Eminem Raps About Punching Lana Del Rey

[omgitsnathan 142]

i honestly don't understand how this promotes domestic violence against women.

it's not like someone's going to hear this shitty rap verse and be like, "OH. HE RAPPED ABOUT HITTING WOMEN, THEREFORE I MUST TOO."

 

edit: eminem WAS a good rapper. his last 2 albums were disappointments, tbh.

[TRENCH 15,450]

That's why king Kanye, king Jay-z and king Drake >>>

King Drake? 

[HunterAshlyn 686]

To everyone who is saying "he's just being funny," "he's just fucking around," "he's not being serious," "he's just kidding"....


WHY IS HITTING WOMEN FUNNY TO YOU!?

[VegasBaby 895]

i honestly don't understand how this promotes domestic violence against women.

it's not like someone's going to hear this shitty rap verse and be like, "OH. HE RAPPED ABOUT HITTING WOMEN, THEREFORE I MUST TOO."

 

edit: eminem WAS a good rapper. his last 2 albums were disappointments, tbh.

Talking about smacking a woman up is never agl but he was alluding to a real incident so yeah it does promote it really because it trivializes it. 

 

You don't get why people are concerned obviously. It's called ignorance.

[omgitsnathan 142]

Talking about smacking a woman up is never agl but he was alluding to a real incident so yeah it does promote it really because it trivializes it. 

 

You don't get why people are concerned obviously. It's called ignorance.

Talking (or in his case, rapping) about an incident of domestic violence does not trivialize it. How it can even be trivialized when EVERYONE (well, hopefully..) knows it’s a horrible event?

[PrettyBaby 2,220]

It seems to me that we are trying to discuss this "kerfuffle" using different ideas about how communication is supposed to work. Is the responsibility completely on the speaker (Eminem) to say exactly what he means? Or is it completely dependent on the receiver (fans, casual listeners, participants in the culture at large) to decode the message and declare what it means? Or is it a shared responsibility to put forth effort and care into the encoding and decoding processes?

 

And your are overreacting about this thing. 

 

Maybe. According to the Auteur model, whatever Eminem meant to say is controlling. (And we must deal -- that is, successfully interpret the meaning, or Be Wrong.) But under the Death of the Author model, all that matters is what the audience heard. (We may hear different messages, and thus react differently, but any reaction is on some level "correct.") On the other hand, according to a Cooperative model, what Eminem meant is important, but what we take from the song is also important. In that case, there are *two* questions to consider: did Eminem "speak" well enough to be heard, and did we listen well enough to hear him? (Under the cooperative model, we may be overreacting if we misunderstood because we didn't do our part ...or our reaction may be legitimate, if Eminem didn't do his.)

 

K, Eminem's best tracks were "Kim" and "Bonnie & Clyde" because they totally shocked you. And these songs were tight, they were brilliantly written and performed. I don't care about the topic of the songs. Art is free and when you wanna tell a tale, you better do it the right way and he did.

 

I don't support the idea that artists should be just all about fluff and self-empowerment, playing a role model. Lana herself also never justifies for the behaviour of the characters in her songs. 

 

One of Eminem's problems is that he is recording basically the same material since the 1990's. And it's gotten so boring, so quickly.

 

This, to me, is the question: did Eminem tell his tale the right way? I take it that for you, it depends on whether he is still successfully shocking us. I agree that the *character* in a song does not always need to be presented as a role model. Sometimes a message is simply, "Life is like this." But is that all there is to Eminem's message in "Shady Cxvpher"? Or is it more accurate to say the message is "Life is like this for men, so women should accept it and men should carry on"? Or is it more like, "Life is like this for men and women, so we need to break this pattern"? I'm not a fan or even a casual listener of Eminem, so I don't feel like I can say for sure. But it strikes me as somewhat naive to assume that just because an artist has successfully painted a picture without beating you over the head with it (so to speak), therefore there is no deeper meaning.

 

IMO, in art it matters not only how you say it, but what you're saying.

