Elizabeth Crenshaw
E-Portfolio for English 1102-004
'Not Afraid' to break the genre mold
There are so many reasons why the groundbreaking music video for “My Name Is” is an extremely important video in the history of rap: the images, his lyrics, and the unique beat. This video was Eminem trying to create a name and a space for himself in an industry where he did not fit the mold. All three aspects of this video (lyrics, sound, and images) played a crucial role in the success of Eminem into who he is today.
“Hi kids! Do you like violence?
Wanna see me stick Nine Inch Nails through each one of my eyelids?
Wanna copy me and do exactly like I did?
Tryna’ and get f***** up worse that my life is?”
Those are just the first four lines of the first verse, but if you look at the entire song, you can see that he does this with just about all of the lines. He doesn’t use the base word (in this case: violence) for more than about four lines, but each line rhymes with another. Creating such a fluid storyline and managing to rhyme every line is not something that was seen much at the time and still is not duplicated by many. You can also notice the long 'i' sound in the words in bold. This is a more specific type of rhyming that prevents the song from being to "sing-songy" like a nursery rhyme. Eminem still uses this technique in his more recent music (like in Bezerk). Rhyming also makes the words stick in your head more because it becomes so catchy. The chorus, using repetition, is a part of the song that’s extremely catchy. He says the title of the song six times, so even when the song is done it resonates in your head.
“Hi! My name is... (what?) My name is... (who?)
My name is... [chicka chicka] Slim Shady
Hi! My name is... (huh?) My name is... (what?)
My name is... [chicka chicka] Slim Shady”
The underlying beat to this entire song is a 2-bar riff taken from Labi Siffre’s “I Got The…”. A catchy beat is just as crucial as a catchy chorus, and this beat sticks. Anyone would recognize the song from those couple of notes. Along with his amazing ability of rhyming and using words that stick, Eminem also uses more metaphors and word play than most other artists. All through this song you can see double entendres (“then [I] stuck my d*** in her tip cup”) and clever ways to describe things. He uses his wordplay in an unusual and crude, but funny way. The stories he tells in his songs are another unusual aspect of Eminem. The stereotypical rapper would tell raps about gang violence and living in a ghetto neighborhood, like 2Pac's "Soulja's Story." On the other hand, Eminem raps about many things, from his life and growing up, to throwing out pop culture references frequently, which is something that had not been done before.
While Eminem does mention his rough past growing up in other songs, “My Name Is” doesn’t tell a story from start to end. Instead, it gives a glimpse into who he is, his feelings about the world, and what he plans on doing, “I don't give a f***, God sent me to piss the world off” (“My Name Is”). In this song, he has a funny and entertaining, but somewhat random storyline. He uses techniques other rappers didn’t use, the biggest being name calling. When Eminem is putting down and making fun of these other celebrities he keeps in mind his intended audience. The intended audience is both his fans (for the enjoyment and amusement of these references) and the celebrities themselves. Celebrities have two reasons, it’s both for the other established rappers seeing he’s good, therefore building his ethos more, and celebrities he mentions (like Pamela Anderson) to know he’s not messing around and that he is not afraid to call anybody out. It’s a perfect example of the persuasive device, the scare tactic, “I will insult anybody, so you should be scared I’ll insult you too.” While the lyrics of this song have so many revolutionary techniques, it’s the perfect song for Eminem to literally introduce himself into the rap game.
Compare! An instrumental version of Eminem's "My Name Is." It sampled a section from Labi Siffre's song above! You hear the beat that is Eminem's entire song at 2:32.
As I mentioned above with how catchy the beat is, it’s also very unusual to use in this genre. Sampling songs is common, but not something as upbeat and from another genre like this. Eminem used unusual tracks like this one to differentiate himself yet another way from the generic rapper and break out of that mold.
There were many revolutionary things Eminem did with the lyrics of all his music, from the careful choice of his words to the meter in which they flow. The first thing that really stands out is his rhyming ability.
The actual video and the images themselves were absolutely the biggest difference between Eminem and other rappers. Compared to other rap videos of the time Eminem’s were so different. Lauryn Hill’s “Doo-wop (That Thing)” video was the winner of 1999’s MTV’s VMA “Video of the Year” award (Eminem won with “The Real Slim Shady” the following year). Her video showed what typical music videos in the hip-hop category looked like: really dark colors, street scenes, and one or two different shots (one being a storyline and the other watching the performer sing or rap).
