...Eminem “My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge...”- “Criminal”, from “The Marshall Mathers LP” An average rap artist wouldn’t be able to grace the covers of VIBE, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Spin while on a national tour months before their major debut album is released. An average rapper couldn’t say that he’s collaborated with Dr. Dre, Elton John, and Dido, all in the same year. Then again, Marshall Mathers III, better known as Eminem isn’t your average rapper. No other artist has ever been the center of such heated and conflicting debates. He’s hailed as brilliant by some critics and deemed as indecent and disgusting by others. But the controversy isn’t as simple as that. This is an artist and a man who is as complex as he is talented. “...no labels wanted to sign me, almost gave up... until I met Dre, the only one to look past, gave me a chance, and I lit a fire up under his ass...”- “White America” Eminem was born in Kansas City, Missouri. During his early years Marshall Mathers and his mother moved between Kansas and Michigan until the age of twelve when they settled in east Detroit. During these years there would be much turbulence to get through. Tragedies including the suicide of his beloved cousin Ronnie and being abandoned by his father threw his world into what could’ve been an irrevocable downward spiral. They would prove to be haunting to the tortured youth. Without stability finding friends and staying out of trouble became...
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...beat during a workout. That one song that helps make everything better. That one song that makes me lose my sense of reality, picks me up when I’m down, is “Stan” by Marshall Mathers (Eminem). “Stan” is by far one of Eminem’s greatest songs ever made, it’s one of the songs that made him so popular. I don’t listen to rap but I love listening to “Stan.” It’s one of the deepest songs written and produced by Eminem. This song goes really in-depth about love, suicide, depression, obsession, and murder. I am choosing to interpret this song so you can see it from my point of view. Stan, is the main character from the song he’s a crazy obsessed fan of Eminem. At one point in the song it shows Stan writing a letter to Eminem, he has pictures of Eminem plastered all over his wall. A second part that makes Stan so obsessed is he dyed his hair blond like Eminem’s in the song too. In the first few verses of the song this person “Stan” is a big fan of Eminem and pours his heart out into these letters he writes him. In the letters, he talks about how messed up his life was and still is and how they’re childhoods were so much alike. Including how they should become best friends and they were born from the ghetto, had abusive dads neglected as children’s, and so on. Stan basically explains why he loves Eminem so much, and why they should be together (as...
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...participate. Other than activist groups, the public at large rarely demands alternative programming and advertisements. “Ralph, Fred, Archie, Homer and the King of Queens: Why television keeps re-creating the white male working-class buffoon”, Butsch, describes the differences between Hollywood’s portrayals of buffoon heads of household in shows such as I Love Lucy and The Brady Brunch and the irresponsible heads of household in The Flintstones and The Simpsons. In addition, “Advertising and the Construction of Violet White Masculinity: From Eminem to Clinique for Men”, Katz, explains Hollywood’s utilization of violet behavior by action adventure actors such as Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. Consequently, “The White Man’s Burden: Gonzo Pornography and the Construction of Black Masculinity”, Dines, explains how other media outlets sexualize inequality between men and women in pornographic images. “Eminem in Mainstream Public Discourse: Whiteness and the Appropriation of Black Masculinity”, Martin and Yep, describes black masculinity as inherently angry and provides and example of how rap artists capitalize on this behavior to gain credibility. The articles’ reoccurring...
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...Running Head: EDUCATION AND ACTION 1 Education and Action for Gender Violence Meaghan Pollard Education and Action for Gender Violence The website I chose to study is http://www.jacksonkatz.com. This website is about Jackson Katz, who is an anti-sexist male activist. He is recognized for his work in gender violence prevention education and lectures at high schools, colleges and workshops across the world. He is the co-founder of the Mentors in Violence Prevention program; which according to the website is “the leading gender violence prevention initiative in professional and college athletics.” He is also the director of the “first worldwide domestic and sexual violence prevention program in the United States Marine Corps” and has created a handful of educational videos regarding gender violence. The home page of the website describes Jackson Katz’s accomplishments, acknowledgements and recent honors. The website has many tabs to lead readers to further information about Katz, including his full biography, publications, seminars, and lectures and consulting. After reading Katz full biography it is easy to determine that he has a multitude of experiences to support his work in gender violence prevention. Katz helped architect the “bystander” approach, which is used in the Mentors in Violence Prevention program to train students to be positive role models in the school environment and how to respond if they witness or know about a violent or abusive situation...
