Eminem: Signifying Whiteness, Rearticulating Race

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December 14, 2018 by Gian Goda

(Popular Culture ENG 335 Blog Post)

The artifice behind Eminem’s infamous celebrity did not occur to him immediately; instead it was born from his experiences as a white man struggling to become a successful rapper. In fact, his early attempts to make a name for himself in the music industry largely backfired.

Eminem uses intricate rhymes and violent metaphors to symbolically dominate the opposition (please refer to “my name is” lyrics).

Eminem tries to cultivate a new musical strategy that would be capable of transforming his whiteness from a liability into an asset. By the time of the release of The Slim Shady LP (1999), Eminem and his team of producers had found a way to deal with his racial identity in a productive way. Eminem had to do more than simply fit in with and match the talent of his African American peers; he had to change how whiteness mattered in hip hop.

Parodying common understandings of whiteness, Eminem advanced a white identity both at ease with black culture and humble before it. He also emphasized the contradictions in whiteness, particularly with respect to class, allowing him to recast himself as the ultimate underdog

Eminem’s comportment shifts dramatically as he adopts conventional hip hop body language: low to the ground, bending his knees, swaying loosely with the beat, and gesturing rhythmically with an open hand as he delivers his rhymes. Taken together, these various images of Eminem vacillate between sameness and difference, positioning him solidly in the rap genre, while constantly reminding viewers that he is no mere imitation of a black rapper.

As we have witnessed in Eminem’s musical journey, such transformations of racial meaning are played out not only in politics, but also in popular culture. Popular culture can offer its consumers timely metaphors for understanding the world.

17s103

“My name is” lyrics

Hi! My name is (what?)
My name is (who?)
My name is
Slim Shady
Hi! My name is (huh?)
My name is (what?)
My name is
Slim Shady

Hi! My name is (what?)
Excuse me, (my name is) (who? My name is)
Slim Shady
Can I get the attention of the class (huh my name is, what my name is)
For one second My name is (My name is Slim Shady)

Hi kids! Do you like violence? (Yeah yeah yeah!)
Wanna see me stick Nine inch Nails, through each one of my eyelids? (Uh-huh!)
Wanna copy me and do exactly like I did? (Yeah yeah!)
Try ‘cid and get fucked up worse that my life is? (Huh?)
My brain’s dead weight, I’m tryin’ to get my head straight
But I can’t figure out which Spice Girl I want to impregnate (Oh)
And Dr. Dre said, “Slim Shady you a base-head!” Uh-uh!
“So why’s your face red? Man you wasted!”
Well since age twelve, I’ve felt like I’m someone else
‘Cause I hung my original self from the top bunk with a belt
Got pissed off and ripped Pamela Lee’s tits off
And smacked her so hard I knocked her clothes backwards like Kris Kross
I smoke a fat pound of grass and fall on my ass, faster than a fat bitch
Who sat down too fast
C’mere slut! (Shady, wait a minute, that’s my girl dog!)
I don’t give a fuck, God sent me to piss the world off!

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
Stapled his nuts to a stack of papers (Ow!)
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 space ship
While they screamin’ at me “Let’s just be friends!”
Ninety-nine percent of my life I was lied to
I just found out my mom does more dope than I do (Damn!)
I told her I’d grow up to be a famous rapper
Make a record about doin’ drugs and name it after her (Oh thank you!)
You know you blew up when the women rush your stands
Try to touch your hands like some screamin’ Usher fans (Ahh!)
This guy at White Castle asked for my autograph (Dude, can I get your autograph?)
So I signed it, “Dear Dave, thanks for the support, asshole!”

Stop the tape! This kid needs to be locked away! (Get him!)
Dr. Dre, don’t just stand there, operate!
I’m not ready to leave, it’s too scary to die (Fuck that!)
I’ll have to be carried inside the cemetery and buried alive
(Huh yup!) Am I comin’ or goin’?
I can barely decide
I just drank a fifth of vodka,
Dare me to drive? (Go ahead) all my life I was very deprived
I ain’t had a woman in years, and my palms are too hairy to hide
(Whoops!) Clothes ripped like the Incredible Hulk
I spit when I talk, I’ll fuck anything that walks (C’mere)
When I was little I used to get so hungry I would throw fits
How you gonna breast feed me Mom? You ain’t got not tits!
I lay awake and strap myself in the bed
Put a bulletproof vest on and shoot myself in the head (Bang!)
I’m steamin’ mad (Argh!) And by the way when you see my dad? (Yeah?)
Tell him that I slit his throat, in this dream I had