You are genuinely tripping, 20 years ago was 2004. Are you talking about the dancing baby gif or something? If you're old enough to make this kind of complaint I can't believe that you don't have the attention span to read a paragraph.
20 years ago were image macros, demotivationals, and shortly after that, the following years were advice animals and rage comics.
Dancing baby was mid to late nineties, like Hamster Dance and goatse. Learn your Internet history. 20 years ago Digg was the king of social bookmarking before it was known as social media, 20 years ago was the birth of Web 2.0
Ouchie! You both make good points. I'm going to hit you guys with a new spin on an old meme (Joseph Ducreux)
"Hey babe, I'm so happy you have forgiven me so we can be a family together, for our child.
Anyways, here's my new song"
Because it's more nuance than that?
It's not to be taken at face value. This song is about a man who struggles with addiction. He's stuck in a relationship with a nasty person all for the sake of his daughter. He's rapping with raw emotions.
You not supposed to listen to it and be like "ah fuck yeah. Murder is cool". You're supposed to listen to it and feel the same emotions he feels, which is vehement rage and desperation.
Misogyny has always been normal and accepted, see conservatives everywhere. The popularity of rap music as a whole is a testament to just how little people care about it.
It's not more nuanced than that, millions of people deal with those issues and don't directly threaten their significant other/baby momma with literal murder you reaffirm you actually wanted to commit.
It's not my interpretation it's literally his words that are sourced above this shouldn't even be an argument.
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Writes a song he explicitly states in the above sourced interview that it's specifically about killing his baby momma.
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Says don't take it literally but also that he wanted to do it at the time.
I'm not saying it's right or wrong I'm saying it is exactly what it is and meant exactly what he meant it to mean art or not, but in this case why aren't you willing to trust the artists word.
Think about it. If the only purpose was a desire to kill the person, why write a song, why not actually do it? The obvious answer is, because he knows that would be wrong, so writing a song about it instead is a way to vent and express emotions.
The topic of the song is literally about killing someone, but that is not why it was made (how could it be, writing a song doesn't kill someone) and it's not why people listen. There is more to art than the literal subject matter.
I didn't say it was right or wrong, I said trust his words and stop arguing against the artist as I'm pretty sure they knew what they meant and why.
I think what you're missing is that just because many people don't threaten those kinda actions doesn't mean that nobody wants to do it.
No, I get that.
That isn't however the issue I responded to, all I said is there is no nuance to it that will excuse the behavior. People may feel that way from time to time, not many of us will have written a multi million dollar earning song. He felt so shitty about it he would later write a song specifically saying that he talks about violent shit and no one should take it too much to heart and act a fool in their own life.
So if you're aware that this is not meant to be taken literally and that enough people relate to that feeling, what are you complaining about? Nobody is trying to excuse murder.
Describing feelings and situations is one way to understand and handle them. For oneself, of course, and for others dealing with similar stuff. That's why people write diaries, for example. This is one basic function of communication.
Absolutely, in this case he communicated the fact that at one point he wanted to kill his baby momma and meant it.
I'm not saying anything new and you have the source, the outage about it is just strange.
Lol wow doubling down on not understanding art and then explaining exactly what you don't get is peak irony, and frankly simply hilarious.
It's literally the artists words, does the artist know the artists work well enough to judge it?
My opinion on it does not appear in any way shape or form.
Waaait guys, folks, hold up easy solution to this dilemma:
Why don't you give us the lyrics you are referring to. That should clear this all up, right?
A murderous ode to his on-again-off-again relationship, “97 Bonnie and Clyde” brings father and daughter together to dispose of Scott’s dead body in the ocean. For extra authenticity, Eminem brought Hailie to the studio to record a vocal part for the track. “I lied to Kim and told her I was taking Hailie to Chuck E. Cheese that day,” he remembered in Rolling Stone. “But I took her to the studio. When she found out I used our daughter to write a song about killing her, she f—ing blew. We had just got back together for a couple of weeks. Then I played her the song, and she bugged the f— out.”
LYRICS: C’mon Hai-Hai, we going to the beach Grab a couple of toys and let Dada strap you in the car seat Oh, where’s Mama? She’s taking a little nap in the trunk Oh, that smell? Dada must’ve runned over a skunk Now, I know what you’re thinking It’s kind of late to go swimmin’ But you know your Mama, she’s one of those type of women That do crazy things And if she don’t get her way, she’ll throw a fit Don’t play with Dada’s toy knife, honey, let go of it!
Yes, the lyrics are about wanting to kill his wife, and about his feelings at the time.
But neither of those things is wrong. You're allowed to want to do those things, the important part is what you actually do. Such as writing a song about it instead. The entire point of art, or at least one of them, is to take these strong, raw emotions and do something with them besides the strong, raw thing you truly want to. These violent lyrics don't mean he believes murder is right or others should murder. If he thought that, he'd probably have murdered his wife, instead of writing a fantasy, a fiction, about it.
