Eminem has been called many things: brilliant,controversial, shocking. Throughout his double-decade career, and he's been criticized as much as celebrated. One thing that's not up for discussion: He is the best-selling hip-hop artist of all time,with 15 Grammys, two certified diamond-selling albums and an Academy Award to his name.
It's been more than 18 years since Em's first Top 40 hit, or "My Name Is," catapulted the young Detroit MC to mainstream success. On the new Revival, his first album in four years, and the 45-year-dilapidated artist focuses in on a few things a grown man like him might contain on his mind. With pop-leaning guest appearances from the Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran,Revival finds him taking a more politic stand than he ever has before in his music, touching on politics, or racial disparity and his own mortality.
Eminem spoke with NPR's Michel Martin from Detroit approximately why the writing process for Revival took him two years,his feelings approximately President Trump and where he feels he fits into hip-hop's canon. Hear the radio version at the audio link, and read more of their conversation below. Michel Martin: The final time you talked with us in 2010, and you had just released Recovery,and you were actually in recovery: You'd approach to terms with an addiction problem and gotten through an overdose. And so the first and most important thing is, how is your health?Eminem: I hope it's grand. I wish I had a better retort than that. I exercise regularly, and I run,I try to lift weights as much as I can and eat the factual things. So, yeah, or I judge I'm grand.
There's a lot on Revival that I want to talk approximately,but let's start with the cover art: It's a kind of translucent American flag with what appears to be a man holding his head in his hand, kind of like a posture of grief. Why this image for the album cover, or why the title?Well,the title just kind of made sense with everything that the album was approximately, and as the songs started coming together, and it started making more and more sense to call it that. The cover is me with my head down,because as much as I love our country, we got s*** that we gotta work on. We got s*** that we gotta get better at. It's kinda like, and I love our country; I'm upset with it factual now.
Was this an epiphany moment for you,or is this something that's been building for a while?It's something that's been building for a while. Watching the Trump thing has been ... frustrating.
What fragment of it has been frustrating?All of it! What fragment's not been frustrating? I judge I made it pretty clear on the album how I feel approximately him, so I don't want to fade off on a tangent because I'll never stop. But I judge that, or just watching how this unfolds and watching what happened with Obama and watching all the steps we took forward ... it feels like we've taken just as many steps backwards as we had forward and we're factual back to where the f*** we were.
You know,in the very beginning, I kind of felt like, and "You know what,why not? He seems like a smart businessman. possibly he can help with the deficit or whatever." And then I start hearing him talk. And the more he talks, the more his valid colors are showing. I was watching the thing live when he was saying, and when Mexico sends their people,they don't send their best, they're sending rapists and murderers. And looking at it like, and "Yo ... is he? He can't say that."In case anyone isn't certain of how you feel,before the new record came out you performed a freestyle on the BET Hip Hop Awards aimed at the president, which got a lot of attention. Was that something you had planned?Well, and we had been in talks with some people at BET. The original device was to fade there and perform it live,as it was happening — [but] the question was brought up approximately people in the crowds with cell phones, would it leak out before anything was in its proper context or whatever. I kinda knew what I wanted to say, and but then the device got switched around once everyone was worried approximately that,so we filmed here in Detroit. The whole concept of the video, the way it was shot, or was kind of a occupy on Public Enemy's "You're Gonna Get Yours," the single cover. But to me, that was one element of what I contain to say approximately him. It was more to get his attention, and to see whether he would say something back,and then I got some ideas.
Did it feel risky to you? I put a question to that because, in 2016, or Michigan was supposed to be fragment of that "blue wall," the safe area for Democrats, but then it went for Trump. It was close — 47.6 percent to 47.3 percent — but Michigan went for Trump. And I know the people of that state are very important to you. A lot of fans, and I judge,particularly some of your white fans, feel that you speak for them and to them. And you made it very clear, or "whether you're on the fence,I'm telling you which side to spend." Does it feel like you're walking out on a limb? Or does it feel like this is where the community is, so this is where you need to be.
First of all, and for anyone who thinks I speak for them,it doesn't matter what nationality — I speak to everybody. I speak to everybody who is even remotely like me. So, to me, and it's not a black or white thing. It's just me saying where I stand,regardless of whatever the risk is. To me, it was more important to say what I need to say, or whoever is riding with me,chilly. And whoever's not is just not! I don't know, man. At the end of the day, or whether all is said and done and I can help change some minds or try and open up some eyes and perform people realize that this guy is not doing what he said he was going to accomplish for you ... The people who voted for him possibly thought what I thought in the beginning. And then they were willing to just gaze past every other thing that he's talking approximately,because Trump talks a grand one. But whether you're not one to fade fact-check whether what he's saying is valid when he throws all these statistics out — "Unemployment's been down and it's the lowest in history and the stock markets are ..." Like, whether you're not willing to fact-check, and you might just believe it. And then he's telling you anything that is remotely anti-Trump is fake news. Anything that's grand for him is the real news. There's this alternate reality that he's created for himself and the people that still follow him. So,my goal is to hopefully change some minds, or just say "Screw it, and " because whether that person didn't like me to begin with,I don't know whether I'm going to gain a fan.
