| |
|
I am often scared of the disturbingly mentally ill as well.
Maybe everyone should take a deep breath and reflect on the fact that Eminem is a showman first and foremost. His onstage antics and the range of characters present in his songs (do we have to go over yet again the fact that Marshall Mathers is not Slim Shady is not Eminem?) place him firmly in the world of theater - he's a lot more complex than the "trailer park" critics like to make out. He's not a "rawk star," he's a vaudeville performer.
Could not the puppet episode be a wry commentary on the typical self-aggrandising that characterizes much of rap? As often as Slim Shady talks himself up, Mathers talks himself down (a tendency crystallized in the climax to 8 Mile.) I wonder how many of the Barbelith critics are basing their judgment of him on his fans, rather than actually listening to his often-clever lyrics (Without Me, anyone?). Personally, I hated Eminem ... until I actually sat down and listened to The Eminem Show.
re: Moby and sampling. Sampling (more politely called "homage" outside of music) is certainly a valid technique. Sampling can be powerful meta-commentary (Aerosmith in Eminem's Sing for the Moment), subversive (Pet Shop Boys transforming Barry White's heterosexual love anthem into gay disco in Positive Role Model) or any number of things. But the point is that the art is in the commentary. My problem with Moby is that he uses samples not to underscore any kind of artistic point, but merely to stand on shoulders in an effort to prop up otherwise weak tracks.
Does the sample in Natural Blues actually say anything new? Is the track at all interesting without the sample? I would say no, and in this sense Moby is "graverobbing," using the efforts of others not to say anything, but to line his own coffers. In fact, listening to Play, it's difficult to come to see that Moby has anything to say at all. He's not an artist, but a soundtrack composer whose jingles are long enough to function as songs for airplay in a world where the line between commercial and content is more blurry than ever.
At its best, sampling is the footnotes of a witty academic essay. At its worst, it's Moby.
And no, I don't think he "deserved" to get mugged. |
|
|