 

My problem with Eminem is that there is no subtext. You can create one if you want, and a lot of people do, but at some point, Poe's Law comes into play - if your act as a troll is so convincing and all encompassing, then at some point, you're just an asshole.

 

Or inept at getting your message across. Which is quite possible. But in order to say whether he has created a subtext, we need to look at the context.

 

Honestly thought out of... 'he hit me and it felt like a kiss.' When I saw this. Oh Bless Lana. 

 

Me too.

 

I think Mr. Marshall Bruce Mathers III is not only playing off his deserved reputation for misogynistic lyrics about violence against women, but also the fact that Lana's lyrics and interviews make it sound as if she's into it. Em's trolling y'all.

 

I agree -- he picked Lana for a reason, and this is part of the context he's speaking into. And he's doing it provocatively -- but does this mean he's trolling, in the sense of wanting a negative reaction and nothing else?

 

Eminem several lines earlier in 'Shady Cxvpher' said

But look how you react to this trigger like
When I call you a bigger dyke than the Hoover Dam
You playing right in Lex Luthor's hands
It's such a ruthless plan, might even lose a fan
But fuck it, Superman wouldn't change in a phone booth for Stan

 

 

More crucial context. I wish I could find the lyrics in full (but darn Google is more into the controversy itself ATM)

 

Don't know Eminem's work. However, saying "like Ray Rice", a person universally condemned in the media right now (thanks @@Viva for first pointing that out) doesn't simply imply pro-mysogny. Still there is a lot of anger (and abusive imagery) in his rap. I think it's one of those what-should-the-limits-of-art be conumdrums and I'm sure he doesn't bear LDR any ill will (I mean why should he?). She was just the person that worked the best in the lyric.

 

He could deflect things quite a bit by just tweeting the song has its own agenda and people should not conclude he would do in real life what he raps about. 

 

I think you are pointing out another very important piece of the context he's given us. Yes, he could make it even easier on us by explaining himself, however briefly -- but is he obligated to? I'm thinking for most subjects tackled by most artists, the answer would be "no" ...but are there special circumstances in this case?

 

There are a lot of people out there who here such things daily and it becomes normal to say such things.

so yes I think we are allowed to be angry about this. Because it doesn't matter if it is just a joke or not directed to her album or whatever. violence against women is real enough. and if people especially the onces who have such an influence on a lot of people, keep making this normal to say such things it just keeps creating a place where it is normal to look down on woman.

 

I think you are right about violence against women being a real problem. Additionally, who are his fans, and who are his casual listeners? I think we need to include both in his target audience. Perhaps his fans will understand where he's coming from, but will his casual listeners? And for someone of Eminem's stature, we also need to consider the general public -- participants in the culture at large, including us, who are receiving the message now.

 

 

i honestly don't understand how this promotes domestic violence against women.

it's not like someone's going to hear this shitty rap verse and be like, "OH. HE RAPPED ABOUT HITTING WOMEN, THEREFORE I MUST TOO."

 

True. (Unless they are extremely young and/or impressionable. Such people do exist. But do we want to tailor all of our media expressions to them? I'm thinking NOT.) Personally I am more concerned about people who are already prone to violent acts hearing this song and becoming either emboldened, or at least feeling vindicated/legitimized to continue the cycle.

 

What will be the message when people repeat the lyrics of "Shady Cxvpher" to friends, to family, to romantic partners? The neutral message ("This is life")? Every time?

 

And I share evilentity's and longtimeman's interest in the reactions of Lana and Janay. But I believe this song has the capacity to impact the culture at large as well. I think this is a valuable conversation to be having.

 

[ilovetati 15,299]

Whoever said it's free promo, well: Ultraviolence #198 and falling like a rock today. About to drop out of the Top200 on US iTunes.

Yet Born to Die still hasn't fallen out of the top 200 in almost three years.

