In a word of fake desillusions where people are used to hide the truth and the facts at any price, Eminem appears to have started a real revolution. His lyrics as well as his story are based on real facts.
Eminem exposes truths and harsh things people often dont want to hear about.
Like he expresses it so well in the song « Square Dance » from the « Eminem Show », he fights for « the right to say something you might not like. »
Eminem exposes his own story as a poor white trash kid to the public. Many people in America, who live their comfortable lives dont want to hear about poverty. Eminem understood it well and let his words explode at their faces in his song « Rock Bottom » from the Slim Shady Lp, that is certainly one of the realest and the more touching song of the whole album.
Yes, the facts are so real and do hurt : look at this father whos unable to feed his daughter :
« My daughters feet aint got no shoes or sock on em
». Rich Americans, open your eyes !
They prefer to ignore some facts, particularly the existence of white trash and underground people. Eminem is deranging to them. They prefer not to look at what he has to say and criticize his lyrics as « demeaning to the youth and to society ». Those people live in a closed world and are totally ignorant of the every day reality of the poor working classes.
To be well understood, young people need people who are really close to them and not the kind of psychologists who spend their time writing theories about them. Marshall stands very close to the youth. Not only that he dresses like them, but he experienced the same kind of problems teenagers usually do : broken families, drug addiction, misunderstandings
Marshall shows his concern for kids in his music. The sentence taken out of « Stimulate » from the bonus CD of the 8 Mile soundtrack « Bless the children, nothing less than brilliant
» is touching. « Sing For The Moment » helps so many teenagers who experience harsh problems with their families.
Eminem cannot be held responsible for the societys decay. The issues Eminem raises need to be exposed. Too often, people picture America as a wealthy paradise.
We also need to discover Americas « other side », a country where some people live in misery in the ghetto where drug dealers and murderers reign. Eminem has the courage to expose his vision of America that may be shocking and full of uglyness, but that is certainly closer to the every day reality.
« Guilty Conscience » featuring Dr Dre from the Slim Shady LP is very representative of that reality. Dramas, robberies, murders also belong to the American reality and shouldnt be ignored. « Guilty Conscience » may have shocked many politicians, but who could deny the existence of those events ?
Eminem has done a real good job as an engaged artist. He has certainly contributed for a large part to open peoples consciousness about the urban culture and ghetto reality. He is not afraid of a public exposure of the harsh reality. Violence exists, particularly in the ghetto. No doubt, its hard to live in the 313, but its worth discovering this world where murder is law and drugs deals , prostitution and poverty belong to the daily reality.