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Live Review
by Esines
22-6-2003
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| Eminem: No DIY tools to offend adults |
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Live: Eminem
National Bowl, Milton Keynes
Saturday, June 21, 2003
Eminem: rap-urbanity exposed in British countryside
The amount of publicity/hype this Eminem’s visit has generated, you’d think it’s the Second Coming! Pardon – that’s the latest Harry Potter book! Eminem’s shows at Milton Keynes National Bowl are his London dates this time around and, as usual, you either have to deal with heat and dust or rain and ‘tragedy of mud’. This year’s weather forecast – it’s wise to sunscreen!
Sixty-fife thousand people (per every of three days) have paid their monies and been ready for months for ‘The Eminem Show’ tour, otherwise known as ‘Anger Management’; it is understandable that none of this people can ever be disappointed although expectations are always higher. It actually all depends where you are in this natural bowl: in the midst of it is fine but you have had to arrive with the early-morn DJs; the impact loses its power on the sloppy banks and if you are on the fringe (equalling the theatrical ‘Gods’), then you may as well be watching ultra-loud DVD!
We get a solid Em show but it is getting a bit predictable, all the poise, dissing, cussing, the ‘rebel’ element. Musically, Eminem takes no stances of the global nature and only deals with things he knows the best, i.e. he, himself, his own (passed) life. His good fortune is that his rhymes, as good as they are, are backed by some killer beats that are borderline pop, courtesy another reformed ‘anarchist’ (recall/inform on NWA legacy), Dr Dre. No surprise that the Forbes Global Celebrity 100 placed Em, jointly with Dre, at No. 2.
Was Em good? Well, we’ve seen him better! Is he as relevant? He was more before he hit the major league. Has he become sanitised? Well, whatcha think if your parents started liking him? No, we haven’t suddenly developed dislike of the Li’l Rap King, but can only observe that his recent purchase of $5 million around the 8 Mile Road will certainly compromise his principles further and greed will take care that he doesn’t imperil his newly cultivated lifestyle.
All the success and fame require more protection by increasing number of bodyguards who keep reality at the distance with menace, resulting in greater isolation and total erasure of public and private selves. What Em once shared with us is irrevocably lost and he, despite saying he couldn’t hang around Hollywood because it is outside his ‘hood, dated Mariah Carey; how more unreal can it get? ‘The Eminem Show’ already sounded like a sanitised version of his formerly dysfunctional raging… And, aren’t ‘cleaned-up’ versions of his discs simply a cope-out? His ‘hits’ are the highest calibre pop music, full stop.
Eminem’s perspective from the adulation perch has altered and his vision is clouded by the greenerty of notes. The highlights of recent album ‘The Eminem Show’ were mixed with the best tracks from the ‘8 Mile’ soundtrack and passed hits, for a repertoire of his two-hour set. Is he supposed to be a voice of this desiccated generation? There is a distinct desperado delusion here whilst he’s part of the establishment. (Apparently another Harry, the real Prince, surnamed Windsor, was in attendance and also met the little geezer backstage; does that give Em a Royal Seal of Approval?)
MM-man ain’t nothing but a cash-bull now! Prisoner of his triumph, freaked out by the world’s attention and thus retreating deeper into his ‘Castle In Spain’, or Oakland Country mansion in Michigan in the Marshall Bruce Mathers III’s world. There is one thing only that’s sure about Eminem – he is an entertainer and getting better at all the showbiz’s intrigues. He ain’t no angry young man anymore but a troubled rich-man who lives in extreme comfort and (suspected) misery. Whatever he wants you to believe, or is convinced privately, Em’s no more a kid from the trailer park who made it über-good.
Members of D-12, Obie Trice and 50 Cent joined the superstar rapper onstage during his performance. The latter, the ‘half-buck man’ who was performing live in the UK for the first time ever, took to the stage midway through Eminem’s set, helmed four songs, including ‘Wanksta’ , ‘Patiently Waiting’ and ‘21 Questions’, as well as set highlight ‘In Da Club’.
50 Cent is signed to Em’s ‘Shady’ label, and the man almost blew him off stage. With Cent’s lifestory and being shot 6 times in a day, once a slain Jam-Master Jay’s protégé, there is a cred his boss can only dream about. In support were also Cypress Hill and Xzibit.
The midsummer night’s rap-land feast? Short of magic…
Esines
22-6-2003
Eminem’s album ‘The Eminem Show’ is available now on UMG
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