Month: November 2003

Eminem’s ex, Kimberly Mathers, is a wanted woman.

Warrants for her arrest were issued after the former Mrs. Slim Shady was a no-show at two separate court dates, according to Detroit newspapers. Her attorney said Kimberly had not been heard from in a week.

Attorney Michael Smith said he last spoke to Kimberly on Oct. 30 and that “she was in great spirits.”

“Everyone is concerned,” Smith said, adding this was the longest his client had gone AWOL. “Nobody knows where she is.”

In the meantime, the rapper was awarded temporary custody of the couple’s seven-year-old daughter, Hailie Jade, according to his attorney.

“A decision was made by the court, Marshall was given full temporary custody of his daughter, Hailie,” Harvey Hauer told E! Online.

Eminem’s publicist would only say of the Mathers’ legal woes, “The order speaks for itself.”

Kimberly recently had a second daughter with another man. There has been no word on who has custody of that child.

On Thursday, after she failed to show up for an arraignment on charges of maintaining a drug den, 37th District Judge John Chmura issued a bench warrant for Kimberly’s arrest.

The charges stem from a Sept. 29 raid when cops in Warren, Michigan, answering a noise complaint, busted up a party at a hotel room she had rented where illegal substances were found.

It was the second arrest warrant issued for Mathers this week.

Mathers failed to appear at an arraignment on Tuesday for violating her bail conditions on a charge of cocaine possession. When Mathers’ attorney couldn’t reach his client, Circuit Court Judge Edward Servitto issued the bench warrant.

Mathers was busted on June 10 during a routine traffic stop after officers found less than 25 grams of cocaine.

After she failed to show for her first two pretrial hearings, Servitto ordered the 28-year-old placed under electronic house arrest.

Last month, a penitent Kimberly Mathers agreed to stay home, except to attend court appearances and counseling sessions, and to wear the electronic tether in order to avoid jail time.

Mathers may still be wearing the electronic tether says her attorney. But the device is only meant to notify authorities if she leaves home. It’s unable track her movements.

The former wife of Eminem is now a wanted woman.

Kim Mathers failed to appear for a preliminary hearing Thursday in Warren District Court to face possible charges in connection with a drug raid at a local hotel.

She is now a fugitive and two bench warrants have been issued for her arrest, Local 4 reported.

“Is Kimberly Ann Mathers in the courtroom?” Judge John Chmura said before issuing the bench warrants.

Mathers’ attorney said he and her family have not seen or heard from her since last Thursday.

“Her family and her children are praying for her. We are really concerned,” said Attorney Michael Smith.

There are two bench warrants out for Mathers since she didn’t show up for a hearing Tuesday, according to Local 4.

Mathers, 28, faces charges for a Sept. 29 party held in her Warren hotel room, according to police.

Acting on a report of a disorderly person, Warren officers spotted Mathers talking on a cellular phone outside her room at the Candlewood Suites shortly before 3 a.m., according to the Macomb Daily.

Police told the paper they heard yelling and loud music coming from inside. When she opened the door, officers saw several people inside, “several” open bottles of alcohol and cigarette rolling papers, according to a police report.

Mathers apparently told police the room was in her name and that people were using marijuana and Ecstasy at the party, the police report states.

‘Angry Blonde’ has been written by Eminem himself. This book contains most of Eminem’s lyrics from the Slim Shady Lp and the Marshall Mathers Lp, some Infinite album songs and some freestyles, a lot of pictures. Eminem also included some personal comments who will help the reader to understand the context in which each song was written.

Not only the fans, but also people who have a bad opinion about Eminem should take a look at it: it would certainly help them to do away with some stereotypes.

For those who still think Eminem actually wanted to kill Kim, they will learn that “Bonny and Clyde 97” was created by Marshall to express his frustration about Kim trying to separate him from their daughter. They will also clearly understand that this song was a trick to get back at her for her to listen to the song.

People who know Eminem’s personality also know that he will make public your argument with him if you drive him mad. He is used to speaking his mind and he does it publicly.

It is funny to discover how Eminem and Dr Dre worked on “Guilty Conscience” which was supposed to be called “Night ’n’ Day”.

Some songs’ creation begin with a little joke, a little melody like “My Fault” that it based on a joke about one of Eminem’s friends having a “bad trip”.
Sometimes Eminem gets his inspiration from negative events and stress around him. “The Way I Am” is the expression of the whole stress he lets out of his chest. The words he spits in his songs are weapons against his enemies. “The Real Slim Shady” is a good example, you can see how Christina Aguilera and Will Smith get dissed.

You will also have fun discovering Eminem’s collaboration with his fellows from D12. You will enter with pleasure in a world where music is a passion.
A book that is worth reading for each Eminem fan, but also for people who don’t know him and who want to investigate the mind of Slim Shady.

