TRIGGER WARNING
My son started the following conversation in the car this last week:
“Who is the best rapper ever?”None of us actually really care for rap so it was kind of a benign question. Or so I thought.
Eminem was discussed.
Yes. I personally think he is
pretty talented. He makes words rhyme
that shouldn’t rhyme. And some of his
stuff is pretty catchy. But his lyrics
are awful. And the way he portrays women
– particularly his ex wife and his mother are pretty horrible as well. I mentioned this and of course my son wanted
examples because his only exposure is “mom’s spaghetti” which has made the
rounds as a meme. (from Lose Yourself – which is actually a
pretty tame song for him all things considered especially if you are listening
to the radio edit). So I needed him to
understand that talent doesn’t excuse objectification of women.
There were two songs that I googled the lyrics to and had him
review. One was about his ex-wife and
details how he and his daughter are in a car driving to dispose of her body
after he killed her. The other was a collaboration
with another artist about their visits to strip clubs where they egg the women
on. (a truly disgusting song).
I failed. He made comments like:
why is Eminem at fault when the strippers are the one’s doing it for money? It’s
not like they are forced to be strippers.
They should just get a different job.
They are just doing their job.
It was a total failure and it ended with me in my room crying because I
remembered when my husband used to tell me I had to have sex with him.
“Just do your job you ***** ****” he would say.
And my son is still clueless about the objectification of women in
music.