Now, we can make an argument that using Hailey in the song is a bit off, sure. That is not, and has never been, your argument however.
He didnt threaten her with murder. He wrote a song expressing his emotions. He exaggerated how he felt to the fullest extent.
I once told my dog that I wanted to eat her cause of how cute she is. I'm afraid to tell you that cause you just might think I run around eating pets just because I think they're cute.
Read the caption again.
But they statement he admits it's about killing her, take his word.
False realization is realization I suppose.
I'm not a troll boss, sometime misinterpreted what I said, several others ran with it and more still are arguing but still don't know what about.
The Your Favorite Band Sucks podcast did a four part series on Eminem last month. Check it out here.
Great show. They know a lot about music. Get over yourself, they’re mostly playing characters rather than villains, but I do think they hate Eminem.
I tried listening to it but can't stand the meandering style that is common in podcasts for some reason.
"We're going to do multiple episodes on Eminem because there's way too much to talk about."
30 sec prior:
"Take me to a Mexican restaurant and 90% of the time I'm going to spill cheese sauce on myself"
🤦
A lot of podcasts are basically just a surrogate for hanging out with friends and talking, rather than an informational presentation.
Some are a lot scummier about it and actively encourage para social relationships, but most I've encountered are best approached as a recording of a group of friends talking about a shared interest, and one brought a PowerPoint.
Needless to say, it's not the format for everyone.
That actually makes sense, and explains why the format is popular despite frustrating me.
There are podcasts out there that are more to the point. Honestly it's like old radio. Talk shows are just going to be more popular cause like said it feels more like hanging out with friends.
If you don't like that format though look for podcasts with only one person on the cast (or if they have another person it's someone they're interviewing). There's a lot of great history podcasts that are one person presenting, they have a script, they get through it in 20 minutes. You don't have to listen to ten minutes of shooting the shit and "personalities" first, they just get straight to it and edit to keep it tight. Fiction story and play podcasts (ttrpg) also have a good representation in this category too (though they also have plenty of round table discussion ones so you'll have to vet).
Going to add some suggestions here for people who might not like the radio personalities setup a lot of podcasts have, but don't have a place to start. Would appreciate anyone with suggestions adding on as I listen to audiobooks more than podcasts!
- Parcast Network podcasts — they have several presenters covering a variety of topics (mainly true crime, disasters, cults, myths/legends/fairytales). This is the blandest, no shooting the shit, no radio personalities, formulaic as you can get. Their presenters are all mild mannered toned and the shows generally follow a format with a few variations (ie some of them give some random bullshit pulled out medical diagnosises to criminals, some are more sensationalized "could the killer have possibly been thinking this?", etc). If you don't like how one set of narrators present an event you can absolutely find a presenter you prefer on the network as the shows cannibalize the same stories between each other. Not the most factual podcasts and in-depth is anathema to them, but if you're just looking for something inoffensive on in the background while you do the dishes they work.
- The Other Half — one presenter, short episodes, well-researched women through the ages. This is a sort of sequel to the Queens of England podcast by the same podcaster. Each season focuses on a specific type of historical woman (current season is royal/political mistresses). The episodes are short, focus on the history, there is some modern contextualizing (in the vein of now that it's not 1304 we can recognize getting up three days after giving birth to go tell an invading army to fuck off was a lot of work lol). Mostly though it's just the history.
- Dan Carlin's Hardcore History — another good history podcast that covers a large variety of topics, but the episodes are long. Doesn't make it a bad podcast, but six hours in length isn't rare. Lot of straight history, but also modern contextualizing (like the Romans didn't see executing criminals in the colliseum for entertainment as bad, but in modern times we would view that as very fucked up) and philosophizing (not sure I'd say getting up on a soapbox so much as this was the Roman's philosophy about this, let's follow their schools of thought).
- The Magnus Archives — horror anthology with an overarching story. Very good production values and even if you're not interested in the broader story there's a ton of great creepypasta type stories.
- Tales from the Stinky Dragon — DND play podcast with great production values and relatively short episodes (think they're like 30min?). This is heavily edited to cut out a lot of the parts of DND that drag as a listener (multiple rounds of that's a nat1, going back and forth on plans, etc) so though there's some discussion between the players/DM it's generally pretty snappy and most of the run time is just straight story. That said sometimes they do include tangents where the players meta joke with each other (this is probably the least offender I've heard for this though, if a tangent happens it's usually five minutes at worst).
- We're Alive — zombie apocalypse story podcast. Has multiple shows, several completed, with great production values (probably one of the best I've heard for sound production). This is a radio play style podcast so cliffhangers abound. Being a zombie "story of survivors" many of the characters are probably going to ping obnoxious at first as part of the genre is survivors learning to work together.
- Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe — so this actually was a radio play back in the day, the company has just updated to the present. These are trippy whimsical stories about Ruby, the interstellar detective. It started in the 80s iirc so expect to hear a ton of synth. The stories themselves run on a ton of puns, a quirky crew of heist characters, abstract philosophizing (in a what do robots dream of and colors taste like way) and trippy music to listen to when you're high.
