I think that what he does is take his message to youth of today when most of the teenagers are rebels and obscene. He probably thinks that the best way of getting to them is with someone who has been through hard times, and hasn’t had an easy childhood (just as Eminem) talking to them in their same “language”. I do agree with what PWilliams, Macmatt and Sammi1 wrote in their reviews: his songs are not for kids and sometimes some sensitive people may feel uncomfortable by his lyrics or what he tries to say in his songs (p. 1,3,7). His records do contain a lot of explicit lyrics, most of it is obscene and many times he can be misunderstood because he is somewhat abstract; he doesn’t show every single detail of what he sings about. However, he’s got a good point in each of his songs.
Eminem’s childhood was not filled with balloons and cotton candy: his childhood was tough and unhappy to the point of profanity and obscenity. However, there is one thing I admire more than anything about him: and that is how much he loves his daughter, Hailie. He mentions his daughter in many of his songs. A few days ago, I was downloading music from the internet. The title of a song by him caught my attention more than the rest. The song’s name was “Hailie’s Song”, so I downloaded it.
In “Hailie’s Song”, Eminem talks about his daughter, ad of how happy he is to have her. A part of the chorus says “Sometimes it feels like the world is on my shoulders”, meaning that his daughter means the world to him. He also mentions how things change and actually make sense when he looks into his daughter’s eyes.
I also downloaded another song called “Dear Marshall”. Eminem’s real name is Marshall Mathers. This song is dedicated to Eminem from his mother’s point of view (Debbie Mathers). It has a slow and mysterious beat that gives it a little bit of depression, and the lyrics are spoken by his mother. In the lyrics she says that she loves him and she talks of how she suffered a lot by being a single mother. She says that she was very happy when he succeeded in music business, but that she felt very disappointed because of his betrayal. She also says how she feels that others blame her because of how full of anger her son is. In the end of the song, she asks him to take responsibility for his actions and tells him that it’s not too late for a change. I once heard that she made a public comment saying he should’ve died in place of another artist that had passed away in those days. I don’t know what to say about this comment, but I do know it’s not a nice one.
Like PWilliams said, everybody is conscious of the obscenity and vulgarity that sometimes is expressed through his music, and it still being as it is, the record Marshall Mathers LP is a great creation of Eminem’s (p.2).
In conclusion, I still think that regardless of all the problems he’s had, Eminem is a great artist and deserves the love of his fans and audience. I also think that it is very hard to tell when an artist or his music is good, because everybody has different likes and dislikes. If anybody would come and ask me, I would say Eminem is a great artist. I love his music, but many people don’t. So I guess it all depends on the person’s likes or dislikes.