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...The Evolution of Music: Offensive to Women, yet Acclaimed in Society Victor Hugo, a well known French Romantic writer, once stated “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” Though this statement was made in the 19th century, it continues to stand true to this day. Through decades of evolution, music has constantly been a way for anyone to express themselves through melodies, timbre, dynamics, and lyrics. People around the world are composing, as well as listening to, all kinds of music, and this unifies nations in all countries and continents. Introduction to Literature is an anthology that consists of a variety of literary works – poems, short stories, and excerpts from novels – that discusses globalization. I believe that a chapter regarding the subject of music and its evolution should be included in the Introduction to Literature. Music has continuously been changing ever since the first beat was tapped, the first piano was struck, the first violin was plucked, and the first horn was blown; however, in the last 150 years, the meaning of lyrics and the style of music has changed drastically. From Bing Crosby to Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Eminem, the artists and composers have altered the way music sounds on the radio, computer, and other musical devices. Every genre has artists, who have songs, which have lyrics that contain a story. Whether the story is from a memory, a dream, or an ambition, it becomes...
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...You Lie” by Eminem featuring Rhianna. I choose this song because I enjoy listening to it. When the song was first released in 2010, it was one of my favourite songs to play. The song is worldly know and had won various musical awards. Both artists featured on this song are recognized world-wide, for their success and fame in the music industry. “Love the Way You Lie” is about domestic violence. Domestic violence is the abuse verbally, emotionally or physically in any type of relationship. Domestic violence is a commonly known subject and can happen to anyone, male or female. On average 30% of women who have been in a relationship has experience physical or sexual violence from their partner. The story that is carried throughout the song is of two lovers in an abusive relationship. The two lovers refuse to separate even though being in an unsafe love, hate relationship. The two, endure all types of physical and emotional abuse throughout the song, for example when Eminem says “Now you're in each other's face spewing venom in your words when you spit them” Both lovers are fighting, using all types of words to emotionally wound the other. “Love the Way You Lie” gained much of its popularity due to the underlying message about domestic violence. The song helped raise awareness about domestic abuse and violence in relationships. Themes that are found throughout the song are toxic relationships, anger, and regret. A theme of a toxic relationship is found when Eminem says “Now...
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...skater doing amazing tricks along with an entire football team training in the midst of a snow storm. In addition, the speech goes on “Because when it comes to luxury it’s as much of where it’s from as who it’s for. Now we're from America but this isn't New York City, or the Windy City, or Sin City, and we're certainly no one’s Emerald City.” Again, a brief side, rear and front glimpses of a shiny black Chrysler appears, accompanied with quick peeks of Eminem. Then, slightly over one-minute into the clip, enters Grammy- winning and Michigan native Eminem. Where he exits the car, and enters a building with a large and brightly lit sign that reads “Keep Detroit Beautiful.” The ad reaches an emotional peak, as Eminem walks down the center isle where an all- black choir halts in the middle of rehearsing. This is the Motor City,” says Eminem, standing on the stage of downtown Detroit's Fox Theatre. Then, defiantly looking straight at the camera and pointing his right index finger he finishes his thought: “This is what we do.” Then Eminem exits the theater and the camera cuts to him sitting in the driver's seat of a sleek, black 2011 Chrysler 200 driving through dimly-lit streets of downtown Detroit. The ad concludes with a simple yet...
