People can debate the artistic merit of Eminem, but no one can deny that the guy’s one clever cultural antagonist. After all, one of Eminem’s trademark tricks is staying one step ahead of his critics, challenging their predictable protests before they have a chance to formally charge him with something.
Ironically, Eminem could be the first person placed under suspicion for something he didn’t yet say publicly: a throwaway line from the leaked but otherwise unreleased song “We Are American,” which takes maliciously mirthful license with the slang term “dead presidents.”
He’s not the first rapper to come under scrutiny for threatening the president. (In the early ’90s the rapper Paris was refused distribution by Time Warner because of the song, “Bush Killa,” a diatribe against the first President George Bush.) The Secret Service said Monday that after a preliminary inquiry, it does not plan a formal investigation. When all is said and done, this mini-controversy may only help play up Eminem’s self-inflated reputation as Public Enemy No. 1.
After all, Eminem has never shied away from the political fray.
In the song “White America” on his last album, “The Eminem Show,” he even made a point of placing his vitriolic rhymes in the paranoid context of the war on terror. “How many people are proud to be citizens of this beautiful country of ours?” he asks. “The stripes and the stars for the rights that men have died for to protect/ The women and men who have broke their necks for the freedom of speech the United States government has sworn to uphold. Or so we’re told …”
Eminem obviously understands that many of his loudest critics are awfully literal minded, unable to weave their way around his complex metaphors and tricky wordplay. That’s why he bothers to make the effort to defend his ideas, both publicly and musically. The Secret Service ultimately decided not to launch a formal investigation, sparing themselves the embarrassment of a fruitless witch hunt. But sometimes common sense does not prevail.
OutKast unexpectedly raised the ire of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who claims their hit song “Rosa Parks” has somehow defamed her. But nearly five years later, Monday’s ruling–from no less than the U.S. Supreme Court–has revealed that not only is the silly lawsuit still alive, but America’s top court took it seriously.
Forget the fact that the song doesn’t even mention Parks by name (outside of the title), and forget the fact that plenty of other songs do. Any way you slice it, OutKast boastfully invokes her historic bus ride as a source of strength and pride.
Parks and her lawyers might have understood that message had they studied the lyrics, but surely they’ve studied the law. While frivolous lawsuits may be as quintessentially American as the 1st Amendment, it’s ridiculous that the Supreme Court need be bothered to parse hip-hop metaphors.
The artistic community is one thing that unquestionably makes this country great, and attempts to limit what they can say or do only serves to, per Eminem, lessen the stuff in life worth fighting for.
Make OutKast jump through some hoops, fine. Make Eminem face the music, that’s fine too.
Protest them in perpetuity. But only a fool would make them change a thing. That’s just un-American.
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Music and the law
Lyrics have landed artists in legal hot water before–and in some cases made them more popular because of the controversy. Here’s a look at some notable court battles:
1985 Heavy metal act Judas Priest was sued by the families of two teen boys who attempted suicide. The families claimed the album “Stained Class” contained subliminal messages that incited the boys to try to take their own lives. Ozzy Osbourne had two similar lawsuits filed against him for his song “Suicide Solution.” A court ruled in Judas Priest’s favor, but the judge made it clear he disapproved of the band’s music. The two lawsuits against Osbourne were dismissed.
1990 Rap group 2 Live Crew put on a series of shows in southern Florida featuring their hit “Me So Horny.” That didn’t sit well with Broward County Sheriff Nick Navarro, who arrested frontman Luther Campbell and took the group to court on obscenity charges. A federal appeals court later ruled that Campbell’s lyrics were not obscene.
1992 Ice-T released the album “Body Count” with the emotionally charged track “Cop Killer” in the wake of race riots that rocked Los Angeles. Police groups immediately called for the song to be banned. The elder President Bush called the song “sick,” and actor Charlton Heston took on the record’s distributor, Time Warner, by reading out lyrics during a shareholders meeting. Ice-T re-released the album without the song “Cop Killer” on it. “It’s not a Warner Bros. fight,” the rapper said. “It’s my fight.”
REDEYE