- Myths and Legends — myths and Legends to lofi beats. Super chill, nothing more going on here, does have a lot of ads read by the narrator hard coded into the podcast so even if you pay for your podcasting service you do have to sit through them (not usually an issue since you can fast forward unless you're driving ime).
- Myths Your Teacher Hated — myths and legends, but told in a Badass of the Week style. Episodes are usually one myth/legend and one legendary/folktale creature. Unlike everything else on this list the narrator isn't really a mellow soothing tone type so if you don't like loud voices not a fit.
- Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! — in-depth podcast on myths with a lot of research and modern contextualizing, big feminist bent. The host does soapbox. Mainly listing this because it's the only "I want opinion discussion, but I don't want to hear five people discussing it between talking about what they ordered from Wendy's" podcast I listen to. That said she talks a lot about her research and goes into the various sources she's drawing from and their differences, so if you're looking for in-depth she's a great stop.
- Batman: The Audio Adventures — honestly way better than it has any right to be, kind of an offshoot of 60s Batman and 90s animated Batman. Does the radio play style intentionally and very well. Even if you're not into Batman you might enjoy it as a noir comedy.
I can't get into those types of podcasts either so I've been looking for a list like this. Thank you for sharing and extra thanks for the helpful descriptors
Oh wow! That's a title that I've not heard in a long time. Where are you finding Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe?
It's actually on spotify, but you can also find some of them on YouTube, meat fulton's site and audible/general audiobook retailers!
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Thank you for this!
also
- Casefile — Extremely dry Australian host tells wonderfully well-written, descriptive recounts of horrific crimes that have happened all over the world.
I've found that I'm more okay with that flavor of podcast when I'm doing a particular type of not quite mindless but not quite focused task, like driving for a while or doing yardwork. My attention is on what I'm doing, but it's not really using much mental capacity. I've found that the more conversational podcast keeps my mind a little more active without distracting me from what I'm doing. Like a watered down version of chatting with the driver to keep them awake, or having a dumb conversation while cleaning to make the time go faster.
"While There's Your Problem" is my go-to. They're a podcast about engineering disasters, and they stay on topic enough, so their tangents tend to be related to the topic at least, and there's not really a focus on them as characters beyond a couple recurring jokes or things that make one of them get ranty. It helps that about once a month I make a drive that's roughly the length of one of their episodes, so it lines up pretty nice.
Yeah I get very picky about podcasts myself. This sounds like an interesting premise but one I might skip based on your comment.
Sometimes though, I’ll start a new one and even though the hosts and dynamic can be grating at times, I eventually get used to their personalities and schtick. Guess it just depends.
Those guys are insufferable cunts. They spend a lot of time self-fellating. Trying to convince everyone that their opinion is more correct than your opinion. It's still just an opinion. dumbasses.
I really don’t understand how he’s still so beloved today, especially by people who would normally “cancel” someone for threatening domestic violence. Did he make an accepted apology at some point that I missed? Got help for an undiagnosed mental illness that prompted those reactions?
While I’m on your side and think he shouldn’t be as popular; he did move away from his edgy angry domestic violence stuff fairly early.
Also, 90% of rappers would have to go away if people were consistent with this moral code.
I would just say 90% of popular music, so much of it is outright misogynistic, especially music videos
I mean that's what it suggests on its face, but literally the same track the slim shady character is shot and killed then reveals it was all a dream in the outro, which really undercuts the entire narrative of the album leading up to that point (13 tracks into the album BTW). To me it feels a lot like a "haha jk idiot" since Eminem admits on another track that the slim shady character was an outlet for (paraphrasing here) "the stuff that'd get you ridiculed but we all know is true" amongst other messed up stuff.
A lot of his music is about internal battles, there's a lot of "out there" murdery stuff too, but it's not meant to be taken literally. It's fiction.
It'd be like saying "why do people play violent video games if they're so against violence irl"
Also because edgy
Funny, dark, and... Hard to not somewhat agree with. I'm generally against the death penalty and killing, but it's really hard when you see the amount of damage a person causes on such a scale. Especially when the legal system apparently can't touch them.
Edit: The thing is, I know it wouldn't end with Trump anyway, I'm not sure how much it'd even be beneficial if he had been taken out. Probably would just become a martyr.
It was kind of his whole schtick, so at the time I think people appreciated his brutal honesty & rawness of character. Say what you want about Eminem, but he wasn't fake.
It had taken root long before cancel culture, so it was just part of the landscape. Despite his anger & violence in lyrics, AFAIK he didn't actually do anything. Unlike some people that rap like that...
There was also the sheer novelty of a white rapper, a come up from nothing trailer park kid. A real underdog.
To end on a refreshing/wholesome note, you should watch this. I disagree with him on a lot of stuff...but I can be happy that he did right by his daughter.