"Conservatives who talk that way don't just forfeit the chance to influence the social norms surrounding the genre. They reinforce the perception that their views are shaped by little more than cartoonish stereotypes. One needn't dig deep into obscure rap albums to find 'human feeling.' Multi-platinum singles will do. Try 'December 4th' by Jay Z or 'Stan' by Eminem. All across America, kids are listening to rap lyrics that resonate with them more than anything else in their lives, capturing the way they feel about their absent father or the bliss of a long afternoon spent in the park with friends or how parenthood changed their perspective or the effect [...]
The video for Eminem's new song came out over the weekend. The song is good. The rat-a-tat marching band snare seems to be a natural fit, and Em's rapping sounds more honestly engaged than it has for a long time. The singing? I… don't know. The melody is catchy, I find myself humming it a lot. But I'm not completely sold on his voice. Like, maybe he should have asked Dido or Stephen Tyler or Martika to hit the high notes for him. Also: he seems so very, very serious right now. His face is so tight. The song is about his recovery from drug [...]
The first thing that's noticeable about "Not Afraid," the first single off Eminem's forthcoming album Recovery, is the singing. He's not going singer-songwriter, mind you; the chorus is constructed from an army of Ems, not unlike the ones he's gathered at awards shows past, raising their voices in a style that brings to mind ragged glam-rock anthems from 40 years ago, defiantly uniting to say that they're going to overcome their fears. Eminem has thankfully dropped the accent that plagued so much of Relapse, as well as the stale pop-culture references of his previous "comeback single" effort "We Made You"; perhaps those were just more plagues that [...]
First impressions of Relapse, the new Eminem record: "There is a song that's about Mariah Carey, and it opens with Eminem aping either a Scottish brogue or a rasta accent. I can't tell the difference, although the song being called 'Bagpipes From Baghdad' makes me think he's affecting the former."
Apart from being terrifying and horrific, serial killers are oddly fascinating. Why do we find ourselves so obsessed over them? Is it just the fear and revulsion, or is something else at play? And it's not just us. Songwriters are often inspired by serial killers. Here are thirteen songs with extremely sinister origins.
Because nothing makes popular music more fun than typing alongside friends, it's time to do that "liveblogging" thing in honor of the 2010 American Music Awards, which celebrate the most popular of the most popular music that this country has to offer, complete with the sort of pomp that only the most craven enterprises can possess. Join me after the jump for the Black Eyed Peas, Christina Aguilera, Katy (sigh) Perry, the results of allowing 13-year-olds to vote (online) (for their favorite male pop stars), and OMG NEW KIDS AND BACKSTREET BOYS TOGETHER!!
Man, when you're on a roll. To accompany his comeback single "Power," which has many people standing up at their computer terminals to shout out loud and type extra hard about how much they love it, Kanye West went and got the renowned New Hampshire-born artist George Condo to paint his portrait for the cover.
"We’re guessing that Em’s pre-show style ritual breaks down like this: Five minutes before rolling out the door, he a) looks in his massive closet filled with free hoodies, Starter sweat pants and Hanes white tees, b) does a quick smell check on his first choice, and c) says fuck it, and wears whatever he already has on." —Yeah. Except when he wore the "Free Yayo" t-shirt. That was obviously carefully thought out.
Huh. The new video for Eminem and Rihanna's "Love The Way You Lie" (which, man is that chorus jarringly disjointed from the verse) is almost like a stay-at-home-version of the video for Cee-Lo's "No One's Gonna Love You More Than I Do." And it starts out just like the video for Cee-Lo's "What Part of Forever." The only difference, really, is that Dominic Monaghan and Megan Fox burst into flames into flames in the Eminem and Rihanna video. Remember when MTV wouldn't let rappers show fire in their videos? Weird.
16. Puff Daddy & Faith Evans featuring 112, "I'll Be Missing You" 15. Taylor Hicks, "Do I Make You Proud" 14. Carrie Underwood, "Inside Your Heaven" 13. Clay Aiken, "This Is The Night" 12. Elton John, "Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight"
The verdict on last night's "excitement" at the MTV Movie awards: Eh. "Was it staged? Most likely. Eminem is a master pitchmen, and he's used his homophobic tag to move records before (see the Grammys' 2001 performance with Elton John). But if it was planned, Emimen should have stuck around and had more fun with the moment. After all, storming out was the obvious move, and what we'd expect from Em (as is much of 'Relapse')."
