Rap is Pop Music And Eminem Is The King…

king eminem

Don’t tell me that you just realized that Eminem is greatest rapper of all time? Greater than the decoded Jay-Z, or even the stillmatic, enigmatic NaS. Eminem should make an album called Pillmatic. What other musician has been able to parlay their recreational drug use into millions of albums sold and dozens of entertainment industry awards. Eminem is the perfect storm of functional dysfunction in our reality show influenced culture. And most importantly, without a shadow of a doubt, he is a white dude.

The top spot in the pantheon of rap music god’s was always reserved for a white dude. See Glenn Miller for big band music, Bob James for jazz and of course, Elvis Presley for rock and roll. This is America after all we are talking about. It’s the land of milk and honey for whites, but the trail of blood and tears for everyone else. I will accept the fact that Eminem has worked his metaphorical and lyrical ass off to be the king of this musical genre but there is no way we should be discussing his receipt of ten(10) Grammy nominations on an album that isn’t even his best work.

Eminem’s Relapse album was a darker more revealing and technically superior album to this Recovery offering. This latest album feels like something people who have no interest in rap music will enjoy listening to. Sadly, the Recovery album becomes the representative of Hip-Hop to these people. I remember when Sarah Silverman was quoted as being reverential to Eminem for bringing real emotion to rap music. This is the danger of Hip-Hop being absorbed by popular culture. No one will even remember the social and economic frustration that the artform was borne out of.

Rap music has totally jumped into the pop music pool with the praise being lavished on the Recovery album by Eminem. My advice to all the people that cherish Hip-Hop for the authenticity of characters and content that have made the artistic movement so profound need to start putting their underground artists on repeat play. Roc Marciano delivered the best Hip-Hop album this year of any artist or group in possibly the last 10 years but there was no praise nor peep from the powers that be. If we fans of Hip-Hop can’t do better for the heroes still in the trenches then we might as well start calling Eminem the greatest of all time.

21 Responses to “Rap is Pop Music And Eminem Is The King…”

  1. Fosterakahunter says:

    PE said, “Who gives a f@#k about a goddamn Grammy?” That sentiment needs to make a comeback. When we start caring about what ofays outside of our scene think about the music that they appropriated from us to sell back to us, and then allow them to critique it and tell us what’s good in it, it’s time to get the hell outta dodge. That emo-ass record? Please. Have they even heard of the Marcberg lp?

  2. Ivan says:

    “I remember when Sarah Silverman was quoted as being reverential to Eminem for bringing real emotion to rap music.”

    I remember that too. Waaaaaaaaaaay off. Sorry, Sarah.

  3. Jazz One says:

    It’s hard to tell if Sarah Silverman was being serious or not. I enjoy the just way off the wall things she says sometimes.
    I have been a long time Eminem hater. Just the sound of his voice made me want to find him and punch him in the throat. He seriously was on my short list of people I’d want to punch if we had met. Recovery is what turned me around. Except for a single or two here and there, it is the only thing in his catalog I can get with.
    I think what really made this album connect with people is relatable content. The violent imagery and stuff he was known for, rhyming about killing his wife, hate of his mother, etc.. I thought he had become a one trick pony. Every album had a “My Name Is”-like single with more pop culture references than Perez Hilton’s website.
    There are a lot of people dealing with addiction issues, if not their own, then other’s. It is relatable. It connected in the same way Yeezy’s 808’s did. That album was the soundtrack of a break up. Everyone’s been there. Almost everyone knows someone dealing (or not dealing) with addiction issues. My girlfriend, who I lost to depression and addiction, really connected to that album. She even pointed out “easter eggs” in some of the lyrics having been working on recovery, doing rehab, etc.
    I thought Recovery was an honest piece of art. If Ready to Die was a movie in album form, then Recovery was an episode of Intervention.

  4. $yk says:

    “Roc Marciano delivered the best Hip-Hop album this year”

    ^ testify

    and I ain’t too happy the way Def Jam reduced Ghostface’s new project to tax write off status (dec 21 release).

    But honestly, I ain’t mad. There’s been enuff music the last 20 yrs to tune out the nonsense these days.

  5. Jaislayer says:

    DP keep telling the truth and eff’ the Grammy’s.