[omgitsnathan 142]

True. (Unless they are extremely young and/or impressionable. Such people do exist. But do we want to tailor all of our media expressions to them? I'm thinking NOT.) Personally I am more concerned about people who are already prone to violent acts hearing this song and becoming either emboldened, or at least feeling vindicated/legitimized to continue the cycle.

 

What will be the message when people repeat the lyrics of "Shady Cxvpher" to friends, to family, to romantic partners? The neutral message ("This is life")? Every time?

 

And I share evilentity's and longtimeman's interest in the reactions of Lana and Janay. But I believe this song has the capacity to impact the culture at large as well. I think this is a valuable conversation to be having.

 

young children (people in general) are already exposed to culture, media, video games, and etc that can be seen as potentially detrimental to their growth, but at the end of the day, those individuals are the ones who ultimately decide whether or not the aforementioned factors will impact them. for example, if a young person were to hear this verse or anything similar, i sincerely doubt it would influence, implying they even have the capacity to understand him, them at all because it's just common sense, implying they're of age to have one, that hitting people is bad.

i didn't think of how this could be a encouraging trigger to those already prone of domestic violence, so thank you for that.

and you're right, this shitty song is impacting culture. i mean, look at us right now. people here are discussing it's possible effects, or just completely shutting out and ending all discussion because they're so fixed on their position that they aren't even open to listening and having a progressive conversation.

[Baby V Alex 2,859]

@@PrettyBaby tbh I didn't read 

[ilovetati 15,299]

What's with the thesis papers in this thread

[GangstaBoy 3,930]

@@PrettyBaby tbh I didn't read 

 

Reading a little won't hurt you eyes

[longtimeman 9,011]

I find this topic incredibly frustrating, partly because I feel like I can't argue my full beliefs because they're too complicated. I spent a decade obsessed with the power electronics group Whitehouse, whose lyrics and themes make Eminem look like Idina Menzel (and whose main member, William Bennett, wrote an interesting review of Ultraviolence), but after a long time I felt alienated by the cheap thrills that referencing sex crimes and serial killers can bring about. I've followed Eminem for a long time from afar, and have always felt that he had the right to say what he wants to say, and be vile when he wants to. But if you're coming after Lana, I'm going to be on your ass (and I've got Azealia backing me up). I'm not trying to take anyone's music away, or make them feel bad for thinking something's cool. I know what it's like to feel the need to protect something that you care about, and that the general public thinks is 'filth'. So ... sorry for adding to the essays, @@ilovetati and everyone else can carry on with talking across each other.

[ilovetati 15,299]

https://twitter.com/robgrantdotcom/status/532539861140402176

 

Lol, I just saw Rob's tweet attaching the article from The Guardian. "Insight into Eminem's shady anger management issues."

[ofcharsky 163]

King Drake? 

yep

 

and dont even try it with macklemore @ ur sig

[Sitar 22,218]

https://twitter.com/robgrantdotcom/status/532539861140402176

 

Lol, I just saw Rob's tweet attaching the article from The Guardian. "Insight into Eminem's shady anger management issues."

 

 

Old milk teas

[TRENCH 15,450]

yep

 

and dont even try it with macklemore @ ur sig

Please, rapping about a "started from the bottom" struggle when being born in a upper middle class family is not genuine.  At least Mack is honest to say that he had no struggle

[Viva 3,171]

Are we still on the "Azealia called Perez a faggot"-thing? I swear, I wouldn't called him only that. 

 

Perez is the definition of Fag tbh, they should make official in Urban Dictionary. Doesn't fag apply to hetero males as well? 

Please, rapping about a "started from the bottom" struggle when being born in a upper middle class family is not genuine.  At least Mack is honest to say that he had no struggle

 

If his family has no connections in music he started from the bottom. Many people I know have money and start from the bottom in areas they or family know no one. It's not like he is saying he didn't have food on the table and lived in a dump. 

[slang 1,533]

I don't think Eminem's reference to LDR is a joke or there is very little in the way of humor in this rap. There may be a lot of wit and art to it, but the emotionality is all wrong for humor. Rob Grant may have nailed it by referring to the rap as an anger managment issue (or an exorcism of sorts).