RAPPER Eminem has been helping Bolton pupils to get their environmental message across.

They have reinterpreted one of his songs for a new CD which tackles issues ranging from litter and graffiti to global warming.

The album features around 180 pupils from 14 primary schools and was the brainchild of Bolton Council’s youth and community environment worker Dave Shuttleworth.

The CD emerged from workshops he conducted with Year Five classes and is a mixture of cover versions of chart songs with their lyrics rewritten on an environmental theme, and new compositions.

There was one slight problem with playing Eminem, the world’s most popular rapper, in the classroom. Mr Shuttleworth said: “We had to bleep out some of the words before we let the kids listen to it in class.”

The album was recorded at Ionian Studios in Halliwell and Phoenix Studios in Bark Street with financial help from Bolton At Home, the organisation which manages the council’s housing stock, and the Government’s single regeneration budget.

Mr Shuttleworth said: “If you look how many programmes there are about being pop stars, it’s great for the kids to have a chance to go to a proper recording studio and see the mixing desk and other equipment.”

The CD will not go on sale but Mr Shuttleworth will encourage owners to “recycle” it by burning a copy onto a recordable CD and spreading the word.

“They love it, although they always get this half-embarrassed look on their faces when you play the recording back to them as if they can’t quite believe it’s them.

“The whole project is about taking something that’s quite difficult like the environmental message and associating it with something they like so they can see that it’s not boring.”

Musical styles on the album vary from rap to reggae and R ‘n’ B.

The full tracklisting for the album is:

1. The Power of Nature- Red Lane County Primary

2. One step closer- Red Lane County Primary

3. G-G-G-Graffiti- Crompton Fold

4. Beautiful- Crompton Fold

5. Captain Clean- Green Generation

6. Vandalism- Lever Edge County Primary

7. A place Where I Can Fly- Lever Edge County Primary

8. Extinction Blues- St. Columba’s Roman Catholic School

9. Why?- Castle Hill School

10. Been to the Year 3000 (and it was hot!)- Moorgate County Primary

11. Funky Planet- Green Generation

12. Don’t Drop The Can Baby!- Wally’s Youth Club

13. Messy- St. Andrews RC

14. Down in the Jungle- Top o’th’ Brow County Primary

15. Warraloadarubbish- Holy Infants Roman Catholic School

16. The Green Team Rock- Oldhams County Primary

17. Get the Low-down on the Ozone- Roscow Fold Guides

18. Keep Our Environment Clean!- Mean Green Team

EDINBURGH, Scotland (Reuters) — British singer Dido will be forever grateful to “Bad Boy” rapper Eminem for launching her on the road to stardom.

She was promoting her debut album “No Angel” across the United States in the spring of 2000 when a CD arrived in New York for her with a covering letter from one of the most controversial figures in American music.

Eminem’s decision to use the Dido song “Thankyou” in his ode to an obsessed fan “Stan” transformed her career. “It was a bolt from the blue when I got word of his interest,” she said. “Naively, I just didn’t predict the effect it would have on my career. I simply told a few mates, who also thought Eminem was cool, and then carried on promoting my album. But of course the eventual effect would be insane,” she told Reuters on Wednesday after rehearsing for her appearance at this year’s MTV Europe awards in Edinburgh.

“We both really enjoyed the song, enjoyed performing. Of course I am thankful to him,” she added.

Her critically acclaimed debut album went on to sell 12 million copies and establish her as an international star. Now she has no fears of suffering from what she calls “Difficult Second Album Syndrome.” “I was so excited to be back in the studio,” she said of the time writing the newly released album “Life for Rent.” “Being on tour for two years I was desperate to get down all these songs that were going around in my head and driving me crazy,” she said. “I got to be at home for a year and make music. I don’t know why you get a syndrome.”

By Quincey D.

The undisputed largest musical controversy of this summer swirled around the new release by the artist who fellow rapper Snoop Dogg has called the ‘Great White Hope’ of hip hop, Eminem. The Marshall Mathers LP became one of the fastest selling albums in hip hop history and as a consequence, scared the hell out of much of the conservative public.

It is so much easier to stick one’s head in the sand, but the beauty of hip hop has always been, in the much-repeated phrase, keeping it real. Eminem calls it like he sees it, from his bad upbringing, the bad parenting of others, poverty, personal isolation, class strata in this supposedly classless country, relations between the sexes and the often blatant hypocrisy of the music industry.
Speaking out on social ills is nothing new in music, but Eminem does it in a way many have never heard in hip hop before: satire.

Satire is a notoriously difficult medium in which to create because, in short, many people just may not get it. The effectiveness of satire comes from its ability to be realized as such, and the overwhelming critical and popular acclaim the album and the artist have received is an indication that a great many people do get it.

