I\u2019m ambivalent toward rap music as a genre. I really like some rap. I like a lot of the lyrics (obviously not the \u201cbitches-n-hoes\u201d type), but aesthetically I find it off-putting. It doesn\u2019t sound like music to me. It\u2019s fun, but it\u2019s not art.<\/p>\n
Except Eminem. I\u2019ve always really loved Eminem, and I\u2019ve never considered it enough to figure out why. But since I\u2019ve lately become Camille Paglia\u2019s #1 fangirl, the Ogre forwarded me this half-article (that I can\u2019t access the rest of, unfortunately). It\u2019s all about why Eminem is the only true artist in pop music today, in contrast to manufactured pretend-people like Lady Gaga.<\/p>\n
I used to regard white rap \u2013 Vanilla Ice, the Beastie Boys \u2013 as little more than posturing, crotch-grabbing minstrelsy. Hence my shock and awe when I heard a tremendous song bursting from my car radio last year: it was The Monster, Eminem\u2019s duet with Rihanna, his seething machine-gun delivery alternating with her robust, pensive contralto. It was like a conversion experience \u2014 Saul struck by lightning on the road to Damascus. . . .<\/p>\n