I’m Not Afraid
He looks good. He sings. His rhymes are complex. This song [I’M NOT AFRAID, BY EMINEM] is sensitive. Nothing stuck out as being off or wrong (Except when I tried to find something wrong I wasn’t too thrilled with the metaphor ‘whatever the weather’ and seems he used a phrase from another song… I’ll have to listen to it again. Oh, and he mentioned his daughter… which I thought was typically a public relations ploy… and it never seems all that genuine to me… or at least, it seems irrelevant TO ME though not to his women fans, blah blah).
I was listening to see if I had any influence. Maybe. He called himself king twice (a reference to me?)… he said he was doing it for him but maybe for ‘me’ subliminally (quitting drugs… fine… I’m supportive of that but I never came out with an opinion one way or another). And he raps about going through a difficult time (I take BLAME, not credit… responsibility): I may have sensed some pulling away and some anger over all that. But NO, the song isn’t about me (LOL… and thank god).
I don’t think anyone can criticize the song other than out of surprise that he’s being so LOVING and CARING! Still, will his fans support a song that doesn’t diss celebrities or have him making stupid comments and doing funny voices (or farting)? In the end, it will be the award committees making those decisions and not his fans. So, good move on his part.
Now, he’s got a past reputation to overcome… if he wants to be thought of as a GOOD person, I mean (typical for someone going through recovery).
…
Ok, more about Em’s NOT AFRAID because I’ve been unable to stop thinking about it.
It is overly self-conscious. It lacks fear. It fails to establish a center of narrative gravity… doesn’t place the listener into the story. It needs more self awareness. More conscientiousness. There is no nous, no conscience. Marshall needs to step outside of his role and speak directly to the audience.
Yes, but, it is a song ABOUT fear. He explicitly states that he wants to take the listener’s hand. And it is, as I’ve said, a song about caring and helping. Still, there are few glimpses inside M’s mind. Does he have a conscience? Does he feel remorse or guilt? Yes, he humbles himself… demotes himself from being a king. And so, we see that he has gone through some hard times and has made some difficult decisions (for himself but subliminally for us, too). But is that REALLY a tear in his eye?
I mean to say, he has addressed ALL of my original concerns within the song. Specifically! I’m awed by his insight. We see dexterity. We see him stretching the boundaries of rap. And by what standards can we judge his music? Can we compare this song to I’mma Be? No.
We can compare it to 8 MILE and YELLOW BRICK ROAD (There’s no sense in AFRAID that we’re actually walking along beside him like we feel in these songs). And we can compare it to BEAUTIFUL (It does what BEAUTIFUL attempts to do but doesn’t quite achieve.. that is, it creates in us an awareness of beauty). So, I rank it slightly higher than BEAUTIFUL in personality and slightly beneath RUN RABBIT in character… though it is surely his best insofar as it is the perfect vehicle for Eminem to express his current level of mastery [his ability to entertain 5/16/2010 9:29a].
[As such], if I have a problem with how women respond to his father role (when he mentions his daughter and they all say ohhhh, isn’t that sweeeet); well, he offers to treat all his fans the same way he treats his daughter. What else can I say? He’s countered all my arguments, again. He surpasses my ability to even write a review about him. LOL
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