‘Eminem’s lyrics are seeped in sarcasm and riddled with irony,’ said Aaron Schultz, music director for WBUL, USF’s student-run radio station. ‘But (his detractors) take them at face value and don’t look deeper into what he is saying.’

An indication of the album’s satire is the use of characters, and on The Marshall Mathers LP Eminem takes on the roles of two characters for perhaps the album’s most controversial track, ‘Kim.’

‘Kim’ is a frighteningly powerful scenario that enacts a violent fight between a husband and wife, ultimately ending in the kidnapping and murder of the wife. The track is powerful not because it seems to glorify domestic violence, but because it is probably an internal dialogue or fantasy that is more common in men than society would like to think. The use of Eminem’s real name, Marshall, and that of his wife, Kim, further drives home the idea that this scenario is a common one that even the rapper has fantasized about.

It is to Eminem’s credit, in fact, that he is brave enough to present such a frightening fantasy to a society that would rather deny the existence of domestic abuse in reality or as a fantasy in the minds of some men.
One of the most significant things about the track is that Eminem also performs the part of the female. The performance is not mocking or derisive at all. Rather, it is a staggeringly real portrayal of a woman in an abusive situation.
The song is at the peak of its realism during a brief moment in which the abuser male drops his bravado and reveals the staggering insecurities that fuel the abuse. This touch of character motivation and the realism of the scene, coupled with Eminem’s sharp ear for dialogue, is what makes the track the opposite of everything its detractors say it is. It is not a glorification of domestic abuse, but rather a warning and powerfully real portrayal of what happens every day to dysfunctional couples.

Eminem has also been accused of homophobia by organizations such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation. It is true that Eminem uses the word f”t when describing gays, but in two of the instances he follows it up with a denial that he is homophobic.

The use of the slur is a broad topic in hip hop, almost as broad as the use of the word b’-h in hip hop to describe women. A master’s thesis in popular cultural studies might begin to address the implications and motivations behind the use of such language. But in a nutshell, hip hop has always been the music of survivors, be it survivors of the street or abuse in the home or society.
In a culture of survivalism, the merest hint of weakness is leapt upon, and in many cases the gender-implicit f- or b-word is used to deride that weakness. And in many instances, those words are used only to comment on weakness, not the sexual preference or gender. So in effect, the word is detached from its denotation and given a different connotation of ‘weak’ or ‘stupid’ or ‘inadequate.’

Eminem does understand the power certain language has for certain groups of people, however, because in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine he vehemently denied that he would ever or has ever used the n-word to talk about African Americans.

‘These people rap about the people they know and what’s going on on their block,’ said Orlando, a DJ and the program director for Wild 98.7. ‘When Eminem says the word ‘bitch’ to talk about a girl, he is not talking about every girl.’

Perhaps what Eminem must understand is that for some people, hearing that language at all is akin to being slapped in the face, and no explanation can take away that sting. That fact should not curtail him as an artist, but it should also not make controversy a surprise.

And let’s face it folks, much of the controversy about the album has an undertone of race. For years African American rappers have been saying roughly the same things Eminem is saying now, and have also had success. But now a Caucasian guy is doing the same thing, and getting a great deal of attention and critical success to boot, and that scares those who would rather their children and the public in general not be clued in to the issues addressed by hip hop.

In the midst of the controversy, one almost takes for granted the amazing artistry of the album. Eminem is an innovative and consistently excellent lyricist whose metaphors, similes and caustic one-liners snap and land on the listener’s brain like a whiplash. It is also obvious on the album that the songs are as tightly structured sonically as the lyrics are verbally. Dr. Dre, the critically- acclaimed rap superstar who also produced Eminem’s Slim Shady LP, is at his finest when working with such a prodigious talent as Eminem.

The controversies surrounding The Marshall Mathers LP has not hurt Eminem’s commercial viability, however, and he continues to be a favorite among the mainstream and underground hip hop audiences.
‘The single ‘The Real Slim Shady’ was played all summer,’ said Matthew Whitten, a hip hop DJ and marketing director for WBUL. ‘When the semester kicks in, the DJs here will probably be playing the rest of the album as well more. I personally still play The Slim Shady LP.’
‘We caught a lot of flack for playing the first CD,’ said Orlando. ‘So (controversy regarding Eminem) is nothing new to us. We fully support Eminem’s product. We find it compelling and we welcome the music he sends up. We also find no parity between (the music) and the social ill people are trying to pin on (Eminem).’

The question of whether art fuels society or society fuels art is as old as culture itself and as impossible to answer as the chicken-and-the-egg question. But one thing is definite, one cannot exist without the other. Artists such as Eminem reveal to us the extent of our problems, and perhaps it is through this honest expression that society can begin to heal its wounds.

Quincy D. Vierling offers us an excellent analysis and understanding of Eminem and hip hop in general. This article is definitly worth reading.