Similarly, there is 2Pac’s “California Love” video, which contains those three genre expectations with the addition of violence and objectification of women. Compared to these two videos, both extremely popular at the time (2Pac’s video was produced by Dr. Dre as well), Eminem’s video for “My Name Is” drastically strays from the genre expectations. There are a number of different and unrelated scenes in Eminem’s video. It jumps from the inside of a trailer to what is playing on TV, some parodies of TV shows, a psych ward, a car, a public bench, a ventriloquism act, a classroom, a strip club, a presidential address, a room where he’s dressed like Marilyn Manson and singing, a bedroom, and a close-up shot of him rapping to the camera. As you can see, he does not stick to the one scene story and one scene rap video like other artists used. His scenes are somewhat unrelated. I think the reason the scenes were so unrelated was to show that he was different and that this was almost a sub-genre of how Eminem is up and coming as a completely unique artist.
There are the scenes on TV, the scenes of him going around and causing chaos, the scenes of him impersonating others, the scenes of hip rapping, and the scenes where he’s not even there. This video made it okay to have completely different storylines in a music video. Also notice how his scenes are funny and satirical and the typical gangsta’ rap videos were tough, dark, and serious.
As you can see by the images, Eminem uses the ‘plain folk’ persuasive tactic to let his audience know that he hangs around, and is, a plain folk just like anyone else. He’s crazy, but he is average too. In the video he uses images and scenes to touch on some white stereotypes and sort of points out that he’s white before you can. Because it was so abnormal to have a really good white rapper, he shows conventional white things like “white trash” in the trailer park eating TV diners and getting ready to watch a family sitcom (“The Shady Bunch” which is a play on “The Brady Bunch”) and a science show. This is a very important message he gets across with the images of his music video. He wants people to acknowledge the fact that he is white, but also mock it at the same time. Between this video and the “white” images and his lyrics in “The Real Slim Shady” that say, “Y'all act like you never seen a white person before/Jaws all on the floor like Pam and Tommy just burst in the door,” he is saying that even though he’s white, he’s just as good of a rapper.
Eminem shows a similar lyrical style in a newer hit, "Bezerk"
You will notice: repetition, rhyming, catchy-ness, and randomness in this song and many others. My Name Is was from 1999 and Bezerk is from 2013.
Who's Dr Dre?
Dr. Dre is a music producer and artist. He has worked with all the biggest names in rap, from Eminem, Xzibit, Snoop Dogg, and Kendrick Lamar. He’s worth about $550 million. He signed Eminem and got a lot of criticism for signing a white rapper and to that he said, “I don't give a f*** if you're purple: If you can kick it, I'm working with you” (site). So if Dr. Dre thinks Eminem can “kick it,” so should other rappers and fans. It’s a huge ethos boost to have Dr. Dre producing and backing up Eminem and his career. Knowing Eminem was produced and backed by Dr. Dre created hype before the song or the video were released. Having Dre in the videos really gives Eminem both a credibility boost and a celebrity endorsement.
Dr. Dre has appeared on at least one track of each one of Eminem's albums, as well as Eminem has appeared on many of Dr. Dre's albums. The most popular song they have done together is probably "I Need A Doctor" off of Dr. Dre's album Detox.
Images
Lyrics
Defying genre Norms
Eminem absolutely achieved what he wanted to do: break down the mold of the late 90’s rap industry. He used words, images, and a unique sound to skyrocket himself into fame while not losing what he wanted to do. Eminem proves that if you have the talent and the drive, you don’t have to fit into any sort of mold. You don’t need to be a certain race or sex to be good at a genre of music (I’m looking at you Darius Rucker and Iggy Azalea).
You just need that talent and the drive to do what makes you happy, and you will be successful. Eminem shares that message in his rise to fame by making a space for himself in an industry where he defied almost all genre stereotypes, yet still kept true to himself by using his own type of powerful language, unique images, and usual sound.
Eminem accepts the same award (EMA's Best Hip Hop) 13 years apart. Same pose, same guy. The left was in 2000 (Eminem was 28 years old) and the right was in 2013 (41 years old).
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