Only a few decades ago, both parties in the US Congress disqualified rap as a symptom of the destruction of American values. This because of its coarse language, hatred of women and gays and barely concealed calls for the use of violence. Anno 2024, much seems to have changed. Headlines report that the Spanish swimmers-in-law impressed at the Olympics with a compilation of songs by US rapper Eminem. The swimmers’ performance is a nice opportunity to get a first impression of this kind of music. Find the show here.
What is rap?
Rapping is a vocal style in which the performer rhythmically utters lyrics in rhyme, often against the background of electronic sounds and synthesised (drum)beat. In many songs, ‘samples’ from popular artists provide the musical accompaniment. Rap developed as a part of the hip-hop subculture in the 1970s – along with breakdance and graffiti – the epicenter being the Bronx in New York. ‘Rapper’s Delight’ by the Sugarhill Gang from 1979 is the first recorded rap.
Indulging in hip-hop culture was a way for inner-city black youths to cope with the lack of opportunities.
What is rap about?
In the 1980s was an expression of living conditions in the slums and resistance to them. Leading examples from that time are ‘Fight the Power‘ by Public Enemy , ‘Fuck the police’ by N.W.A. Watch and listen to anoyher example, ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five below.
Following on from this politically-oriented rap, ‘gangsta rap’ emerged, which sang the violent lifestyle of black youths, called on them to rebel and caused great controversy. Later, rappers focused their probes on gays and women in general. A content analysis of rapper Tyler, the Creator’s album ‘Goblin’ showed 213 instances of homophobic language. Another content analysis of rap lyrics showed that 22% contained violence against women, including images of sexual assault, murder and rape. Almost 50% featured swearing, shaming and distrust and 67% depicted women as objects for men to possess, use and abuse.
Eminem
Eminem, born Marshall Bruce Matters III in St. Joseph, Missouri, is raised by his mother Debbie in poverty-stricken conditions in a working-class black neighbourhood in Detroit. Later, Marshall’s girlfriend Kim Scott also is moving in with them. They were one of three white families on the block and regular victims of violence. At the age of 14, Marshall starts rapping with his friend Mike and together they cal themselves ‘M&M’. After Mike disappeared from the picture, Marshall bastards that to Eminem. He appears to possess a special sense of language. He writes long lyrics and looks for words that rhyme or have sound affinity for every syllable. Modest as he is, he barely gets out of words in interviews, but in possession of pen and paper, sentences, metaphors and complex rhyme schemes emerge, often over more than one syllable. In the meantime, he consistently maintains beat and rhythm in a way that many a writer or poet can learn from. In doing so, he proves to be among the greatest rappers ever. However, success was a long time coming.
His first album ‘Infinite‘ dates to 1995 and revolves around the arguments with his mother to raise his newborn daughter Haillie with little money. By then, the family had moved into a mobile home in a crime-ridden area. He sells 1,000 copies of the music cassette from the loading bay of his car and works as a dishwasher, gets fired repeatedly, becomes addicted and attempts suicide. After taking part in the Rap Olympics, better times are breaking out. Here, the already famous Dr. Dre discovers him and gives him a record deal, although the fact that Eminem was white arouses a lot of resistance in the black community.
I have peppered this post with a few of Eminem’s songs, taken from some of his best-selling albums. The first one is ‘Guilty conscience’, from the Slim Shady LP (1999). Eventually, sales of his albums will make him a multimillionaire. Like many other rappers, he is criticised for the violent content of his songs and the hatred of gays and women that emanates from them. In ‘Guilty conscience’, which you can listen to and watch now, it mainly revolves around criminal behavior and violence.
In the music video, Eminem (the bad conscience) and Dr. Dre (the good conscience) rap about dealing with the temptation of criminal behavior, such as a man about to rob a liquor store, a student’s urge to have sex with an underage girl at a frat party, and a construction worker’s intention to kill his wife after he catches her cheating with another man. Eminem and Dr. Dre finally agree that this is the best solution. In some versions of the video, the murder has been removed and only the shot is audible.
Violence, homophobia and misogyny
Violent lyrics, homophobia and misogyny crop up in all of Eminem’s albums. Another example: In the song ’97 Bonnie & Clide on ‘The Slim Shady LP’ (1999), he disposes of his wife’s body. The song “Criminal” on his third album The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), includes lines like, “My words are like a dodger with a jagged edge, That’ll stab you in the head, whether you’re a fag or les’, Or a homosex, hermaph or a trans-a-vest, Pants or dress, hate fags”
Listen and watch ‘Criminal’ on the Marshall Mathers LP (2001) here
Eleven of this album’s 14 tracks include derogatory names for women like “bitch” and “ho(e)” (derived from whore), sexual objectification of women, legitimisation of violence against women, mistrust of women, belittling of sex workers and glorification of pimping. Other rappers, musicians in general and anyone else who has fallen into disgrace with Eminem are also mercilessly put in their place.
Personal struggle
Below you can listen and watch the song ‘Lose yourself’ on the album ‘8 mile’ (2002) Many critics consider this Eminem’s best song and he spent 12 weeks at the top of the ‘Billboard Hot 100’. The song is autobiographical and depicts the struggles he had to overcome to earn respect from other rappers. Joe Biden used the song during his 2020 campaign.