  6. bloodbath33 says:

    fuckkkin word sun. for realz.
    hail meg.

  7. SACKALINI says:

    M’S DISC INFINITE (BEFORE HE BLEW UP) IS STILL A STEADY BURNING CD.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn4-clxn4Js

    PEACE.LOVE.&SACKALINI.

  8. Master E says:

    @FOSTERAKAHUNTER: Your post should be on every RAP album right next to the Explicit Warning. Thank you for that.

  9. Relapse >>>> Recovery, fucking horrible production (Ozzy sample, really?) and not even as good as, say, Ghostface “Wizard of Poetry,” which is to say if, pace JazzOne above, we grant Em is emotionally resonant with people (not our people, mind you)…

    who in hip-hop is also a fully formed persona/character?

    Ghost is my #1 choice, followed probably by Sean Price, tho’ P! is tricky enough fools probbaly think he’s just gangster; I’m stepping up against Kanye hype (and inane posse cuts) this time except to note, again, Gil-Scott Heron steals the motherfucking show, as he should.

    ALSO: let it never be forgotten Elvis ** was **, in fact, musically brilliant. Nobody, black, white, mixed or other (Johnny Otis, Greek-American, passed as ‘colored’ musician, for decades) was ** BETTER ** at more things than Elvis. (Equal to, in respective fields: R&B, gospel, pop, country etc yes.)

    The alleged ‘racism’ of E. was, in fact, attempted sabotage to keep kids away from the black side of Elvis, tho’ his hillbilly roots were just as fearsome.

    THAT said, someone like Harry Belafonte, ALSO musically brilliant, also something of musical chamelon, had a MUCH better film career going– cf. “Odds Against Tomorrow”– until fate and politics intervened.

    The greatest criticism of Elvis, in fact, is that he was non-political, at least until the broad ‘humanism’ (sincere but non-specific) of his late ’60s songs.

    Anyway, fuck the Grammys, BET, MTV, Shawn Carter (phony drug dealer) and all that horseshit; the better side of American history/culture deserves better than all those insipid fucks.

  10. DK Slimms says:

    First of all, Eminem being white has nothing to do with this argument. Em’s gained the respect of his peers, who are, if counting the relevant ones, all black, so you really have no argument there. Race has no place in this at all. Step off it.

    Second, in what way is Relapse a better album than Recovery? It was more of the same derivative dribble that plagued the back-end of Encore. And Em even admitted it. Recovery was a more mature shift in a new direction. With the exception of Kanye (maybe) Eminem is definitely one of the best options in popular hip-hop right now. I’d even argue that Recovery was in so many ways more inspired than Jay-Z’s latest Blueprint release.

    Your whole point just seems like a thinly-veiled attempt to be mad about Em earning so many Grammy noms. But on the surface, your argument seems like it’s supporting artists who stay in their little niches; you’re rejecting growth. I can appreciate your love of underground hip-hop, but rejecting popular hip-hop that moves in a newer, more positive, and bolder direction is just preserving elitism. Nothing else.

  11. fredMS says:

    i wonder why em blew up rhyming about drugs, violence, and being mentally unstable… prali cuz it was such an original idea rite? (it wasn’t)

    i feel u on the bigger picture dp, lets not let MTV/grammies/anybody rewrite hip hop history. in a 100 yrs from now, they’ll be saying em is the goat and blondie was the originator.

  12. Rhetorical side Q, for Fred–

    Who gives a fuck about ‘hip-hop history’ and why?

    Which is to say anyone looking to ‘hip-hop’ exclusively or even primarily for their (American) history/culture is already so lost no amount of pop media distortion is capable of making it THAT much worse.

    Take away the Last Poets, Gil-Scott Heron, Langston Hughes, whatever handful of Jamaicans you like best + Jimi, James Brown, John Coltrane, Miles, Monk, Muddy Waters (pre-Redman), Nina Simone, Lena Horne…

    THEN we got a problem!

    Otherwise… Also, Em’s content, however personally expressed, is easily traceable to punk, metal, even traditional murder ballads, etc, horror movies, serial killer books and so on.

