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i took my baby on a saturday bang

by mg at 12:22 PM on November 19, 2003

To complement homophobia, misogyny, and that whole thing with his mom, rapper Eminem can now add charges of racism to his press bio. The chargers stem from a recording Eminem made back in 1993 (or 1988, depending on who you ask) that has him rapping lyrics like "Blacks and whites they sometimes mix / but black girls only want your money cause they're dumb chicks," and "Black girls are dumb, and white girls are good chicks." I’ve heard the tape in question, and if I were Eminem I’d admit that I was racist before I’d admit that the weak rapper on the tape was me. But, he did admit it. That it was him, not the racist bit.

Eminem admits the tape is him, but that he wrote the lyrics after having broken up with a (black) girlfriend. He was just a kid when he wrote the lyrics, and haven't we all dated a black chick, broken up with her, and then made sweeping generalizations about the entire black race? No, me neither.

What strikes me as most unusual is that Eminem has threatened to kill his ex-wife on numerous songs written in the decade since the black chicks tape was recorded. Perhaps if he’d threatened to put the (black) ex-girlfriend in the trunk of a car and then driven of a bridge, everything would be okay. I’d think calling someone “dumb” would hardly have the same weight as threatening murder, but hey, I also liked Clear Coke.

The racism chargers were leveled at a press conference thrown by Raymond Scott, an owner of Source magazine. Scott, who’s called Eminem the “rap Hitler” has been in a feud with the rapper for a number of years. Scott accuses him of stealing black culture, and mentioned in the press conference that even if Em doesn’t believe that black girls are dumb now, since he rapped about more than a decade ago as a teenager, he must still believe it.

Scott also said, and I’m not making this up, that “we've got to treat this the same way we treated Mike Tyson, Kobe Bryant, O. J. Simpson.” Okay, let me get this straight now because I must be confused, Tyson is a convicted rapist, Kobe is an accused rapist, and Simpson is an accused double-murderer. Eminem should be treated the same way these guys were treated?

All right then, Tyson served an incredibly reduced sentence and is still allowed to earn $20 million per fight in sit in the front row at the World Series without getting pelted with beers by every guy with a sister or mom. Kobe will most likely get off on his rape charge, and is still playing every night and will receive (around) $12 million this year. Kobe will also receive almost $2 million from Nike, despite having been fired for being an accused rapist. And seriously, let’s not even talk about how well O.J. is treated.

So, using this logic, since all Eminem did was write a stupid (a really stupid) song, and these other guys were (accused) criminals, that should mean that if we treat him the same way, Eminem’s next album should sell 50 million copies, and will be voted the next governor of Michigan. Maybe Em is racist, but to use two rapists and a wife-murderer as your examples of black guys who have been treated unfairly is as stupid as Em’s lyrics.

Forgetting what this says about race relations, pop culture, or our modern society, the real lesson to be learned by this is that you should never give up on your dreams, because if Eminem, as bad a rapper he was when this “Black Girls” song was recorded, he is now the biggest selling hip-hop artist of all time. If that poor kid who got dumped by a black girl and then threw up backstage before heading home to watch his mom Kim Bassinger getting tea-bagged by one of his high school classmates, is now so popular he can bang Brittany Murphy, hang out with Elton John and beat up hand puppets with impunity, then there is hope for all of us. Live your dream.

comments (27)

I was going to post about this too, but you beat me to it. Oh well, less work for me. I will add this bit from another news article:

// Benzino is credited with beginning the rift between the two rappers after he referred to Em as a "2003 Vanilla Ice" in his song "Pull Your Skirt Up," and the "rap Hitler" in "Die Another Day." He also called Slim Shady a "culture stealer," and indicated that his success is due solely to the color of his skin.

"You think I could grab my crotch and put my ass in people's faces the way he does?" Benzino asked in a 2002 interview with MTV News. "No way. But as long as the color of his skin and his eyes fits what America wants...it's all right." //

http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,12948,00.html

If that quote from Benzino isn't racist, then I don't know what is. The fact that he packaged the song with his magazine shows that the issue isn't about racisim, it's about mag. sales. If he felt that the lyrics were so racist, then he wouldn't be spreading that hate around. Thanks to people like Benzino, it is getting harder and harder for people to take legitimate instances of racisim seriously.

