...When All is Said and Dunn

February 19th: As soon as rapper Eminem received his Grammy nomination on January 3 for Album of the Year, a storm began. As I begin writing this week’s article, the Grammy Awards are still a couple of days away and the hype and the hoopla surrounding his nomination has reached a fevered pitch.

He was on the cover of the Entertainment Section in both the Sunday LA Times and the Sunday Daily News. You can’t watch a news program without hearing his name or seeing his blond hair and baby face sneering at you from one of the many publicity stills out there. His publicists must be jumping with joy.

At the heart of this current uproar is not only the nomination, but the Grammy telecast itself. On Wednesday night, February 21, Eminem is to take the stage with Elton John and perform the song “Stan” in front of an estimated worldwide audience of 2 billion. This has flamed the fires of the gay rights groups, not only because of John’s participation, who is openly gay, but also because the Grammys are giving Eminem even more exposure that he has previously received.

The song “Stan” is probably the best song on the album and it is very well done. It is also without a doubt the tamest song as far as subject matter goes. Obviously, it has to be the reason for its selection.
This guy’s last album, “The Marshall Mathers LP” has sold an astounding 8 million copies. Like most people my age, we are not the ones buying this type of music. It is our kids who are the ones listening to it. As with generations before us, we, the parents, won’t ever hear anything more than the couple of edited versions of his songs on the radio. What we hear are the catchy melodies and hooks with all the bad language removed.

I have been a music fan my whole life. I not only listened to I, but I studied it in school and performed it as well. I never confined myself to one kind of music like so many people do. I listen to everything, and while all of it may not be for me, I generally can find some redeeming qualities or at least understand what the artist is attempting to do.

While I have listened to a lot of rap and hip-hop music and find some of it creative, innovative, and worthwhile, some of it is nothing more that non-creative garbage. The “vocalists” are not singing and the “composers” do not compose. They talk in rhymes like beat poets on speed and borrow parts of other artist’s previously recorded works.

While the melodies can be infectious, as they are on Eminem’s album, that is what can be so deceiving. We as parents think, “Well, how bad can it be?” and it’s that type of complacent attitude that has sold so many albums. If any parents bothered to listen to this album they would want to join groups like GLAAD and the Family Violence Prevention Fund who want Eminem's head on a platter.

I actually sat down and listened to and watched a videotape of his latest tour just to hear what my 9-year-old son wanted to buy, and I was appalled and shocked. I had heard the tales of what a misogynistic, woman-hating, homophobic, and violently demented guy he was, but I had no idea to what degree.

As anyone who knows me will tell you, when the kids are not around I use my share of expletives and my taste in films and music can be hard-edged. I don’t have a problem with offensive lyrics in the music that I listen to, but I won’t play it when my kids are around. I also understand my son’s desire to listen to what is considered cutting edge.

When I was 13, a couple of friends and I conned my parents into dropping us off at a concert for what was considered to be the most controversial music group at the time, The Doors. Back then, as it is today, parents didn’t like the music we kids were listening to, so they would do anything not to listen to it. Thus they were oblivious to what the lyrics contained. Except today the bar has been lowered to the point where anything goes and ignoring it is akin to allowing your kids to watch pornography. Eminem’s defenders call him a modern day poet. I’m sorry, Eminem is no Jim Morrison.

There is only so much I can describe in print given the format of this paper. Even with the incredibly mild expletives that I occasionally use in my articles there are those puritanical watch dogs out there that feel compelled to complain to the editor if I use anything stronger than darn. If these people ever took the time to listen to an unedited version of an Eminem song, I think they would spontaneously combust.

I think it should be mandatory for parents to listen to it, no matter how unpleasant they find it. We all have to do things that we don’t necessarily want to, but we do it because of our kids. We should feel compelled to spend a few minutes to listen to what our kids either are listening to or want to listen to just to see if it’s appropriate.

Most of us monitor the films that they watch; the same should apply to music.

February 21: The Grammy Awards have been handed out, the Real Slim Shady, Eminem’s alter ego, won the Best Rap Album. This comes as no shock because it was far and away the best album nominated. On his best behavior when accepting the award, he was coherent and well spoken, by rap standards. But the Grammy world is safe, the Best Album of the year went to Steely Dan’s “Two Against Nature” album.

But the night belonged to Eminem and Elton John. Rising to the occasion, the rendition of “Stan’ was amazing, leaving everyone in the audience visibly moved. Slim was under the gun and he rose to the challenge delivering a performance that even his most hard-core detractors would have to admit was moving.

So where does that leave me? Do I continue to tell my son that he can’t listen to Eminem? Yes, it does. Do I tell him that Eminem has no talent? No. He is gifted in the medium that he works in, but unfortunately, it is a medium my son Alex is not ready for. Until Eminem and the majority of rap artists decide to stop shocking for shock’s sake, I will continue to ban it until I think my son is ready for it.

Maybe when he is about 30.

The Shrub Speaks: “Home is important. It is important to have a home.”--Crawford, Texas, February 18, 2001