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Positioning “Darkness” as an anti-gun-violence screed feels like a clumsy retcon, like if he recited the number for a domestic violence hotline on the outro of “Kim.” Why make this song now? Does he actually care? I’m doubtful. Nearly 20 years have passed since a younger (but not all that young) Slim Shady used the Columbine shooting as a punch line on “I’m Back.” Far be it from me to say that people, even the author of “Just Lose It,” can’t grow over the course of two decades, but it’s hard to take “Darkness” seriously as a PSA when he later raps, “I am the Santa Fe, Mandalay, and Orlando, and Colorado, and Columbine / All combined into one.” It also rings a bit hollow because of the timing: He released two albums in between the October 2017 Las Vegas shooting and Music to Be Murdered By. Justin Sayles: Rob, this culture editor is exhausted and borderline offended that Eminem evoked Hitchcock for his slasher-flick-grade musings.
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So how’d you take it? Were you shocked? Moved? Appalled? Exhausted? Does this gesture strike you as well meaning if a little (or a lot) inept, or is he just trolling? But the total experience of “Darkness,” the queasy quasi-Hitchcockian fakeout of it all, can’t help but feel exploitive and gross: a shrug emoji armed to the teeth. The “Darkness” video ends with a direct appeal to register to vote so as to “make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America” Eminem’s website links to various gun control and victim-advocacy websites. ’Cause by the time it’s over, won’t make the slightest difference Just tryin’ to show ya the reason why we’re so fucked I am just as stumped, no signs of mental illness You’ll never find a motive, truth is I have no idea Specifically, the mass shooter who in 2017 killed 58 people at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas.Įm at least pretends, in his first few verses, that this is not immediately obvious, that he’s just rapping as himself nervous backstage before a show, his double entendres ranging from “Fuck the Colt 45, I’ma need somethin’ stronger” to “Alcohol on my breath as I reach for the scope” to “I’m locked and loaded for rapid-fire spittin’ for all the concertgoers.” Then the shooting and screaming and TV-news-reporting starts, and “Darkness” reveals itself to be a gun-control morality play with, crucially, no moral:īut if you’d like to know the reason why I did this “Darkness” is driven by a slow and morose interpolation of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” and is rapped from the perspective of a mass shooter. I’m stalling because I don’t want to talk about “Darkness,” Music to Be Murdered By’s lead single, even though it is designed to be the only thing anyone talks about. In what has become a hallowed tradition, he complains about the poor reviews inspired by his previous surprise-dropped new album, summer 2018’s Kamikaze, and indeed my favorite reaction to this new album so far is this Twitter thread of Rolling Stone editors trying to figure out why Em is suddenly irate about a 33-year-old RS review of LL Cool J’s Bigger and Deffer that isn’t even online.
EMINEM SORRY IS THE HARDEST WORD PRO
Topics on this record include infidelity (pro), Eminem’s stepfather (anti), drug abuse (both pro and anti), strippers (pro physically but anti spiritually), and Eminem’s thoughts on his rapping ability (pro) as compared to anyone else’s (anti). These bars are only meant for the sharpest knives in the drawer #MusicToBeMurderedBy /qA9A3LiYYI- Marshall Mathers January 17, 2020