They're both pretty much shit-heads.

by MrBlank at November 19, 2003 4:28 PM

I really don't know what to think of the whole Eminem phenonenon. To me he just seems like such a drugged-out dolt but he's made millions at it. What I wonder about is why his mom settled her viable defamation lawsuit against the asshole for what amounts to the pocket change strewn across our nightstands to him.

by anna at November 19, 2003 7:39 PM

MG man, Kim Bassinger wasn't his mom that was just a movie. Stupid ass.

by Michael Dubinsky at November 19, 2003 9:13 PM

I don't really know what to think of M&M, so mostly I don't, but given the genre I wonder how seriously one should take any lyric. It is, after all, a form of poetry, and we allow all kinds of non-realities and expressions that aren't meant to be taken literally. Should we ask that any rapper who has referred to women as bitches and hos in their lyrics to come clean for marginalizing the majority of the human race? I'm not defending him, I'm just wondering how seriously to take a charge against an artform that gives voice to a thought or a feeling. It's not like the laws of thermodynamics spring forth from his lips.
Something I am curious about however, is whether or not it's racist to acuse someone of "stealing" a culture. Racism is meant to exclude someone from participating in the culture of another. Raymond Scott seems to be saying it directly, "You have no right to engage in our culture (the way we ourselves would)". Raymond is the harbinger of "us" and "them".

by chris at November 19, 2003 11:49 PM

"It's not like the laws of thermodynamics spring forth from his lips"

but the second law is written allllll over this shit here, Chris. & while physics purists get all pissy over folks appropriating entropy as a societal construct, blathering things like "It is ONLY applicable to events involving matter and energy, not personal relationships or drunken parties in Chicago or society going to hell in a handbasket", i tend to personally disagree & feel that this eminem thing, along with innumerabe other examples illustrating our collective journey to hell in a handbasket, tend to represent the concept of 'entropy' quite eloquently.

by lizard at November 20, 2003 4:49 AM

"It's not like the laws of thermodynamics spring forth from his lips"

by lizard at November 20, 2003 4:49 AM

um. oopsie.

energy tends to flow from where it is localized or concentrated to where it is spread out or diffused – and it’s in that energy flow that things get messed up.

which 'splains why i clicked it twice. honest.

by lizard at November 20, 2003 4:53 AM

I enjoy rap music. I have always listened to it even while being persucuted for it, in my hometown, like a witch in Salem, Mass during the hunts. I like Eminem's beats, supplied by Dre, Green Lantern, Timbaland et al, and his lyrics are pretty funny most of the time. I do think he tends to go overboard on some songs so I just don't listen to those. I, also, haven't lived his life or felt his pain. If writing these things is how he vents and it keeps him from picking up a gun and offing someone then more power to him. If you took every lyricist literally, damn near every one of them would be in jail for one charge or another. Raymond Scott is one of the things wrong with this country. Instead of being glad that black and white performers can collaborate and bring more understanding of the black culture to suburban white kids he's preaching a 60s logic of segregation. Whether it is musical or not shouldn't matter. It's still trying to keep two races seperate. I bet a lot of the same white kids that listen to Em went out and bought other black artist's rap CDs. Where is the harm? Don't we want and need more melding of races and cultures? Almost every rock performer alive today could be accused of stealing "black culture." Where do you think Elvis, Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Clapton (and on and on) got their influences from? The blues which, last time I checked, was a predominantly black genre back in the day. Why not go after them? Stevie Ray Vaughan is definitely guilty.

by Ezy at November 20, 2003 10:26 AM

i once read a book called 'birth of the cool' by lewis mcadams. it makes an illustrative point about how the very idea of 'cool' was generated and cultived, mostly by black culture. it became a commodity, and people steal commodities.

especially gullible kids who otherwise would lack an identity.

