Eminem book review and disputed lyrics
Andrew O'Hagan at New York Review of Books reviews three Eminem books. He does a nice job articulating Eminem's artistic appeal to listeners who might find his lyrics offensive on a literal level.
The black rappers he watched in the Detroit clubs took on personae in their act, "rapping," as Bozza says, "a cocktail of serial killer-ology, black comedy, and ultra-violence." And comedy is the key to all this: any true reckoning of Eminem's forebears would include Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks, and Richard Pryor, American comedians who were apt to make people's stomachs turn while they laughed up a storm. "Slim Shady," the character Eminem invented to speak filth and revenge on his behalf, is a dark-hearted comic: his pathology and nihilism is taken seriously by politicians, who have their own reasons for taking such things seriously. But I doubt the millions of people listening to the hell-bent ravings of Slim Shady are taking it the same way: they are loving the sound of it, admiring its smartness, its relevance. [...]
Eminem's violent jokes and crudity are based on an understood distance between words and deeds that fans take for granted. He plays with those distances, for sure, and he puts pressure on the boundaries, but I'm all for that, given his skill with the microphone. Eminem can make the language dance and he can summon a wealth of true moments.
Blogger Matthew Yglesias links to the piece, calling it "quite thoughtful" but taking NYRB to task for quoting the "radio version" of "My Name Is" rather than the original version. Actually it's more complicated than this. There are three (at least) versions of "My Name Is" in circulation: the original version, the CD version and the radio edit. Here is the contested verse in the original version:
My English teacher wanted to have sex in junior high
The only problem was my English teacher was a guy
I smacked him in his face with an eraser, chased him with a stapler
and stapled his nuts to a stack of papers (Owwwww!)
Walked in the strip club, had my jacket zipped up
Flashed the bartender, then stuck my dick in the tip cup
Extraterrestrial, killing pedestrians
Raping lesbians while they screaming, "LET'S JUST BE FRIENDS!"
There were complaints about these (and other) lyrics before the Slim Shady LP was released. Eminem, Dr. Dre and the record company agreed to change the lyrics for the CD. Maybe the original version appeared on a single or early versions of the CD; I don't know. But if you buy the CD, you get this version (which NYRB quoted):
My English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high
Thanks a lot, next semester I'll be thirty-five
I smacked him in his face with an eraser, chased him with a stapler
and stapled his nuts to a stack of papers (Owwwww!)
Walked in the strip club, had my jacket zipped up
Flashed the bartender, then stuck my dick in the tip cup
Extraterrestrial, running over pedestrians
in a spaceship while they screaming at me, "LET'S JUST BE FRIENDS!"
I've had an mp3 of the original version forever, and felt cheated when I bought the CD and heard this inoffensive, unfunny version. And then there's the radio edit (which is probably also what you'd hear on the "clean" CD release):
My English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high
Thanks a lot, next semester I'll be thirty-five
I smacked him in his face with an eraser, chased him with a stapler
and told him to change the grade on the paper (Now!)
Walked in the strip club, had my jacket zipped up
Served the bartender, then walked out with a tip cup
Extraterrestrial, running over pedestrians
in a spaceship while they're screaming at me, "LET'S JUST BE FRIENDS!"
Then there are the various remixes, mashups and parodies floating around.