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...female African American Secretary of State in the nation, serving the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1971-1977. She was also the convening founder and chair of the National Political Congress of Black Women. Tucker was a renowned civil rights activist and politician who tirelessly served on behalf of historically oppressed minorities and women. Tucker attended Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She was an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement as a part of the Selma-to-Montgomery March in 1965 and as a delegate to the historic White House Conference on Civil Rights. Tucker established the Martin Luther King Jr. Association for Non-Violent Change in 1983 to develop programs and activities that amplify the teachings and principles of the late civil rights leader. In 1991, she founded the Bethune-DuBois Institute to promote the cultural and educational development of African-American youth. During this time, Dr. Tucker began a crusade against "gangsta" rap. She rallied against record companies to halt the distribution of popular music that she believed contained derogatory lyrics about women and minorities and had a negative impact on youth. She was so against rap gangsta music especially artist like Tupac Shakur and Eminem that Tucker took her campaign against sexually explicit lyrics to the streets, picketing music stores, and to the suites, purchasing stock in Time Warner and challenging its top executives at stockholders...
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...Cyrus used to play the character Hannah Montana, in her own Hannah Montana series on Disney Channel. In this show, she played a sweet young girl (Miley Stewart) who hung out with her friends, went to school, and listened to her dad. Although, she was hiding a big secret. She was also Hannah Montana, pop super star. Her dad wrote her lyrics, so they were clean, she dressed age appropriate, and she acted age appropriate on top of that. These days, Miley Cyrus has a completely different outlook. Saying in an interview, ‘I think I’m representing women in a cool way because people aren’t used to girls that are just like “I genuinely don’t care what people think.” Guys, they like, flip the channel when Miley Cyrus is coming on. You know I’m going to be kind of naked. So it makes people stick around a watch a little more. Then they are actually like, “she can hold a note” (Strang, 2013). Miley also has recently had her Bangerz tour banned from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican’s CNEPR has reportedly taken offense...
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...Side In America women are supposed to be equal to men. In rap music though, it is portrayed that men are superior to women. Rap music was created in the 1970s and it is a fast growing culture. Rap has “taken the center stage in both the music and television worlds” (why we need to…). This is a problem in our society because women are not portrayed fairly in rap music. This has a negative effect on how the audience perceives women. Rap culture can influence men to think of women as sex objects, normalize domestic abuse, and can instill misogynistic views towards women. Sex is a big part of rap music and culture. It is mentioned in the majority of songs at an alarming number. This has a big influence on males. Rap music contains very explicit content of sexual acts, sexual thoughts, and sexual images. The problem is that most rap songs aren’t about love. The songs are only about the act of sex with a lot...
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...Topic An example of morality and decision-making 07:26 PM 10/3/2011 An example of decision making is making money and what to do with it. Money is the driving force of American society; we thrive on capitalism (an ideology that the free market and entrepreneurship will set us free). Money is what we use to pay for electricity to power our houses and apartments. We pay for the use of water, sewage disposal, garbage disposal, clothing, and of course food. Without money life would be bleak. But the real question becomes what to do when you have money? How much money is enough? Both are very good questions. I believe during this particular time in our history, that money is doing more harm than good; I spend my money faster than I can make it, just like many Americans do. The morality part of this topic is that money is not the answer to the privileged people’s problems (though we think it is). However, money in the right hands can literally save lives. All that I have to do is give money to charity. Do I sacrifice that new television to give a little to the extremely poor? Or do I buy the latest one (even though I already own three good working televisions)? The answer is simple, spend less, save more, and give as much as I can to the less fortunate. Topic My definition of happiness 07:43 PM 10/3/2011 Happiness means a lot of different things to a lot of people in my time. Many people consider happiness ...
