The Eminem paradox

His rapping is lyrical, even literate. It's also violent, reveling in the idea of beating and killing women. So, young girls don't like him, right? Wrong.

By GINA VIVINETTO, Times Pop Music Critic

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 9, 2000

Eminem gets under my skin. He fills me with ambivalence.

Listening to The Marshall Mathers L.P., the rap star's new album, makes me feel like two people at once.

In fact, this is the concept behind Eminem's titling his second album with his real name, while he used his rap moniker for his 1999 debut, The Slim Shady L.P. (The name Eminem comes from his real initials, M.M.)

Eminem's point: People can say and do some lousy things and still be good. Or, as he puts it, there's a little "Slim Shady in all of us."

As any teenage kid or rap aficionado will tell you, it's fun to listen to Eminem. The guy knows how to spin a tale. He's a lyrical master, using rhyme and cadence and downright tricky words, perhaps inspiring kids to open a dictionary -- a very good thing. I picture the eyebrows of great poets going up, marveling at this blue-eyed, blond bad boy from the slums of Detroit.

Eminem, 27, has already nabbed a Grammy. He deserves it. He's phenomenally talented. The Marshall Mathers L.P. sold 1.7-million copies its first week, the most ever by a solo artist. The disc has topped Billboard's charts for six weeks.

Reviews for both albums have been enthusiastic. Many important critics say Eminem is the greatest storyteller in hip-hop. Newsweek even called him "the most compelling figure in all of pop music."

Eminem is today's youth conscience. In between breaths, he spits out insights about race, school shootings, pent-up anger, drugs. Eminem addresses it all clearly, saying the same things kids in school halls are saying. It's locker room humor, sure, but it's based in reality.

He's addressing the issues kids want to discuss, the issues parents and teachers fear most.

Though he is white in a black-dominated genre, Eminem is no Vanilla Ice, derided as the Pat Boone of rap. The protege of Dr. Dre, formerly of N.W.A., the act that delivered the controversial F-- Tha Police, Eminem has real street cred. Unfortunately, in rap music, street cred often goes hand and hand with lyrics espousing violence.

And nobody gets hit harder than women.

This is where Eminem starts making me feel queasy. Even frightened.

Like me, you may have thought Eminem's '97 Bonnie & Clyde, the little ditty on his debut about killing his wife, Kim, and dumping her body in a lake -- with the aid of Hailie, the couple's toddler -- was sick. But it's mild compared with the graphic misogyny on the new tunes.

Kill You, which Eminem sings to his mother, who is suing him for character defamation, is one of the goriest, angriest songs I've ever heard.

Some may argue that Eminem is just telling stories to convey his anger. But are kids sophisticated enough to understand this?

The ones I talk to say they are. They laugh at allegations that Eminem's music inspires teenage boys to rough up their girlfriends.

When Eminem raps about using a machete to kill his wife and mother, when he compares himself to Ike Turner as he boastfully raps about beating Kim, these young women shrug it off.

Many teenage girls say they adore Eminem because he's cute. In fact, he was recently on the cover of Teen People, which named him the "Sexiest Rapper" in its Summer 2000 issue.

Crystal Stapleton, 15, is a sophomore at Osceola High School in Seminole. She loves Eminem and says his lyrics about women are harmless. Obviously he's exaggerating, Crystal says, to make people laugh.

"He said right on MTV that he loves his wife to death," she says. "He's just playing around. That's how he expresses his anger, like an artist expresses through a painting."

Her best friend, Whitney Young, 14, likes Eminem because he raps about real life. But when he starts dissing the ladies, she says, he doesn't mean it. He says so himself in interviews. Both young women say those apologies are enough for them.

Yet both girls are outraged by Britney Spears. Why? Because she dresses provocatively.

"You might as well put a sign on her forehead that says "I'm a slut,' " said Whitney.

(Incidentally, Eminem calls Spears "garbage" and "retarded" on his new album.)

To be clear: It's okay for Eminem to sing about slashing up females, but it's not okay for Britney Spears to show off her body.

Linda Osmundson, executive director of CASA, the Center Against Spouse Abuse in St. Petersburg, hears that odd reasoning all the time.

Women in abusive situations, says Osmundson, accept an abuser's feeble apologies after the violence, when he snaps back to his "real" self and says he realizes what he did was wrong. Women, says Osmundson, are also encouraged to mistrust and compete with other women.

Osmundson says shrugging Eminem's lyrics off is dangerous.

"This is not funny. We don't allow people to make jokes that are racist. This is offensive to women," she says.

The message that it's okay to be violent to your partner sinks in. "What you say and what you think is what you do," Osmundson says. "What fills your thoughts governs your behavior."

Even if Eminem's lyrics don't propel kids to action, they can lead to them becoming lackadaisical about violence.

"You become numb to it," Osmundson says. "You begin to think this is acceptable behavior. This teaches kids that, "This is what happens in a relationship. This is normal.' It's not normal."

Even if Eminem says he's just joking around? If he says he doesn't mean it?

"That's what batterers do," Osmundson says. "They hit you and then say, "Oops, I didn't mean to,' after they've broken your jaw."

Osmundson says Eminem's message is this: Women are expendable.

Consider Kill You's haunting refrain: You ain't nuthin' but a girl to me.

Is he just creating a character? Is it harmless? A little "Slim Shady in all of us"?

Last month, Marshall Mathers -- the real guy -- was charged with two felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon. The problem? In a parking lot outside a bar in Michigan, another guy was trying to smooch Kim.

Who came to the rapper's defense? For one, Kim, who in a public statement acknowledged the couple's volatile relationship.

Other hip-hop stars, too, defended Eminem.

Even Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot, a feminist pioneer in rap who has done charity work for a domestic abuse prevention group, defended Eminem.

"Parents when they raise their kids right, they know the difference between fantasy and reality," Elliot told Rolling Stone.

Scott Harrell, 28, works at DaddyKool.com, a record store in St. Petersburg. Eminem's new disc, he says, is the store's hottest seller. It's mostly young men buying. Also an editor at Focus, a local music magazine, Harrell says Eminem is too extreme.

"I'm not easily offended, but there's stuff on there that gets a reaction from me," Harrell says. "The homophobia and the misogyny, it's just too much."

Harrell worries that some young people are too impressionable to handle Eminem's hyperbole.

"If a kid has been educated and has any kind of thought process, it's not harmful," Harrell says. "But it's dangerous to stupid kids."

Eminem raps about not wanting to be a role model. He admits that his life is crazy and he resents that kids look up to him and parents try to blame him for their kids' behavior. His song Who Knew addresses this with both concern and contempt:

I never knew I'd get him to slit his wrists.

I never knew I'd get him to hit this bitch.

Eminem and Dre and a bunch of their pals bring their "Up in Smoke" tour to Tampa's Ice Palace in August. Ladies, if you go, remember, while Eminem is rapping, "Slim Shady will f--- kill you," don't fret. Wait until the end of the song, for Eminem's explanation, his apology, the bit where another persona, presumably Marshall Mathers, giggles and says, "I'm just playing, ladies. You know I love you."

Times researchers Kitty Bennett and Cathy Wos contributed to this report.

To reach Gina Vivinetto, e-mail gina@sptimes.com.

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