Hip-Hop Thread Genre • Page 245

That Fantastic 4 line was so bad lol

But, I'm glad he did this

 

The internets busiest alt-right pandering nerd just gave the Lil Pump tape a 7

 

That was easily one of the best things Eminem has done in his career, musically or otherwise. I can't wait for it to spread tomorrow, he is talking to the people who need to hear it

 

Agree that the actual rapping wasn't great (though I can tell what he was going for) but the message was awesome, especially him telling his Trump supporter fans (which is likely not a small portion) to fuck off. I will honestly be shocked if Trump doesn't respond

I honestly still think he has it in him to make one more great album, especially if he actually goes back to having something to say like this

 

I think Eminem haters or agnostics underestimate the size and diversity of his fanbase. I went to a very diverse and international college and pretty much all the people there that liked hip hop also liked Eminem. If you follow rap sites with an old head/underground tilt, you'll see most of them and their readers still love him too. Most publications dedicated to rap - especially outside of the US - call him one of the greatest still. So yeah, the fact that he is so big and has somehow become this stadium rock band rapper means he has has a lot of Trump voting fans in the US, but Eminem never stopped being a thing within the rap community either, especially not internationally. This whole narrative of him being for racist white people mostly takes places outside of dedicated rap media, which is funny.

That being said, I'm happy he did this (though not surprised, he was very loudly anti-Bush and he has attacled Trump before) but I never liked Eminem's music, except for a few songs.

 

That's where I am. Plus his passion shone through. But yeah, the execution was bad.

I still have a lot of respect for Em. If it wasn't for the Slim Shady LP coming out when I was 16, I doubt i'd love rap as much as I do now. I haven't listened to much of his stuff since around 8 Mile and going back and listening to Kim again recently was an uncomfortable listen, no doubt. But he partly shaped my music taste. Gotta thank him for that.

 

I feel very conflicted about Eminem's place in rap history for many reasons, but most of them aren't technically his fault. Pushing away my Murder Inc. indused bias and the fact that I never liked most of his music, I can see why his presence, his early work (up until about halfway through The Eminem Show, which is a bad album with some important singles) and 8 Mile are relevant (even if some of the content has age poorly and is questionable). I know that his last albums have been successful regardless and I also know that people like the Odd Future guys think they are musically (or more precisely "technically") interesting, but I don't see it. I basically think he deserves a lot more credit than the outright haters (including a lot of misguided but well meaning rap newcomers) give him and a lot less than many of his fans (including a lot of musguided die-hard rap fans) give him. That doesn't even include people that happen to like Eminem but usually do not listen to rap music (for regular reasons or racist reasons) and don't care about the conversation anyway. That's about all I can say about that.

Also, I'd be interested in hearing Eminem's version of Life Is Good or 4:44, but I don't see it happen, he's too out of touch (I can't think of a better phrase but it's not entirely what I mean) creatively. He's too far gone.

My favorite thing Eminem was involved in is when he prank called LL Cool J and perfectly rapped old LL verses to him:

 

It's very ironic that Eminem built his career on using homophobic slurs and violence against women and now people are rallying around him for calling the president orange.

 

In that specifically he's no different from many rappers of his generation, just more successful (for good and bad reasons). Early DMX albums are just as harsh in that regard, for example. I also think neither of them can be reduced down to those things.

 

That's fine, and he had other positive aspects of music (namely technical skill and the ability to create great images), but I'd side eye any artist who built their career around that sort of thing coming forward.

There are countless talented artists of color who have said way more profound things than dropping coffee on Donald Trump that are ignored. It's cool that this might get some closeminded white people to care, but other than that it's kinda garbage.

 

Agreed. That is a broader problem that is one of the reasons I've always been put off by Eminem. He has always been overrated because he happens to be a technically gifted white rapper (and early on because Dre was behind him). I just don't fully put the blame for that on him personally. Although he had his lows with regards to race (largely before he beacme a big name if I remember it right), he has adressed his white privilige in his lyrics, he's a real student of the culture and he never abandoned it and he tried to do a lot for upcoming, black artists (even if Shady hasn't been a great label in terms of getting things done). I also think it's good that someone with as much reach as him uses it, even if he should not have such a big reach compared to others. I think we're basically on the same page here.

 

Yeah exactly, the problem of his race isn't anything that has to do with him. He's done a pretty good job at speaking about his whiteness in his lyrics and doesn't seem to be a culture vulture like Miley or Post Malone or the scrubs making soundcloud music. His whiteness is a problem because of the fans it attracted

 

But it isn't about what other artists have said. Artists that have said more profound things that are ignored is an entirely separate issue. I think the takeaway here is that, yes, Eminem is getting a lot of attention here. But I think that's the point. He has the platform. He has the fanbase - a fanbase that he just gave an ultimatum to, in a sense. He used his fame to deliver this message aiming at making an impact. And he did more than talk about "coffee pots" and an orange president. So, good for him.

 

For that reason I'm glad he's taking a clear stance against a lot of his fans. No other rapper has as much overlap with Trump supporters I'm guessing, he could have easily done more lyrical miracle try hard nonsense and kept taking their money

 

That's fine. Good on him for saying something and attempting to reach out to his ignorant ass audience. I'm just baffled at how positive the reaction is

 

Besides the things we've already addressed, that is partly because although his bad fans are so very visible because they're so fucking bad, he has A LOT of fans (or casual fans) beyond them, in the hip hop comunity and in the mainstream pop world. With or without the bad part of his fanbase, he is a huge rapper (a superstar really) doing an anti-Trump BET cipher, so that's something that'll get attention.

 

I follow a lot of rappers on Facebook, not always because I like them necessarily, but just because. A lot of semi-well known (simply because they have been around for so long) underground rappers have fan bases that are prone to conspiracy theories, and judging by the comments a lot of them supported Trumo because in their universe they perceived Trump to be the "non-Illuminati candidate" lmao. I'm not saying this to dispute your point, I just thought I'd share, haha.

 

That's not surprising also a thing I didn't want to be aware of

 

Yeahhhh. Reading community comments on hip-hop sites can easily make you lose faith in humanity, especially when it's down to political or social issues. Lots of trolls on there, but I find the trolls carry influence in some non-trolls' perspectives.

Like most of you guys, I didn't find the anti-Trump cipher to be musically entertaining in the least, but I'm happy Eminem is more-or-less disowning the shittiest parts of his fanbase. A positive way to utilize his platform, for sure.

 

The thing is, he always did this. He was one of the most visible Bush critics in music back then, for example. That part of his fanbase must have Stockholm syndrome.

 

I really wondered how people forgot about that. Like there is literally Eminem fans that stopped after MMLP cus of his change up for Eminem Show (imo his second best to MMLP album). He's always had those sort of songs "White America" "Mosh" (albeit this on Encore) "Square Dance" etc.

 

I remember this one MTV EMAs performance where he did one of his political songs (not sure which one) and he had an actual tank on stage lmao

 

20 Years Ago, Jurassic 5's Debut EP Made Underground Rap the Place to Be

 

I liked the freestyle, more so for what Em is saying than how he's saying it. Also, Keith Olbermann had his doubts about rap until Em's freestlye? foh with that.