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...and the typical lifestyle that ensues such as crime, drugs, and violence, but rap can be used to talk about the inequality in the world, mistreatment of women, love, sacrifice, and brotherhood. 2Pac set the bar really high, and became a role model for other rappers to follow. Hip-hop is a genre that many people can identify with. The lyrics portray experiences and lifestyles that aren’t exclusive to people of color with similar cultural backgrounds. “Rap is a form of profound musical, cultural, and social creativity” Dyson (Pg. 69). Rap is a form of art, and the culture of hip hop can be reflected by anyone going through a life struggle. Rapper Marshall Bruce has taken the art of rap and expressed it in his lyrics through his own personal experiences and melancholy. Known as his alias’ Eminem and Slim Shady, he is a white American rapper that had a turbulent childhood. In 1999 he released his album The Slim Shady LP. Expressed through his extreme, and graphic lyrics while portraying himself through a different persona called Slim Shady, Eminem sings about his lifestyle and sometimes describing disturbing acts self harm which suggests he was abused as a child. He managed to grab the attention of millions of people especially because he’s white, and that meant that rap was not just for people of color, but for everyone. Eminem has single handedly turned rap into an artistic style of singing, and formulating lyrics that rhyme, but also tell real life stories of a white man with...
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...This is a stereotype that is immediately related to hip-hop. Women have been criticizing hip-hop music because of this stereotype. Artists often use words like “bitch” or “hoe” to be derogatory to women, this is the way they speak, in a hood-like manner, that is the reason why their songs have a lot of derogatory words towards women in them. Artists use misogyny to show masculinity and power since hip-hop is a predominantly masculine genre. These stereotypes do not resemble all of the artists though. There are artists who have condemned violence but have written songs against it like Tupac Shakur who did condemn violence and wrote a song called “Changes”, which is against violence. The West Coast Rap All Stars who wrote another song named “We’re all in the same gang” which talks about how violence is controlling the society, it says in two of it’s verses: “Brothers killin’ other brothers // I though the idea was to love one another.”...
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...Throughout the decades, notably from the 1970s to the present, America has experienced its changes through the influence of hip-hop culture. Cultural hip-hop talks about real-life experiences of subjects such as gangster mafia violence, drugs, degrading of women, and many other realistic, pessimistic values, whether the artist has experienced those situations or not. Currently, the public has opened their ears to a whole new level by listening to the ludicrous lyrics of some of the mediocre, modern-day hip-hop and rap artists. Due to much of the publicity, some of these artists are put on such a high pedestal that they go to extremes by acting out their music and wind up being horrible role models, ruining the names they made for themselves. On the other hand, some artists in hip-hop culture see a political trend form and decide to incite it with heart-grasping lyrics that pertain to the governmental issues. From the 1970s to current times, there is a pattern emerging that Americans are willing to listen to politically subjected songs that hip-hop artists have written as signs of political trends. America’s changes through hip-hop culture have had some influences on the government and public as a whole through significantly realistic lyrics, violence, and trend-setters. Since 1979, when Sugarhill Gang came out with “Rapper’s Delight”, hip-hop music has been “all the rage” for about three decades (Blanchard 1). Hip-hop came from the different genres of jazz, gospel,...
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...D E L U X E E D I T I O N Verse 1 It’s like I’m in this dirt diggin’ up old hurt/tried everything to get my mind off you, it won’t work/ all it takes is one song on the radio yer/right back on it, remindin’ me all over again how you fuckin’ just brushed me off and left me so burnt/spent a lot of time tryin’ to soul search/maybe I needed to grow up a little first, well looks like I hit a growth spurt/but I’m comin’ for closure/don’t suppose an explanation I’m owed for/the way that you turned your back on me just when I may have needed you most, oh, you thought it was over/you could just close the/chapter and go about your life like it was nothin’/you ruined mine, but you seem to be doin’ fine, well I’ve never recovered/ but tonight ‘betcha that whatch yer/’bout to go through’s tougher than anything I ever have suffered/can’t think of a, better way to define poetic justice/can I hold grudges? Mind sayin’ “let it go fuck this”/hearts sayin’ “I will once I bury this bitch alive hide the shovel and then drive off in the sunset”/and… Chorus I flee the scene, like it was my last ride/you see right through, oh, you had me pegged the first time/you can see the truth, but it’s easier to justify/what’s bad is good and I hate to be the bad guy/I just hate to be the bad guy/follow me I run, I run, follow me, follow me, I just hate to be the bad guy/Verse 2 And to think I used to think you was the shit, bitch/to think it was you at one time I worshiped...
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