Don’t know much about poetry, part -IX: Rap music
(apologies, Francis)
No, I’m not a fan, and no, I don’t like it, but all rules have exceptions. Also, before anyone jumps in and says something racist, remember, crackers more or less invented rap. 1974, remember? Norman Dolph-Paul DiFranco-Joey Levine piece called “life is a rock and the radio rolled me”? Get that bastard stuck in your head for a day or two. Like having red hot icepicks driven into your temporal lobe.
Anyway, lately I’ve been listening to Eminem a lot, partially because of that specifically goofy movie “8 Mile”. Some of the stuff is fun- I get a kick out of Mr Mathers thumbing his nose at just about everyone, and frankly, we all did it when we were that age. it has the same kind of appeal as a lot of the bubblegum music of my youth, and for those same reasons, I enjoy it.
Once in a while, though, marshall hits on something that hits home for me, because it’s honest and real and some of mr Mather’s shows through.
Specificaly, the song called “Lose yourself”.
Most people can’t get through the baseline, can’t sit still long enough to listen to the words. I understand. A lot of people also can’t sit still for Bach’s Fugue in D minor.
Witness, anyway, the lyrics:
Look.. if you had.. one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted.. in one moment
Would you capture it.. or just let it slip? Yo..
Been there? Yep. So have a lot of us. That hits home. The situations may be different, but we’ve all felt the tingle in the spine of the Moment of Truth. Will I fuck it up? Will I come out clean?
His palms are sweaty,
knees weak,
arms are heavy
There’s vomit on his sweater already,
mom’s spaghetti
He’s nervous,
but on the surface
he looks calm and ready
We’re introduced to the gladiator, in ways we can understand all too well: the queasiness of the moment has caused him to lose his dinner and he still goes on
The clock’s run out,
time’s up, over – BLAOW!
Snap back to reality,
OHH – there goes gravity
OHH – there goes Rabbit,
he choked
He’s so mad,
but he won’t
Give up that easy
nope, he won’t have it
He knows, his whole back’s
to these ropes
He enters the ring and fucks it up, but he knows sucess is within his grasp, if he can ever develop the nerve to come back.
All the pain inside amplified by the
fact that I can’t get by with my nine to
five and I can’t provide the right type of
life for my family, cause man, these God damn
food stamps don’t buy diapers, and there’s no movie
There’s no Mekhi Phifer, this is my life
he is driven by his own poverty and failure and resolves to come back swinging, and he does:
Success is my only motherfuckin option, failure’s not
Mom I love you but this trailer’s got to go
I cannot grow old in Salem’s Lot
So here I go it’s my shot, feet fail me not
This may be the only opportunity that I got
he knows that his music is the only out he will ever have, the only way an uneducated trailer living white trash kid with no breaks handed to him will make it out, see the American dream he wants so badly. He sings, more to himself than to us,
You better
lose yourself in the music,
the moment You own it,
you better never let it go (go)
You only get one shot,
do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime..
Most of us have had that moment. The moment when we wondered to ourselves, will we finish school, get that apprenticeship, ride the bus to Paris Island, or be a piece of shit all our life. Agree or disagree with Eminem, like or dislike him, he is saying something, at least in this song, that you probably understand all too well.
I have a funny bit of dissonance with Eminem: I dont like the sound of most of his music (Lose yourself being the exception, I really like that rap musically) but if you read his lyrics they are incredibly intelligent and well crafted.
The ideas represented in them can be offenisve, orangry, or hateful, but they are always real.
“Stan” will totally knock you on your ass. “Cleanin out my closet” is even harder.
There is some genuine petry in SOME rap music. KRS one and boogie down productions did incredible work. Queen Latifah, grand master flash, rakim.
Actually I’m going to make a specific recommendation, go on and download some Atmosphere. Specifically the Ocean, and Sunshine
Here’s the lyrics to the first verse
Atmosphere – Nothing But Sunshine Lyrics
Now when my mother died I had to take it in stride
There ain’t no room for pride in watching your father cry
And dad made it until maybe a year later
When they found his suicide inside of a grain elevator
Got over it, I had no other office or options
Thought about whether or not mom and pop was watching
Never bothered with caution, no time for fear
Saw my folks carry fear for most my early years
And I learned from it, turned numb and ignored the storm
A burning sun waiting for the world to plummet
Finished growing up under my uncle’s roof
He taught me how to count all the way up to 100 proof
From watching him I learned how to gather nourishment
Living off the different women that he had to nurture him
And on the surface I became a normal pre-teen
More afraid of nuclear war than snake bites and bee stings
My best friend was my TV
Game shows and cartoons substituted for puppies, rainbows, and
balloons
Now here I am, the shy type, and I think I’m doing alright
Considering what it was like living my life
It’s nothing but sunshine
It’s all sunshine
It’s nothing but sunshine
I can’t believe I’m about to say this to another human. To understand Eminem, you have to understand the difference between “Slim Shady” and Marshall Mathers. Slim Shady is a nasty, bad-tempered, misogynistic, gay-bashing drug addict, created entirely to sell records. But he’s not Eminem.
He consciously makes a difference between them now, and acknowledges that most people “want Shady, I’m chopped liver”. But he even says in one of the songs, if that were really me, how could I raise my daughter?
He is very talented, not just as a rap artist, but as a poet and humorist. I’m glad he’s getting his life together, because he’s got a lot to give. And besides, he raps in pig latin. What’s not to love? ;o)
By the way, I don’t know the song you mentioned. The first rap I ever remember hearing was Blondie’s Rapture, but that came out in 1976.
Tanya: get down on your knees and thank all you hold holy.I’m not kidding, that song is brutally bad.
I’ll admit it, I like Eminem, there is something irresistable about him. Sue me! ;) Admittedly, I don’t own any of his stuff, I just hear him on the radio occasionally, but I like him.