by lajo at November 20, 2003 1:58 PM

I've read some of your comments you people have made. And I really don't think Eminem is racist. Does he not work with 50Cent? And wait, wait...he’s a RAPPER is that [no offense] not black music? So what, he made a few "racist" remarks in his music. Everyone- everywhere who has music, or who have said things to others-- have offended a race in some way. Even things entertainers say, can come off as racist. Eminem has freedom of speech, and is allowed to say what ever he damn well pleases to say. We don't jump on 50cent's case when we hear him rapping about doing drugs, and having sex. Doesn't that offend women knowing that he might be saying that all women are- is just another way for him to get off? Really now...Everyone blows everything someone says that seems so “racist” out of proportion. Like Tom Green has never made a racist remark...or Christina Aguliera? Right. And I know not everyone who's posted believes he is racist, or isn't at all--but I did have to let this out. It's BS that they can label Eminem racist NOW after he's said things to Moby Dick, Ja Rule [Which, Ja Rule is black…], and many others. For Heavens sake- Label him racist when it started not now when he decides to say a black women is dumb. He calls woman sluts, and hoes. Is that racist too? Exactly my point, so why are they saying, "Eminem is racist" now, when if he is; they should have mentioned it way back when he first started his music career.

So many people are filled with BS, I can hardly laugh about it. But I do because it's funny to see the way society is today.

by Mandee at November 20, 2003 1:59 PM

This topic has become too complicated with this physics and entropy stuff. I don’t think society is any worse off than it was hundreds of years ago. In fact, I’d say it’s better. This debate seems simpler to me. The deal with M&M and ‘The Source’ is just a matter of the pot calling the kettle ‘black’ … er, ‘white’.

by MrBlank at November 20, 2003 2:11 PM

I was looking around before I wrote this (yes, I actually do research before opening my big mouth), and came across a number of hiphop community sites. Universally, even the people who hate Eminem, admit that this Raymond Scott (who raps under the name Benzoin, or something like that), is a complete tool - he has no skills and would not receive any notice at all if not for his connection to Source. I wouldn't even say that he was racist, just picking on Eminem's whiteness as a reason to hate him when the real issue is one of jealousy. I'd say most "racism" wasn't actually racism, but a misplaced hatred about something else. For example, I'd say most Germans didn't really hate Jews, they were just an unfortunate target for a national frustration. I'd even say that Islamic extremists aren't racist (religionist), but using that as an easy excuse to explain different political idealogies. The end.

by mg at November 20, 2003 2:54 PM

Well put MG.

by Ezy at November 20, 2003 3:36 PM

I'm reminded of how our beloved Lockheed once got all coked up and ran through the comments with a bunch of "racist" comments. At one point we actually took a vote about whether MG should block him from this site. Yet he's amused me to no end ever since.

by anna at November 20, 2003 6:41 PM

Years ago the Stones released Some Girls, with its line "Black girls just wanna get fucked all night." I remember thinking, is he allowed to say that on the radio?

by anna at November 21, 2003 7:50 AM

Anna, I've got nothing relevant to say about Some Girls other than to mention that I once ran across, and bought, an original copy of the album on vinyl. I wasn't a big fan of the Stones at the time (though I've come to appreciate them since then), but I bought the album just for the super cool die-cut album cover. That was the same reason I bought an extra copy of Wolverine #1. The end.

PS: Oh, Mandee you came and you gave without taking.

by mg at November 21, 2003 9:06 AM

You and your obscure lyrics. Someday we'll have to stage a lyric-off.

by anna at November 21, 2003 6:34 PM

I was only saying, as a matter of fact. I know some of you think what I wrote may have been a little irrational, but I feel as though people are blaming others for stupid candy ass reasons. I'm sorry I have my opinion, and didn't mean to offend anyone. What's there to take? Nothing-in consideration for what you're saying about Eminem. I love his music. I'm a fan of his music. Maybe he is racist, maybe not. Should I take that in account and hold that against him and dislike his music? What happened to liking someone for talent?

by Mandee at November 24, 2003 3:04 PM

Oh, and yes...I do think he has talent. You don't have to. But that is what I think.

by Mandee at November 24, 2003 3:07 PM

"MG man, Kim Bassinger wasn't his mom that was just a movie. Stupid ass." Wow, MG. He sure showed you. Heeheehee...

Mandee, I don't think anyone was directing any comments towards you in particular. MG was just quoting a song. I thoroughly enjoy some of Eminem's songs. So does Ezy, and I bet a bunch of the others commenting here. I loved Eight Mile. Yum.

