In the January/February XXL magazine, on stands December 7, Eminem gives his first public statements following the election and speaks candidly about his scorching political statement—the pre-album release “Mosh” from his fourth album, Encore, on Interscope Records, as well as the media-fueled hoopla following the video for the “Just Lose It” single where he impersonates and mocks prominent celebrities,including Michael Jackson.
Elliott Wilson, editor-in-chief of XXL, the fastest growing music magazine on newsstands today, says, “Once again we’re honored to provide the platform for hip-hop’s most successful and outspoken star to speak to his audience. Eminem is the most multi-dimensional figure in hip-hop today. Unlike other rappers he’s never afraid to express all his emotions: anger, embarrassment, humor, humility. He does it all with candor and witty wordplay, rightly earning him the respect as one of our culture’s most talented artists.”
In the interview, Eminem calls the outcry over the “Michael Jackson” video “blown out of proportion” and criticizes those who turned his mocking of Michael into a race issue. He straight out cites others who engage in parody and he asks why is it that “…things seem to be worse when I do ‘em.”
“Yeah, I do got a little bit of regrets about that. We got it out there as soon as we could… We didn’t want to get “Mosh” out there and come off too political. Eminem’s never been too political. I never been the militant type like political rapper. I just been the type to speak my mind on certain subjects that I know about.”
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About the election, Eminem says, “I’m disappointed and I voted for Kerry… hopefully (Bush) can live up to the promises that he made during his debates and all his speeches and all that and pull our troops… out of this war so that we ain’t so deep into this… He started it, so maybe he knows how to get us out of it. That’s kind of the message that he’s been preaching. That’s the message the American people obviously followed. I tend to not believe that.”
As usual, the hype around an Eminem album release also adds fuel to the fire surrounding the rap world’s ongoing conflict between two of its chroniclers, the Source and XXL magazines and their differing viewpoints of Eminem as an artist.
Although the controversial video, which Michael Jackson called “offensive” and “disgusting”, was banned by the BET network and had The Source magazine calling for its removal from Encore and a demand for an apology to Mr. Jackson, fans of Eminem just see the star’s stance as parody and even Eminem himself raps,”.That’s not a stab at Michael/That’s just a metaphor/I’m just psycho.”
“That’s Slim Shady talking,” Eminem says in XXL,“ I guess Michael’s very sensitive and he probably felt like he got it the worst. I’m doing MC Hammer moves, the Pee Wee Herman thing. Obviously, this is a joke. Michael Jackson sitting on the edge of the bed with little boys jumping on the end of it—that’s not nothing he didn’t tell us.”
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As for Eminem’s own troubles concerning the racist tapes he made as a sixteen year old teenager, XXL continues its groundbreaking coverage of Slim Shady’s evolving career that included the exclusive Eminem cover story and interview in the March 2004 issue, “Is the Best Rapper Alive A Racist?” In one of Encore’s many standouts, “Yellow Brick Road,” Em once again apologizes to the African American community. He tells XXL, “People know when issues come up in my life, I gotta address ’em. And the best way for me to do it is to put it in the form of music.”
This exclusive interview in XXL adds another level to Eminem’s stature as music’s most controversial magnet. With candor and charm, he challenges our opinions on freedom of speech, paranoia, satire, race and music.
XXL magazine is published by Harris Publications and was founded in 1997. The editorial focus is “hip hop on a higher level” steered by journalist, author and television producer, Elliott Wilson.
Courtesy of Jade Dressler