  13. the_dallas says:

    The horrible truth about Eminem is that he is a Redman clone. Thematically, lyrically and in cadence. Sadly for Redman his horrorcore rap ostracized him inside of the industry so he had to fall back on the stoner rap clownish tip.

    I am NO fan of Eminem but I enjoy watching the supremacist machine slowly minimize or outright negate the influence of African Americans on pop culture’s prevailing art.

    I’m sure Elvis was a good dude, just like Taylor Swift is prA’li a cool chick, but these folks kneel and pray to the sweet baby white Jesus every morning for being on the write side of supremacy.

  14. That’s why I slipped Redman in there… I’ve never knowingly heard Taylor Swift in my life and hope to keep it that way but I highly doubt she’s at Elvis’ level. Or even at Chet Baker’s. You know that story, right? Beautiful white junkie trumpet player with somewhat limited chops compared to, say, Clifford Brown but rather brilliant at what he did– as the man who put him on, Charlie Parker, would attest. Miles Davis didn’t have the greatest chops then either.

    That analogy doesn’t work for Elvis because he was virtuosic singer/performer. We can play, side-by-side, his versions of songs by R&B, country, pop singers and in almost every case, his reinvention of that material is COMPLETE. Nobody is going to say oh, Elvis took money from Roy Brown’s mouth…

    Tho’ ** everyone ** is right to question why Elvis got to make dozens of LOUSY movies (by far the worst part of his career) and Harry Belafonte only a few. The answer is– or should be– obvious. Elvis was beautiful white dude who kept his mouth shut and Harry was beautiful black man– and FINE actor– who was going to follow his mentor Paul Robeson down path of social activist artist, no matter what. He had, thankfully, music to fall back on.

    All that said, my greater point is to refute and refuse POP hegemony the same as I reject white supremacy– and candy-ass white supremacy at that, i.e ain’t it funny who white owned media wants y’all to know all about Shawn Carter’s book but come February won’t say shit about Frederick Douglass’ 4th of July speech or MLK Poor People’s March or WEB DuBois or etc etc etc.

    From “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” to Rick Ross less than 40 years?

  15. the_dallas says:

    I appreciate your refusal and refudiation (shouts to Sarah Palin) of Pop Culture Hegemony but unless we are using Nairobi dollars to buy our CDs, Eminem will be the historical King of Rap when are gone from these internets

  16. $yk says:

    “From “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” to Rick Ross less than 40 years?”

    ^ wooooo

    * sets up crack spot at City Hall knowing that’s where the custies are at *

  17. 2Amaze says:

    Pop goes the weasal. This piece couldn’t be more on point but they don’t hear you though. Rap has become everyone’s right it seems. The machine lives and has planned well.

  18. david says:

    good article. till u mentioned roc marciano.. hahahahah. geeez.

  19. fredMS says:

    @sunsweet,

    for lots of ppl music is either the only or primary way they learn about the PoC experience. you take brown ppl out of the history of hip hop, then you’ll have generations that would have no context for what hip hop is about. It’ll prali be used as another way to isolate/denigrate blacks/black culture re:rock and roll/jazz/blues.
    I mean, even now, I know at least a couple people who only listen to white rap (aesop rock, atmosphere, etc) on purpose.

    also, biggie, nas, wu tang, PE, krs1, tribe are my generation’s hendrix, coltrane, stevie wonder, etc. the only difference is the genre. i think they’re just as important.

  20. Fair answer, Fred, but I do think it’s important to see all that as continuum and while some people have done that (Chuck D, Guru, the forgotten-in-hip-hop Black Rock Coalition folks) and tried to express a forward thinking embrace of unique cultural heritage… many more haven’t.

    And def. call out white supremacist nonsense too, tho’ racial criticism (if not same power to discriminate) worked both ways: both Miles Davis and Jimi got grief from nationalists for working with white dudes.

    Sidenote: if you’re in NYC this week, check this out at Brooklyn Museum, Bed-Stuy native Randy Weston is in the house.

    http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/calendar/event/3759

    And if ya’ll ever want to hear the REAL Brooklyn’s Finest (besides Rock & Ruck), here they were–

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKAm7cKcnUE&feature=related

    Max Roach (like Randy, a graduate of Boys High) was nearing the Alzheimer’s that would take him away too soon but …

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