“8 Mile” rapper, Eminem, may not be Detroit’s most famous son, but it’s not for lack of trying. Or, for that matter, posturing. The recording artist has decided that the effect of the Motown meltdown on the working stiff is top notch fodder for the hang dog (or is that Snoop Dog?) side of his public persona. Marshall Mathers was born in a pleasant middle class suburb and earned $18 million or so last year notwithstanding. Obviously. But penning a paean to pistonhead paradise lost isn’t enough for our boy, he’s got to bring it. Well, them. Two hundred of them. TV Squad [via Yahoo! via the Detroit Free Press] reports that Eminem is transporting 200 unemployed Detroit workers to the set of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” this Friday just to prove a point: he’s a man of the people and his new album is dope. No, wait; that’s not it. I’ve got it! Wall Street has screwed all the selfless, salt of the earth automotive workers who’ve never heard of Eminem and, other than the free food, booze, and flight this stunt entails, wouldn’t cross the street to give Marshall the time of day. Nor him them. So I guess it’s a wash. Peace out, yo.
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Free food,booze,flight?Where do I sign up?
So I’m more of a Classic Rock fan,but as a blue collar retired autoworker bring on the rapper.
Friends are scarce for the autoworker these days.
So kudos to Mr Mathers for having the intestinal fortitude to defend us.
Maybe Eminem could also hire the unemployed UAW workers to bulldoze the miles and miles of Detroit slums. You think actually Obama’s environmentalists would have mentioned this idea… give the city back to nature! Detroit really does sound like Atlas Shrugged…
Shame, I’ll admit.
You think actually Obama’s environmentalists would have mentioned this idea… give the city back to nature!
Way ahead of you. https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/good-news-for-naias-good-news-for-detroit/#comment-1075492
Great idea lets bulldoze the slums.These folks havn’t got a job.So what gives them the right to have a home?
Maybe each busload is sponsored by a bank..
The folks riding in the “Citi bus” are hand picked by Citi and once they are 50 miles outside of town, Citi repo’s their home and cars…
Later that night they find out the bus ticket was “one way”
Am I bitter? Nahhh!
:-)
Atlas Shrugged? I’m assuming you mean only in the literal sense. Your analogy stops there, because Detroit is an outcome of shitty greedy companies making shitty products.
Are wealthy people supposed to mock poor people instead?
His city is dieing and he knows it. Kinda reminds me of this video though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbAUi7savsk
Pretty posh place he’s got(still). He sure banked.
Yeah the video’s asinine but it’d be cool if there were a song about it. Seriously top three lyricists of all time.
“Great idea lets bulldoze the slums.These folks havn’t got a job. So what gives them the right to have a home?”
Nothing, I guess.
Eminem is not a working class. Working class is something about creating, something necessary. eminem creates false dreams in kids, who read about his yearly earnings of 18 millions, and automatically think that one day they will become rich the same way, riding by mouth.This is the problem of America, distorted illusion of becoming rich easier and easier by every next generation. Noone today dreams of becoming a car designer or engineer, kids think the easiest way- how to get rich easy and fast. And Eminem helps them. But once a day comes, you need to pay utilities, or have a refrdgerator fixed, why don`t you call your dream guy Eminem and ask him to fix it for you? He is not a poor kid from trailer trash suburbs who achieved a lot. For me he achieved nothing, he is not a great musician, nor great janitor.he is not Sarah Brightman nor Bocelli.The problem is whem majority of uneducated people have enough money to pay for him and propel him to a celebrity status.The easy way.Can he play any musical instrument? Can he compose a melody? CAn he be held accountable for things he say? Has he actually said anything smart, worth of quoting?
jurisb : “Can he play any musical instrument? Can he compose a melody? CAn he be held accountable for things he say? Has he actually said anything smart, worth of quoting?”
Yes. x4.
