Word Up, Motherfucker
(13.01.2003 - 2:54 p.m.)

Wow. So a brief whinge later, and about a billion of you have signed my guestbook.

I went to see an advance screening of 8 Mile here in the UK at the weekend, and I have to say that I have a new found respect for Eminem. The movie might rightly be described as the rap version of Rocky, but I thought it was great.

One wonders if Eminem would be able to pull off a different role; one that wasn't so close to home, but nevertheless, I was impressed at his quiet, brooding performance. Go see it.

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I also think that 8 Mile has come at a very opportune moment in terms of it's musical and political stance. I don't know if you guys have heard much about it, but two girls were shot dead in Birmingham, here in the UK, at New Year.

As politicians with no real grasp of life are wont to do, they are all trying to lay the blame for this tragedy at the foot of rap music. David Blunkett, the Home Secretary in our government, has started sounding off about meeting with the record companies and seeing what can be done about this terrible state of affairs. To which my reply is:

WHAT THE FUCK?

Rap music isn't responsible for people heading out into the street and killing each other. If rap musicians write about guns and killing and drugs, it's more likely a SYMPTOM of the life that they know, not the CAUSE of it.

And particularly in the case an artist (and yes, I think he is an artist) like Eminem, there is a huge amount of irony in his work; a huge amount of political discussion as to what the meaning of his lyrics are and how much they influence the people that listen to them.

And why are we asking these questions about rap music all the time? As Zadie Smith points out in an article in today's Daily Telegraph, do we ask Bret Easton Ellis if he went out at the weekend and raped and killed two or three women? No. We praise his books as a wonderful satire on 1980's New York. Do we ask John Carpenter if he donned a mask and decided to go and kill his sister in a vicious assault? No. We praise him for inventing a new genre of film and creating a multi-layered piece of work. So how is rap different?

And I ask you which is more dangerous: Eminem, or a group like S Club Juniors, who are essentially 12 year olds made up to look like 20 year olds, singing about sex? I know which I'd vote for.

You have a lot to answer for, Tipper Gore.

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Currently spinning: The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem.

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