 

BTW I got lyrics from youtube user: Muhammed Atas (a true hero of the Internet, imo), who left it as a comment, which will probably be buried very soon. 

 

lyrics : 

I just turned Slaughterhouse to a quintet

Began to trend-set, murdered the friend's pet

Made shit as ill as it can get went in depth

Like a fucking vignette and two bars skins wet

I'm already covered in sweat

And I wasn't even ready to come in yet

AHH, let me set this drink down

Beat up a gal, start beef with her pal

Probably be wild 'til I'm wrinkled and senile

And "Rap God" was a freestyle

Off the top of the dome piece while I was sleep on the couch

And I'm freestyling now

I need a towel, sweat leaks from my brow

It's burning my eyes, my cerebral is foul

Cause shit I'm thinking about should be illegal

I need my head banned like the guy who left Cleveland Ohio

And went to South Beach with his talents

Scream "fuck you" on the way out and wink with a smile

This whole game can eat a dick, I'm going back deep underground

But right now I'm back on that bullshit and you I'm singling out

Cause you're so fucking outdated you should mingle a while

What the fuck is this clusterfuck of busters

Bunch of Buster Douglas', motherfuckers is one hit wonders

One swing and you're crowned

Knocked one out the park, one catchy jingle and now

You think you fucking with me cause you sold like 300 thou

Bitch, I can jump without my feet ever leaving the ground

Reach up, swing from a cloud with 3 thousand people around

Evil and vile enough to leap in the crowd

And heave a child in a sink hole on Cinco De Mayo

When I'm sprinkled in pico de gallo

Mardi Gras beads in a towel

I just made that up

I don't know much Spanish, I'm not bilingual

But I'll show you a Mexican stand off

Between just these two amigos

Cause neither really wants to say what we're thinking out loud

But I sure as fuck think I know how rebody English, no doubt

Cause we're trying to kill each other, but lyrically

The fuck is humility? What is a real emcee?

Royce, he came up in the shit with me

Never spit that hustler shit, it wasn't a fit for me

Let them adjust 'til they just get the gist of me

Just not giving a fuck and plus with the history

Of muscular distrophy, it wasn't a mystery

Why this middle finger was stuck in this upward positioning

So what in the fuck is a list to me?

I'm used to not being on it, I expect it out 'em

Heck wit' em, I get my respect without 'em

Ain't really been into diamonds since I put my first record out

But I could put a chain around my second album

And wear it as a neck medallion

Became a millionaire, went downhill from there

Became civil, office swivel chair, sterling silverware

Screaming life is still unfair til I get a real career

The fuck am I gonna do until then? This job is too fulfilling

Two gazillion pairs of super villain shoes to fill in

And a mood to kill till I plow my Coupe de Ville

To some children at the food pavilion at Build-A-Bear

Warrior's mind, I’m pro-hydrocodone euphoria

In the drug emporium line, I'm soaring

I'm pouring Vicodin four at the time ignoring the warning signs on 'em fore I go four wheeler driving

