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Interview
by Michael Angeles
12-11-2004
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| Em's 'Encore': looking around usually... |
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Dial B for benign
In lieu of Em review or - Fame detox?
Eminem’s naming the fourth album ‘Encore’ turned out to be prophetic. Or, a scheme, another hype… Call me paranoid, someone accused me of having a haunting complex the other day, but there is too much going on with Em that raises a few questions.
Well, this is the second time that the release date of an Eminem's album is brought forward and thus making the pre-release reviews impossible. Also, alike with ‘The Eminem Show’, there are only a couple of days of sales that didn’t prevent the previous album from going straight to Number One.
The same will happen now as Interscope reports that the pre-orders are near 4 (four) million copies. In the good ol’ USofA. Even if there aren’t such huge numbers being handled about, there is no doubt that fame-inertia will carry him straight to the top spot in the USA although it’ll be interesting to see whether he does it in the UK or across Europe, again.
The record company really doesn’t want the album to be reviewed because of the due-by-now backlash, which we like to think of as - critique. The issues that made him the foremost rapper of his generation have slowly been erased from his agenda in proportion to his global success. And, he finds himself betwixt the ‘trailer park’ past and the proverbial hard place of the present.
He’s never been more isolated in his ivory tower where he’s a father; private life is hard on him now as no woman would like to conduct a relationship in the glare of publicity. As well as still harbouring feelings for his ex, Kim, as two songs on the new album demonstrate. There is also another song for Hailie…
A fish-tank revulsion
As oft repeated, wealth doesn’t make you happy but miserable in more comfort, Em appears to prove the adage. He’s also committed few mistakes lately that will not endear him to more fans. Taking potshots at Madonna in his clip for the lead hit of ‘Encore’, ‘Just Lose It’, can’t harm him but spoofing Michael Jackson - although he defended it by saying "I didn't do anything in the video that he hasn't said himself he does" - will not make him favourite with millions who went out and bought ‘Thriller’.
Despite all Michael’s troubles and court dates, he’s just been voted into the newly opened UK Music Hall of Fame. Also, to spoof is an easy-way out instead of hitting the key element - creativity.
Then, and probably even more serious, there was lip-synching on television. Bosses of American satirical show ‘Saturday Night Live’ were left embarrassed by Eminem’s night (30 Oct 2004) when the rapper lip-synched through parts of his two performances on the show. A week after Ashlee Simpson's miming fiasco made headlines for the same and legendary programme that blasts in is title L-I-V-E, Em failed to keep up with his own guide track as he performed politically-charged ‘Mosh’ [the deadliest CD track] and ‘Just Lose It’.
His reaction, via a representative, was insisting he’d sung over a vocal track, to "duplicate the sound on his album. He had a vocal track on for double vocal effect on the first song, to make it more powerful. Lots of hip-hop artists do that. Tupac Shakur did it."
A studio source said, "He was singing ‘Mosh’ and you could tell he was lip-synching. The track was just a bit ahead of his lips and he put the mike down at one point but the track kept going."
Living la vida doble
One thing has to be understood about Marshall Bruce Mathers: it is not easy for any of his alter-egos by being always under the media eye, police and other authorities’ scrutiny and fans’... let’s term it - following. Then, facing jail on gun charges scared Eminem into leaving his ‘bad boy’ past behind. The rapper narrowly avoided a custodial sentence in April 2001 when he was sentenced to probation for concealed possession of weapon outside a nightclub in his native Detroit, Michigan.
"Nothing woke me up more than standing in front of a judge, and my life is in his hands," he confessed recently. It also gave him a new perspective on life: "I've seen the world, I've explored the world, I've travelled it, I've played in places; it's great to visit - this is where I want to live. I don't want to go to LA and get caught up in the party scene."
Added illumination came recently when his former wife was avoiding the law, thus being the reason he wrote another song for daughter Hailie on this album.
“A song called ‘Mockingbird’, [it speaks] to Hailie and Alaina. When Mom was on the run they didn't understand it, and I'm not the greatest talker in the world, especially when I'm trying to explain to two little girls what's goin' on with someone who's always been a part of their life and just disappeared. So that was my song to explain to them what was goin’ on, probably the most emotional song I ever wrote.”
Em has joint custody of Hailie with his ex-wife Kim, and full custody of his niece Alaina. He also raises his half-brother, Nate.
The outspoken rapper told Rolling Stone: "Bein' a dad is definitely living a double life... Even before Hailie was born, I was a firm believer in freedom of speech. I never wanted to compromise my artistic integrity, but once I hit them gates where I live, that's when I'm Dad. Takin' the kids to school, pickin' 'em up, teachin' 'em rules."
"In school, when they have plays, field trips... I don't miss them. The teachers are really good about telling the kids, ‘When Hailie's dad comes in, he's Hailie's dad, Mr. Mathers’. Last year I went and read to the class. Two books. It was reading month or something."
Two songs about Kim on ‘Encore’ explore opposite sides of hate: a repulsive [‘Puke’] and an obsessive [‘Crazy in Love’] one.
“It's a love-hate relationship, and it will always be that. We're talking about a woman who's been a part of my life since I can remember.”
Kim was thirteen when they met, Em was fifteen. Seventeen years later he is parent by day, occasional superstar, always besieged: vicious circle all round.
Additional reporting: SashaS
Michael Angeles
12-11-2004
Eminem's album 'Encore' is released 12 November 2004 by Shady/Aftermath/Interscope/UMG
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