INTERVIEW: Eminem
- Lang Whitaker
His name is Slim Shady -- that's Eminem if you're nasty -- but for Marshall Mathers, a talented rapper out of the slums of Detroit, right now his name is platinum. Eminem's major label debut album, The Slim Shady LP, has been thrashing around the top ten all spring, thanks to the memorable lead single "My Name Is..." and a collection of violent, humorous songs. With a blunted blessing from Dr. Dre, Eminem appears to be ready to atone for the sins of previous white rappers like Vanilla Ice.
CONSUMABLE ONLINE: Whassup, Em? You know, your record really reminds me of South Park.
EMINEM: (laughs) Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remind myself of South Park a little bit, just the political incorrectness of it.
CO: You revel in your political incorrectness; you celebrate that.
EMINEM: Yeah, I do. That's just my sense of humor, man. That's how I am in everyday life. I never knew I was going to make money off of this shit.
CO: I bet you were a handful growing up.
EMINEM: I was definitely different. I was the distant kid. You know, real distant. The friends I did have knew me well, but I didn't have a lot of friends. I was kind of the smart ass, too. Teachers always gave me shit 'cause I never went to school. Then when I did show up, they would fuck with me. They'd be like "Oh, Mr. Mathers decided to join us today." That type of shit.
CO: So you dropped out of high school, and then you had a couple of full-time jobs?
EMINEM: (laughs) I had a LOT of full-time jobs. I had a couple of cook jobs, short order cook and shit; factory jobs, sweeping floors and cleaning toilets and shit. Just shitty fucking bullshit jobs.
CO: Why'd you keep doing them? Because you had to make money somehow?
EMINEM: Definitely. I had to. Plus, I had a little girl. She's three years old, now.
CO: You talk about your daughter all the time in your music, and you seem like you try very hard to be a good father to her. Why is that?
EMINEM: It's got a little something to do with me not knowing my father, so I try to fuckin' make it up a little bit. But I don't think that's the only reason. I think parenthood comes naturally to me. I mean, I raised my little brother. My little brother was born when I was eleven years old, so I pretty much raised him from the cradle. So I think when my daughter was born, it really came naturally.
CO: And from what I've read, you and your Mom don't have much of a relationship now.
EMINEM: Nah, we don't. I talk to her every now and then, but I talk to her as little as I can. She's got my little brother, so when I do talk to her, it's really to talk to him. I really don't have a reason to talk to my mother. My mother's done so much fucking fucked up shit to me that's it's kind of like, you know, now that I don't have to talk to her, I ain't gonna.
CO: Would you let your daughter listen to your music?
EMINEM: My daughter does listen to my music. She ain't really old enough to understand it now, but when she does get old enough and asks me "What does this and this and this mean?" I'll explain it to her. I'll tell her what each thing means.
CO: Well, you know what's coming next. How do you explain your song "97' Bonnie & Clyde," in which you kill your baby's mama and take the baby along to throw the body in the ocean?
EMINEM: Well, when she's old enough I'll explain to her that Mommy and Daddy are actually getting along.
CO: Yeah, but a lot of kids are buying your music, and I'm sure you've gotta be catchin' flack from parental groups.
EMINEM: Fuck 'em, though. It's with any rap record, with any fuckin' rap record. People act like Eminem is the first person to say the shit that I do. Well, maybe I am the first person to say the shit to this extreme, but all I do is say what's on my fuckin' mind, man. You know, hip-hop is hip-hop and it's always been like this -- from N.W.A. to Ice-T -- and anyone who said it was a bad influence on the kids back then...I mean, look at me. I was listening to 2 Live Crew when I was eleven years old.
CO: Exactly! People are going to say, "He listened to 2 Live Crew when he was eleven, and now listen to the filth he's making now."
EMINEM: Yeah, but you know what? People ask me, "What would you say to someone that wanted to grow up to be like you?" And I would say not to do it. Don't grow up to be me. But, at the same time, is it really a bad thing to grow up to be like me, to come from the fucking gutter and then to become a fucking rap star? Is that neccessarily a bad thing?
CO: Still, don't you worry about people taking what you say the wrong way sometimes? Like people won't see the comedy in your music?
EMINEM: People who don't know shit about fucking hip-hop will take it the wrong fucking way. It's like they refuse to see the fucking comedy in it. To me that shows me that I'm hitting some soft spots, for them to take my shit that seriously. It's like back then when they was younger, they were doing this shit and they don't want to admit it now. Everybody wants to fucking preach, man. "Don't do this and don't do that!" Then they go home and they do it. They say, "Stop porn, stop porn!" Then they go home and they beat off to a fucking porno mag under their bed. They want everybody in the public eye to see that they're so fucking righteous.
CO: And you don't give a shit.
EMINEM: No, I don't give a FUCK about them. I don't give a fuck about them.
