Eminem’s Impact:The Gift and the Curse.

The Eminem Factor

With another album up coming out in a few days. It’s hard to believe that Eminem has been in the game for 13 years. He has definitely left a major impact into the game and two of the main reasons being his skin color and his sick rhyme style. His success and position in the game has come with a Gift and Curse, I’m gonna break down the pros,cons and my thoughts on Eminem in here.

(The Gift)

The Gift is that Eminem has opened the door for white rappers that been suffering from the Vanilla ice effect. Before Eminem, Any white rapper that tried to enter the rap game was chastized or clowned before they could even open their mouth. Before Eminem signed with Dr Dre in 1997, He himself still faced those odds and the fact with him being white and it made it hard for him to become accepted in a black dominated culture.

Eminem earned respect from many by climbing his way to the top through the battle circuit and started getting more notoriety with his participation and performances in the Rap Olympics. He climbed to the top and went through the struggle like many black artists so that’s how he gained respect from backpackers and real hip hoppers alike.

Another thing that people got to respect about Eminem is the fact that he also along with many made being lyrical acceptable in the mainstream. At times where you have to go pop, do a bunch of cheesy hooks or do R&B features. Eminem did the exact opposite after putting out his Real Slim Shady type singles. Those songs would look of as very cheesy but at the same time they were very lyrical compared to most of what is on radio.

Songs such as Stan, Guilty Conscience, Role Model, and Mosh remain as hits in Marshall’s catalogue as well setting off the trend of murdering artists on their own tracks(JayZ, Lil Wayne, Drake, Kanye). The world recognized Eminem is a very multi talented lyricist and the epitome of what a lyricist should be. He showed that he can do the quick tounge triple flow like that of Twista and Bone Thugs(Drop the World), He showed that he’s a real good storyteller(97 Bonnie and Clyde) and showed that he could really be venomous on the mic when it comes to battling, Just ask Benzino.

The bottom line is Eminem is gifted lyricist and with him being white, It made him stand out even more. He also deserves a ton of credit for resurrecting Dr Dre’s dead career and putting him back into the game.

(The Curse)

The Curse of the Eminem factor is that he seems to have gotten away with a lot of suspect actions whereas many rappers would have been chastised or ran out of the game with the quickness. He’s gotten away with the disrespectful remarks of black women on his old tapes before he first got into the game. Example of this is that Nelly still to this has that Tip Drill video haunting over his head like a black cloud but it seemed as the same groups didn’t say a thing about Eminem.

Another thing that Eminem seemed to have gotten away with his tough talk. Many rappers have talked tough but Marshall seems to take it to the next level with his gimmick and seemed to have the battery in his back when he signed 50:

Eminem has also said some of the most craziest, outrageous, disturbing raps on his records and he seemed to have gotten away with it whereas many rappers whom have been saying the same material would have been having the FBI, Government or black activist groups all over their back. You have the song Kim where he’s rapping about finding out his girlfriend cheated on him, He goes off in an all out rage and proceeds to kill his girlfriend on record by slitting her throat and putting her in the trunk. You cant help but to think of the backlash had a Pac or Snoop would have rapped some stuff like that.

The main qualm to me is his ability to crossover based off his skin color. I’ve heard Eminem records on almost every radio station in the country, Even radio stations that don’t like Hip Hop or claims to hate Hip Hop would put on Eminem records and thats the ultimate disrespect to the culture.Mainstream media including MTV, Rolling Stone have always wanted their premier top-notch white rapper and when Eminem came into the scene, They couldn’t have believed their luck and they milked the Eminem hype for everything is worth. Even going as far as to label him the Greatest of all time. Similar to how Whites tried to market Larry Bird and make people believe he was better than Jordan because he played ball like a black man.

My opinion on Eminem is that I feel he’s a top 10 lyricist without a shadow of a doubt. He has showcased every ablity to being a top-notch emcee with his supreme skill set. Some of the records and albums he put out has been corny but so has many rappers. Eminem’s skin color has come as a gift and a curse with the gift him being more respected, getting away with more than the average artist, and him not getting the credit he deserves because he’s white or him getting too much credit because he’s white. It’s a yin and yang thats gonna follow Eminem’s career to the very end but there’s no denying his talent and excitement he brought to the gender.