The ‘method’ Eminem
Eminem has so far released 50 singles and 13 albums, which – apart from Infinite – have been huge sales successes. A total of 220 million records have been sold and his music videos have been viewed more than 10 billion times on YouTube. Eminem has won 15 Grammy Awards, eight American Music Awards and 17 Billboard Music Awards. Billboard named him the “Artist of the Decade (2000-2009)“. It is not surprising then that he wrote the song ‘Rap God’ in 2013. It appeared on the album The Marshall Mathers LP2.
From his first albums, Eminem has created a murderous dirt-spouting ‘alter ego’ named Slim Shady. Against this extravagant anti-hero, he set himself – Marshall Mathers – as an introverted autobiographer. At the start of the millennium, Slim Shady was the embodiment of the rebellion of an entire generation of young people. By no means exclusively in the slums of US cities, but increasingly worldwide.
A song like ‘My name is’ (Slim Shady) (1999), which you can listen to and watch now, is mixing humor with steely verbiage that more than justifies the ‘Parental Advisory Explicit Content’ sticker.
Eminem has maintained dialogues with his ‘alter ego’ for more than 25 years. In those years, some of the verbiage from the early days of rap has become part of standard language, at least on the street and some of its shock effect has disappeared. In his latest album (2024) ‘The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce). Listen to ‘Guilt conscience 2’ on the album ‘The Death of Slim Shady’ (Coup de Grâce).
In this song, Eminem accuses Slim Shady of being the cause of all the controversies he has caused and the resulting damage to his career. Eminem decides that the scoundrel must die, after he has been washed over by a canon of swear words and insults. After this, Eminem kills Slim.
The song ‘Houdini’ illustrates why Eminem is so successful. His music videos are attractively designed and usually based on ear-catching samples from other artists. In this case, it is the Steve Miller Band’s song Abracadabra. Despite what I consider to be the poison-black world he sings about; humor is not lacking. Undisputable, the album’s raunchy lyrics and intricate wordplay show that he is still on a lonely high as a rapper. Check out ‘Houdini’ here, also from Eminem’s latest album ‘The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)’ (2024)
Cultural background
Scholars believe that hip hop is rooted in cultures with predominantly conservative views of masculinity and femininity and that these can lead to condemnation of those who do not conform to them. This applies to US culture much more strongly than European culture, for example.
The original hip-hop subculture in poor American neighborhoods puts the ‘masculinity’ of the black heterosexual on a pedestal and in parallel degrades women and homosexuality. In his 2006 documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes from 2006, which you can watch here, Byron Hurt explores the relationships between hip-hop, masculinity, misogyny (hate against women) and homophobia. After conducting dozens of interviews, Hurt sees a pattern of homophobia, the objectification of women and the mutual struggle for being ‘on the throne’ between men, all of which contribute to how masculinity is validated. The acceptance of rape is then considered as an ‘appropriate response’ to women who challenge male dominance, refuse sexual advances or ‘offend’ men. At the same time, some women nevertheless seem unable to disassociate themselves from featuring ‘wrong men’. In ‘Love the Way You Lie’ on the album Relapse (2010), Eminem and Rihanna sing of such a depraved relationship.
Hip hop grew to become the US best-selling music genre from the turn of the millennium. Its popularity has long since ceased to be limited to disadvantaged residents of slum neighbourhoods. Eventually hip hop has spread worldwide among all social groups and even ages. I wonder whether the appreciation of the songs of Eminem and other famous rappers like Jay-Z has become detached from their content. While writing this post, this question kept coming up as I was writing this post and also how this might be possible
Gourdine and Lemmons’ study, titled “Perceptions of Misogyny in Hip Hop and Rap: What Do the Youths Think?” is helping when answering this question. 64% of all children and teenagers in the US report listening to rap songs daily. There appears to be a strong correlation between their age and the extent to which they recognise its violent slant, misogyny and homophobia. Raps are often incomprehensible, especially for those whose first language is not English. As listeners get older, appreciation for rap as a musical form often persists, despite growing awareness of the negative aspects of its content, comparable with violence in movies.
That the content of a rap and its appreciation can diverge is apparent in the video of Eminem’s live performance at the 2020 Oscars ceremony in front of an enthusiastic audience. One might assume that the majority does not hate women and is not homophobic or violent. The same goes for the Spanish swimmers I started this post with.
A new sound?
From the turn of the millennium, there has been a growing community of LGBTQ+ hip hop artists. Examples include rappers like Azealia Banks and Frank Ocean, mainstream hip-hop artists, who came out recently. They were followed in 2019 by Lil Nas X. In their songs, most female rappers draw attention to women’s rights. So do mainstream artists like Tylor Swift, Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé and Mary J. Blige. As a result, only a small minority of female rappers’ lyrics still mention homophobic and misogynist views.
As a 52-year-old, Eminem is at a turning point in his career. His ranting alter ego has been discarded and continuing the old path, littered with violent scenes, fighting feuds with colleagues, misplaced language towards gays and women, seems like a dead end. He himself puts into perspective the misogyny and homophoby attributed to his raps. For instance, he attributes the frequent use of the term ‘faggot’ (flicker) to his use of slang, in which this term is not necessarily a condemnation. Nevertheless, he apologises for having hurt people. “I don’t have problems with anyone…”
Everyone is watching to see what this means for a possible 14de album. For now, the amount of Eminem’s albums in circulation worldwide still gives plenty of cause for both adoration and disgust.
Music: Listen, Look and Enjoy 