop and to maintain his credibility. If he chose to, Eminem could be everywhere. There isn’t a media outlet in the country that would refuse an interview with Eminem, and this has been so since 2000. Eminem is careful about the kinds of media projects he participates in, and most of the magazines and TV shows that feature him do so without his cooperation. The number of corporations willing to pay Eminem millions for product endorsements are even more numerous. Whereas the average fan doesn’t hold it against Jay-Z for doing a Heineken commercial, or Method Man and Redman for hocking deodorant, Eminem would not be judged as kindly as another rapper trying to get paid in full. To his credit and to his credibility, Eminem has done virtually nothing to cash in on his popularity that wasn’t directly tied to the music: Aside from a DVD release of an animated series and two limited-edition action figures, Eminem’s clothing line, Shady, will be the rapper’s first nonartistic merchandising venture beyond T-shirts and hats. Still, the idea of a popular and consistently genuine white rapper does not sit well with many rap fans.
“It almost seems as if the black folks who love Eminem want to love him more than any of the white people who love Eminem,” says Village Voice critic Sasha