I don't think Eminem's racist. I do think he's a brat though; I think he is a whiny kid that happens to be a great artist. I know plenty of people with similarly terrible upbringings that don't feel the need to embrace their bitterness and radiate so much negativity. He should take this change in his fortune and try to make the world a better place. But then, I feel that way about anyone who is filthy rich.

In other news, I wouldn't mind banging Eminem into next week.

Anna, nice reference... I never thought about it but coke seems like a good explanation for that Lockheed rampage.

by Linz at November 24, 2003 3:42 PM

(lose yourself track)
His palms are sweaty, He’s white so hell neva be ready
Neva be black, but tha maggot keeps on pretending
Actin hard when we know that he’s soft as spaghetti
Silly rabbit, faggot you ain’t fuckin’ Machiavelli
He plays the part, white boys ain’t neva had no heart
He rapes the our art they send him to the top of the charts
Using Pac’s name in vein, tha bamma ought to be shot
Drive by and pop see how long it takes to fall from the top
Fake ass chocolate covered candy with a soft ass shell
Yell Me>>L, blast cry baby ass crackers to hell
It’s all good that they fed him and let him come out
But they ain’t make him bow down and watch his mofo mouth
He’s a clown, this Black shit done went to his dome
If the King of THUG LIFE were still upon the throne
It would be on and Dr. Dre would STILL be a bitch
And Slim Shady ass snitches would cease to exist
He wanna be down, let’s show him what it’s all about
Bust his head like Puffy did Steve Stoute

You betta watch out
The music, the culture, you stole it, you owe prick
You betta slow your fuckin’ role
It only takes one shot to pop and blow back your dome
1 Sick of you using Black music like it’s your White ho

by Me>>L, tha MessenJah at January 22, 2004 3:28 AM

Messenjah, shut the fuck up. You're just pissed that a white boy can rap. Get over it. You should really take all of this negative energy and do something positive with it like learning to spell. Peace.

by Ezy at January 22, 2004 9:55 AM

Also, Me>>L, could you please help us out with the proper pronunciation of ">>" because I'm just lost.

by mg at January 22, 2004 11:19 AM

I love it when people call themselves messengers, like they are all deep, and all they are doing is just spewing violent hatred. Including in-fighting bullshit... Dre was Pac's bitch or something. I think I will write a sweet folk song about how I'd love to blow off the heads of people that are prone to senseless hatred. Here's what I got so far:

If you really want to change things then spread some education
If you really want to change things stop this senseless hatred
Violence begets violence, you only hurt yourself
Rise above this anger, seek peace instead of wealth

Your heart is bitter and your rage is louder than your soul
You're digging yourself ever-farther in a sullen hole
But if you don’t want to hear me that’s just fine
I will fucking kill you! Feel the wrath of my nine!

by Linz the Mess-in-jar at January 22, 2004 5:17 PM

Poetic Linz. Absolutely beautiful.

by Ezy at January 23, 2004 9:52 AM

You are a sick fuck you disgusting fucked up individual and your nasty old wife fuck asss talking about naked ladies fucked up my search results

by queerkiller at March 17, 2004 1:44 AM

what is racism? the acknowledgment that we as humans are actually a set number of seperate races, seperate animals to be treated as independently thinking organisms? Free will? only for coloreds #325-456, and whites #235-344. come on people...what century are you living in? people have problems, Eminem got his ass kicked his entire life, and when he can't pay Dr. Dre back in 3 years, he will be gettin his ass kicked again for the rest of his life. Black people are responsible for the current state of pop culture. By using the flavor of their experience in the new world, and the tools (melody, language, and money) of the white european world, they have successfully set the white man's world on fire. Little white kids are listening to 2Pac while they plow their father's fields, and paint the neighbor's fences. White kids want to be like these rap stars so badly, they can't believe slavery even happened, and feel sorry it did. Eminem is white, and he is using "black music so selfishly, and using it to make himself wealthy" as he himself says, but while he is using this medium he brings questions of race and segregation to the ears/minds of our youth. This seems to be more than most white men do for the cause of ending racial segregation/discrimination...I would suggest you target the leaders of television and movies (MTV, CBS, NBC, FOX, etc.) as the new champions of the third reich.

by blackfish at April 26, 2004 3:18 PM

i took my baby on a saturday bang

by mg at 12:22 PM on November 19, 2003

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