Thanks halden, I fwd’d it to my all my teen grandkids. By coincidence I was busy writing a critique of Eminem’s new release “Recovery,” when I popped over here and saw your post. I give young MMathers credit for his word smithin but not his continued, over-cliché’d violent, misogyny/homophobia. Still, the first line of “I’m not afraid,” from “Recovery,” reads a bit like a Johnny Cash song.
“I’m not afraid to take a stand /
Everybody come take my hand /
We’ll walk this road together, through the storm /
Whatever weather, cold or warm /
Just let you know that, you’re not alone /
Hola if you feel that you’ve been down the same road.”
Later on it’s quickly back to bit%#h slappin ho’s etc, too bad. Maybe he’s off the white for now, but after a month in rehab he has yet to work out his traumatic potty training or mirror stage, a better title would have been,”méconnaissance.”
I’m sorry to break up the love fest, but I don’t feel like we should give all this credit to a verse that could have been written by Scott Stapp. I mean, read it. MM has written some fine stuff (and I will admit that regardless of what the lyrics his delivery is always incredible), but this just bad. This really strikes me as a perfect example of what Douglas Coupland termed “recreational slumming”. It’s like, “oh look at the cute little rapper-boy, talking about trying to be nice! Isn’t that just dear?!” There are some really good rappers out there with legitimately profound lyrics. It’s a discredit to hip-hop to call this anything but the schlock it is.
With the J.T. character on the still, I thought this was going to be a reprise of “Dick in a Box.” Sorta, I guess.
@Daniel: thanks for the Marshall Mathers reflections. Every once in a while I’m strangely rapt by Eminem’s rhymes. E.g., I find his stanza in “Airplanes 2″ quite affecting.
Well Adam, I don’t want to get into a throwdown over M+M’s prosody. However after I wiki’d Stapp (didn’t recall him, and why should I?) all I can hear is M’s “I’m not afraid” to the melody of “With Arms Wide Open,” by Stapp. There goes my job with ‘Vibe’ magazine.
Thanks Charlie, I read that critique by Bauer, and one passage stuck out for me, and surprisingly it is as relevant to this thread as it is to Nate’s insightful quote above! Lady Gaga says: “’Me embodying the position that I’m analyzing is the very thing that makes it so powerful.’ Of course, the more successful the embodiment, the less obvious the analytic part is. ‘“ Perhaps Nate saying something similar? “A world that is curved in upon itself, that is delusively ‘in itself,’ is “the world in the negative sense….’” That is, if Gaga’s mission is the ‘deconstruction of femininity and celebrity’ in order to embody transcendent ‘woman’ (and by her accounts it is) via a self-reflexive gesture of objectification that turns the capitalist body of sexualized spectacle in upon itself; Then (to tweak Debord a bit) Is the church the ‘worlding’ of the ‘world’ through the Spirit, until it materializes Christ? (in the Heideggerian sense of worlding?); rather than the Church, Churching the ‘world’ until it transcends its materiality through the Spirit? If so, I think Gaga’s done an impressive bit of theologizing in her video, and doing it while wearing nothing but silver pasties and a visqueen body suit!
Thanks halden, I fwd’d it to my all my teen grandkids. By coincidence I was busy writing a critique of Eminem’s new release “Recovery,” when I popped over here and saw your post. I give young MMathers credit for his word smithin but not his continued, over-cliché’d violent, misogyny/homophobia. Still, the first line of “I’m not afraid,” from “Recovery,” reads a bit like a Johnny Cash song.
“I’m not afraid to take a stand /
Everybody come take my hand /
We’ll walk this road together, through the storm /
Whatever weather, cold or warm /
Just let you know that, you’re not alone /
Hola if you feel that you’ve been down the same road.”
Later on it’s quickly back to bit%#h slappin ho’s etc, too bad. Maybe he’s off the white for now, but after a month in rehab he has yet to work out his traumatic potty training or mirror stage, a better title would have been,”méconnaissance.”
I’m sorry to break up the love fest, but I don’t feel like we should give all this credit to a verse that could have been written by Scott Stapp. I mean, read it. MM has written some fine stuff (and I will admit that regardless of what the lyrics his delivery is always incredible), but this just bad. This really strikes me as a perfect example of what Douglas Coupland termed “recreational slumming”. It’s like, “oh look at the cute little rapper-boy, talking about trying to be nice! Isn’t that just dear?!” There are some really good rappers out there with legitimately profound lyrics. It’s a discredit to hip-hop to call this anything but the schlock it is.
With the J.T. character on the still, I thought this was going to be a reprise of “Dick in a Box.” Sorta, I guess.
@Daniel: thanks for the Marshall Mathers reflections. Every once in a while I’m strangely rapt by Eminem’s rhymes. E.g., I find his stanza in “Airplanes 2″ quite affecting.
I’m glad to see you’re a fan of Lajoie too. I heartily encourage you to post “Radio Friendly Song” as well. It’s just too damn funny.
@ JKAS, yes on airplane 2, and what do you make of Lady GaGa’s “Telephone” with Beyonce? maybe compared with “Alejandro?” And why poison the dog?
That is the biggest question I have about the video.
Apropos GaGa’s “Telephone” video, don’t miss this piece by a feminist philosopher from Tufts:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/lady-power/?src=me&ref=homepage
Well Adam, I don’t want to get into a throwdown over M+M’s prosody. However after I wiki’d Stapp (didn’t recall him, and why should I?) all I can hear is M’s “I’m not afraid” to the melody of “With Arms Wide Open,” by Stapp. There goes my job with ‘Vibe’ magazine.
Heh. Glad to ruin it for you.
This brings back memories of the totally awesome MTV movie and sitcom, 2gether: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2ge%2Bher
Wow! this post has reminded me to ask….
Did you guys see that Rolling Stone is reviewing ‘The
Scandal: Theses of the New Apocalyptos’?
Check it out here.
http:/ApocalypseNow.com
Thanks Charlie, I read that critique by Bauer, and one passage stuck out for me, and surprisingly it is as relevant to this thread as it is to Nate’s insightful quote above! Lady Gaga says: “’Me embodying the position that I’m analyzing is the very thing that makes it so powerful.’ Of course, the more successful the embodiment, the less obvious the analytic part is. ‘“ Perhaps Nate saying something similar? “A world that is curved in upon itself, that is delusively ‘in itself,’ is “the world in the negative sense….’” That is, if Gaga’s mission is the ‘deconstruction of femininity and celebrity’ in order to embody transcendent ‘woman’ (and by her accounts it is) via a self-reflexive gesture of objectification that turns the capitalist body of sexualized spectacle in upon itself; Then (to tweak Debord a bit) Is the church the ‘worlding’ of the ‘world’ through the Spirit, until it materializes Christ? (in the Heideggerian sense of worlding?); rather than the Church, Churching the ‘world’ until it transcends its materiality through the Spirit? If so, I think Gaga’s done an impressive bit of theologizing in her video, and doing it while wearing nothing but silver pasties and a visqueen body suit!
@ Daniel, then. Time Magazine says: “Lady Gaga–Best theologian of 21st century.”
I wish angry American social commentary could look more like this. Raw, non commercial, no pasties:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIo6lyP9tTE