It’s cool if Eminem wants to do something to help Detroit, but I don’t know how making this video or taking auto workers on Jimmy Kimmel *actually* helps either.
He’s obviously doing this to get publicity on TTAC.
Jay Leno started this…. for all the genuinely right reasons I think … with his free concert here in Detroit…er, suburban Detroit.
Now a rush of poseurs like Mr Mathers will be bonding with their union brothas… and camera crews and requisite publicists.
Just goes to show, no good deed (Leno’s concert) goes unpunished.
Next thing you know, Kid Rock will be taking a bunch of Pontiac workers on a Vegas party plane excursion. ….John Madden will be loading up the Madden Cruiser with out-of-work disc jockeys …… and Rick Wagoner will be hosting BBQ’s for former Saturn salarymen at the compound in Naples.
Uggghhhh… where will the insanity stop!
It’s not insanity… It’s goodwill..
These events help the unemployed blow off steam and may just prevent a tragedy.
Idle hands do the work of the devil…
If you’ve been unemployed for 6 months and have no hope of finding a job, the devil’s voice can get pretty loud.
I have absolutely no idea what that post says. So, fail.
jurisb
Amen brother Amen. You will be labeled a pariah for mentioning it.
Now apply that to every other celebrity turned royalty that the media creates. It destroys the culture just a little more everyday.
Don’t be so quick to dismiss this lyricist as untalented. Maybe his product isn’t music to your ears, but the customer is never wrong — and Eminem has many more customers than you or I.
“Success is my only mthrfkng option, failure’s not.” He succeeded, whether YOU like his product or not. And now he’s giving back. What do you want him to do…serve lunch in a soup kitchen? HA That’s soooooooo last century.
What has Bocelli done for the common man lately?
………crickets…………
Eminem should be turning 40 soon. I always found it hilarious that the young, stupid kids were blasting jams kicked out by some over 30 wankster.
It’s like Snoop Dog, you can’t be a “hardcore, thug rapper” and have your label produce Christian music at the same time… that’s the definition of “selling out.”
Here’s a guy who cares about where he grew up doing something for his home-towners and all that some people can see is the bad side of that?
And to echo what some others have said, the guy has some real talent. My wife (who doesn’t fit any of the common notions of an Eminem fan) loves his music.
Snoop Dogg didn’t sell out, he’s a business man. If you think about what he has done it’s amazing. In my opinion he hasn’t put out a good disc since 1994. Yet Snoop Dogg is a household name. He was on during the super bowl doing commentary. It baffles me that he is still famous, but that’s the mark of a good business man.
As far as his label putting out Christian music, that’s like Scion and Lexus being done by the same company, it happens. It’s not like they have Snoop Dogg and Amy Grant doing duets together.
And to echo what some others have said, the guy has some real talent. My wife (who doesn’t fit any of the common notions of an Eminem fan) loves his music.
I’m hardly in the rap fan demographic, either, and Eminem is on my iPod. He does have talent, though Sturgeon’s Law applies to rap just like every other kind of music.
Eminem should be turning 40 soon.
How old is Keith Richards again? In his mid-60s?
No good deed goes unpunished I suppose.
It looks like the above video was made to show support for Michigan State in the NCAA Final Four, not really much more than that. I haven’t heard Eminem say anything about Wall Street or the government.
The Jimmy Kimmel thing is a publicity stunt (and is rather harsh, the unemployed autoworkers have been though enough, they shouldn’t be forced to watch Jimmy Kimmel), but at least Eminem is from southeast Michigan, unlike the “Shutt’in Detroit Down” guy.
frenchy:
It’s amazing that Snoop Dogg has only had one good CD, yet makes millions lending his name to other rappers’ CDs. It’s kind of like how Sting gets half the royalties for Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing”, except times 100.
Shorter jurisb: “I don’t like Eminem’s music or his politics and I don’t understand why the rest of the world doesn’t agree with me. Therefore Eminem has no talent.”