>From another list I'm on. I found it interesting. Jerry.
David Duke's only sin is not putting his anti-Semitism to music. Or so
America's music industry would have us believe.
In the fanciful world of the Grammys, hate is art and bigotry is funny
so
long as it's couched in a catchy tune and a rhyme or two.
The controversy over popular rapper Eminem (nee Marshall Mathers) came
to a
head this week as the annual Grammy awards were held in Los Angeles to a
worldwide televised audience of over 1 billion. Hundreds rallied
outside
the ceremony - and Lynne Cheney, the Vice President's wife even added
her
two cents - to protest Eminem's lyrics glorifying violence against women
and gays, and to put to shame Grammy officials who not only invited
Eminem
to sing at the event, but presented him with three awards for his
homophobic and misogynist lyrics.
Just before Eminem sang, Michael Greene, president and CEO of the
Recording
Academy, addressed the assembled crowd, and TV audience, explaining away
the industry's defense of the 28-year-old white rapper as an exercise in
"tolerance." According to Greene, Eminem's lyrics are simply a
reflection
of our culture, and certainly no worse than Elvis' hips, or the Beatles'
hair:
"...music has always been the voice of rebellion -- it's a mirror of our
culture, sometimes reflecting a dark and disturbing underbelly obscured
from the view of most people of privilege, a militarized zone which is
chronicled by the CNN of the inner city -- rap and hip-hop music. We
can't
edit out the art that makes us uncomfortable. That's what our parents
tried
to do to Elvis, the Stones and the Beatles... Let's not forget that
sometimes it takes tolerance to teach tolerance."
Eminem's lyrics (yes, I've listened to the album) certainly are a
reflection of society - they are filled with bigotry, hatred, and
exhortations to violence. But it is a shocking fallacy to suggest that
hate is not hate so long as the sentiment is shared by a larger
community. David Duke does not exist in a vacuum, and Timothy McVeigh
is
not the nation's sole militia sympathizer. Yet we do not exonerate
their
hate simply because they are members of larger communities of
intolerance.
Some say the comparison is unfair - Eminem's words are humor, not hate.
In
the spirit of freedom of speech, here's a sampling of Eminem's lyrics,
uncensored. Decide for yourself:
- "my life's like kind of what my wife's like - fucked up after I beat
her
fucking ass every night"
- "'Slim Anus,' you damn right, Slim Anus I don't get fucked in mine
like
you two little flaming faggots!"
- "bitch I'm gonna kill you"
- "I don't give a fuck, if this chick was my own mother, I'd still fuck
her
with no rubber, and cum in side her"
- "My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge, That'll stab you in
the
head whether you're a fag or lez, Or the homosex, hermaph or a
trans-a-vest, Pants or dress - hate fags? The answer's 'yes'"
- "I get more pussy than them dyke bitches total"
- "You want me to fixup lyrics while our president gets his dick
sucked...
Fuck that. Take drugs. Rape sluts. Make fun of gay clubs. Men who wear
makeup."
- "I don't got that bad of a mouth do I? Fuck shit ass bitch, cunt,
shoobie-do-doo-wa (woops!) Skeebie-ba-be-wop, a-Christopher Reeves Sonny
Bono, skeezes, whores, & hittin' some trees (hey!)"
- "You faggots keep eggin me on til I have you at knifepoint, then you
beg
me to stop? SHUT UP!"
Elvis, the Stones and the Beatles indeed.....