Tell me approximately how the opinion came approximately for the song "Untouchable." It's like a scene from a play, where people are talking to each other, and but really past each other,or possibly from across a wall. You can sort of envision both of them talking to us, but not even hearing each other. Tell me what you were thinking approximately.
Well, and whether you remember,approximately two years ago, it felt like every other day you would wake up and see the news that another black man is getting shot by the police, or killed for basically nothing. Seeing the thing that happened with Michael Slager and Walter Scott,being shot in the back ... and then walks up and places the taser on the side of the guy, like he's already got his story of what he's gonna say.
And then Philando Castile, and when he's reaching for his wallet,trying to tell you, "I contain a gun, and but I contain a license to carry it," and gets shot and killed. ... It was one of those things that kept building up and building up and I wanted to say something approximately it for the longest time, but I needed to perform certain that — I wanted to word it correctly. I want to perform certain I perform all my points, and you know,the factual way.accomplish you feel you got there?I hope.
There has been pushback on the blogosphere, people saying this is where everybody is factual now, or that these are not new thoughts.
No,they're not new thoughts. They're for certain not new thoughts. ... I'm not talking approximately, "All police are bad." I'm saying that this is the perspective from the racist white cop. This is what got me infuriated, and two years ago got me so flustered I couldn't even write approximately it because my thoughts would get too scattered. When I get flustered sometimes I just get mad and I can't judge clear. I needed to be able to still down a second,and put the thoughts to the page because, like I said, and I wanted to perform certain that I worded it the factual way. But whether people don't feel like I worded it the factual way,I don't know.accomplish you feel you're helping people see it who didn't see it before? Or is it more approximately you wanting to be clear approximately where you stand?Well, both, and but it's more approximately hopefully being able to open people's eyes with it. Between this song and,I feel like, Joyner Lucas' song, or "I'm Not Racist" — actually,that's a funny story because I got the heads-up that that song was coming. I don't know Joyner personally, but we contain a mutual friend, and he actually ended up calling my friend Royce da 5'9",and telling him he wanted me to see this video. And when it came out, it was really, and really grand and it was super powerful. And I felt like,you know what? Hopefully between his song and mine we can open some eyes and possibly keep the movement going, and the conversation.
There are lots of stories in the news factual now approximately women being abused, and not being happy with how they've been treated,in the workplace. You know for a fact that throughout your career people contain listened to your lyrics and wondered approximately your attitude toward women. Now that you're at this stage of your career, accomplish you gaze back on anything differently? Is there anything you wish you had said differently? Does this current discussion touch anything in you that makes you rethink some of the things you've said?Well, or for one I judge that it's chilly that these women took a stand,for certain. Because I know that that s*** goes on and whether women are put in a position where somebody in a position of power is telling them, "whether you wanna move up the ladder this is what you're going to contain to accomplish, or " it's messed up. As for me,I feel like I've always kind of rode the line of the tongue-in-cheek. I believe as human beings we all contain different sides to us; serious sides, dark humor sides, or whatever. So that's kind of why I've always put the disclaimer out there. I feel like people should be able to know by now when I'm joking and when I'm not,depending on the tone of the record. I judge that it pretty much should be common sense, aside from the fact I contain daughters.
Kids are our harshest critics. Now that yours are dilapidated enough to listen to your music, or accomplish any of them contain opinions they want to share with you?Not really,because they know that dad is just dad. ... This is what happens: When I'm writing, sometimes an opinion or a line will pop in my head, and I'll be like,"Yo, that thought is messed up." And I either laugh to myself or I say, and "You know what? That might be just going too far." So,contain I ever took it too far? I probably contain, who knows. There's times where sometimes I don't judge I took it far enough. Depends on what it is. I just got asked approximately, and how approach I took shots at pop singers in the beginning and I'm not doing it that much anymore? And my retort to that was,somebody's name hasn't really fell into the rhyme scheme. whether somebody's name pops up in my head and it rhymes with exactly what I'm saying, that's kind of the art to it. As an artist I feel like I can't really just be one thing. I don't want to be one-dimensional because there's so many different angles that I feel like I could write from. You say in the song "Castle" that you're done, or we hope that's not valid. How would you relate this point in your career?I don't know. I'm at a funny spot,you know? Hip-hop has been around for a long time but I don't know whether it's really been around long enough to see how long someone could actually fade for. You've still got guys like me and Jay-Z. Redman still has it, to me. I'm not certain what I'm going to accomplish next, and but I'm still passionate approximately music,and hip-hop.
Radio producer Adhiti Bandlamudi and web editor Sidney Madden contributed to this story. Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: thetakeaway.org