Gory and violent and horrifying

You surely won't find no one more appalling

Than I am with this retaliatorial rhyming for Gloria Steinem

But I finger her like a witness, show me a line-up

I usually am abusive, but excuse me, ma'am

I guess I must've threw you for a loop like toucan Sam

When I said I could use the sample cause you'se a tramp

But look how you react to this trigger like

When I call you a bigger dyke than the Hoover Dam

You playing right in Lex Luthor's hands

It's such a ruthless plan, might even lose a fan

But fuck it, Superman wouldn't change in a phone booth for Stan

I'm a brand new being like Grand Puba's band

Happy as Anderson Cooper having a tuba crammed

In his pooper with lubricant...wait, that's too... I can't

Since honesty is the best policy I'll give you the old college try

Try to acknowledge my mistakes, probably won't qualify

As a gentleman and a scholar, but it's time that I swallow pride

And say that I'm sorry, sorry that I can't apologize

I think of all them times I compromised my bottom lines

And thought of rhymes that sodomized your daughter's minds

Then I'm like dollar signs

But I may fight for gay rights especially if they dyke

It's more of a knockout than Janay Rice

Play nice, bitch, I punch Lana Del Rey right

In the face twice like Ray Rice in broad daylight

In plain sight of the elevator surveillance

Til her head is banged on the railing

Then celebrate with the Ravens

Never date an assailant that self-medicates with inhalants

I meditate, but I may need a better way to escape

The aggression, rage and the anger

Cause them restraints on the ankles

Heavyweights and an anchor with handcuffs in chains

This ain't enough to contain it

But I still get the same respect as Jay if I came on

Stage in a fucking negligee everyday and Liz Claiborne

Devastated from breakup with Kate Hudson

Wait slut, your friends, what are they gonna say

Cause makeup ain't gonna cover

That eye that's seven-eighths of the way shut

Peppersprayed with your face cut

Made my bank like a lay up

Off these effing skanks on the way up

Oh, bitch thinks she's heaven sent

It's evident that she ain't never been with seven inches

Yes, I said seven, I measured it

Seven inches from the floor

While I'm standing on the fourth floor balcony

At the Sheridan when I'm stretching it

Bitch, I'm a pimp so a limp dick is all you'll ever get

So if she's hesitant to get the hint

I'll bet you that I get the message sent who she's messing with

Hella quick when I tell a chick not to never use sex as a weapon

When I step in and beat the wretched wench with a crescent wrench

Existential detriments to a lesbian devil

In the unpleasant stench of an estrogen level

That separatists like a Chechnian rebel

Impressionist with a pencil

A pessimist, with his lips pressed against

The edge of this Red Bull

Pedal to the metal I'm rippin' this shit cause right away I'll give it to a bitch like a pedestrian, deadly as ever

You see what kind of effects she has on the opposite sex when I push her flexible little sexy ass through a plate of plexiglass

SHADYXV as perplexing as

The last fifteen years and I'm predicting my next relapse

When I spit these lyrics so don't look at me weird

When I start shifting gears and shit re-smears all over Britney Spears

And these little Disney queers

Who use chicks for beards?

Just made that up too...

Oh and the Shady 2.0

We wrote it in roman numerals like they do for the Super Bowls

Cause it's supposed to confuse you hoes

The flows lose you as usual, so juvenile

2 year old when I go to the studio

It's only music but don't be foolish though

You don't know me through it ho but you can blow me to it though

In my homie's Buick

Been known to lose it though so if I overdo it you drove me to it

When I step in the vocal booth like I'm supposed to do

And I murder you on a fuckin' track like Tony Stewart

In one take, if I fuck up I don't redo it

You couldn't sound grown on a beat if you were moaning to it

The day I don't say fuck you all, you can throw me through it

Rootinest-tootinest, shootin' this from the hip

With the sentiments, Eminem isn't penning them for the women

I'm an enemy to them and the epitome of an inconsiderate idiot

But they consider me equivalent to chlamydia

They tryna get rid of me gadzooks

But I stiggity stand for the fliggity flag

Of the United States and the freedom, I distribute these raps through

And if I catch you doing anything

Hindering or prohibiting that after I give me that

Tattoo of your lips on my ass I'mma be literally

Pickin' up and deliberately whippin' the Statue of Liberty at you WOOOOH!

 

Fuck it

 

Got it somewhere in there probably

[Paradise Man 29]

I just think, after speculations of miss Grant is descendant of general Grant, Eminem may got to think he's general Lee incarnated himself, probably he missed out on those civil war reconstruction events.

Over here in less fortunate parts of Europe, it's something usual, that nice people of some war background families, since early age, get to be target of vast revengers of the past, if Lana may be so, she should be careful, or more aware of such stuff, not anyone you love would love you, not anyone you date loves you,...for some history plays major role, not entertainment.

[Bekim 2,576]

The thirst for relevance