Eminem/YMMV: Difference between revisions

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* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: Those for and against him alike can't quite figure out whether he "really means it" or not. He's generally more intelligent and sensitive than his loudest detractors would admit, but still angrier and sicker than his younger fans' parents would like.

** Inversely, at least early in his mainstream career, he seemed to win awards in rap categories by default.

* [[Awesome Music (Sugar Wiki)|Awesome Music]]

* [[Bile Fascination]]: This is how he got a lot of his early audience, since he started his career in that transition period where people were getting tired of Gangsta Rap but hadn't fully embraced Crunk/Club Rap yet. He tended to alternate between [[Dead Baby Comedy]] and songs about killing women, and stuff you could dance to or was meant to be remixed.

* [[Complete Monster]]: At his worst, Slim Shady.

** To be fair, she was making assumptions about something she knew nothing about and it wasn't her place to put his business out there.

** He lampshades this in the lyrics for "The Real Slim Shady":

Walking around, grabbin' his you-know-what/Flippin' the you-know-who<br />

Yeah, but he's so cute though..." }}

* [[Ear Worm]]: Put on an Eminem song - ''any'' Eminem song. Chances are it stays stuck in your head for days and days.

* [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]: Many people who like Eminem, but can't stand rap in general, making him an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] for the entire rap genre.

* [[Face of the Band]]: He's the only recognizable member of D12 (though new fans might come to remember Bizarre, who stands out for being The Fat One and having the most ''[[Dead Baby Comedy|out there]]'' lyrics). [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] with the D12 song "My Band", in which the other D12 members bitch about the situation (and Em brags about it).

* [[Fan Dumb]]: Related to [[Fandom Rivalry|Fandom Rivalries]]:

* [[Funny Aneurysm Moment]]: Encore's "One Shot 2 Shot" has Em and D12 rapping about a shooting at a D12 concert. Proof's death two years later made this song even scarier than it already was, and Proof's line "Believe me, I'm leavin' a carcass today" makes the impact even worse.

* [[Harsher in Hindsight]]: [http://www.mtv.com/videos/eminem/39589/like-toy-soldiers.jhtml#artist=502642 The video] for ''Like Toy Soldiers'' (released in early 2005 as a single), which depicts Proof dying of gunshot wounds. Proof was shot to death about a year later.

** Most of his songs about partying and drugs, especially "Drug Ballad", become this in light of his overdose.

{{quote| '''BBC Radio 1''': "This is not an autobiographical lyric [...] It's one of Eminem's flights of fancy, albeit one into a very real situation. Clearly he understands the psychology well, and can express the feelings with enormous clarity. Rihanna's role in all of this is interesting though."}}

** Also in "My Dad's Gone Crazy", "All this time me and Dre have been fuckin' with hats off!"

** Retroactively taken to new levels with Proof in several songs on ''Recovery'', most notably "You're Never Over". Apparently they had pet names for each other...

You stayed the same, cause cock backwards is still cock you pricks<br />

I love it when I tell em shove it <br />

* [[Hype Aversion]]: More cynical listeners believe Eminem's success is 30% talent and 70% because he's white, and that critics treat him as if he single-handedly invented hip-hop.

** In some interviews (and stated in "White America) he kinda agrees with that cynical opinion.

* [[Jumping the Shark]]: For those who believe his drug addiction killed his rap talent permanently.

* [[Memetic Mutation]]:

** In some corners of the internet, 'stan' and 'stanning' are terms for hardcore fanning. Mostly used in jest.

*** A lot of those places have been using it so long that the original meaning/origin is often completely unknown to people.

* [[Misaimed Fandom]] / [[Comically Missing the Point]]: "Stan" has become a term to describe [[I'm Your Biggest Fan|sick, obsessed fans]]... and Eminem's fandom.

* [[Nightmare Fuel]]:

** An MTV Brazil VJ said that watching ''Cleaning Out My Closet'' (which features Eminem burying his mother) while pregnant is really unsettling.

** "Kim", the prequel to "'97 Bonnie & Clyde". The song isn't so much rapped as screamed between Eminem and his impression of Kim. It starts out innocently enough with Em watching Hailie sleep, but quickly goes south as he shoves Kim into a car and reveals he's murdered her new boyfriend and their 4-year-old son (lyrics describing this were actually [[Bowdlerise|left off the ''explicit'' version of the album]], even though a later reference to the murder was left in; a truly explicit version called "Bitch So Wrong", which keeps the words intact, has been leaked and is still floating around online). It ends with him slitting her throat in the woods:

{{quote| You were supposed to love me! <br />

BLEED, BITCH, BLEED! <br />

BLEEEEEEEEEEED! }}

* [[Sampled Up]]: Results tend to be [[Awesome Music (Sugar Wiki)|Awesome Music]], as shown by:

** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSLZFdqwh7E&ob=av2e Stan]" for Dido's "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TO48Cnl66w&ob=av2n Thank You]".

** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lexLAjh8fPA&ob=av2e Like Toy Soldiers]" for Martika's "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpJy46o_7b0&feature=fvst Toy Soldiers]".

* [[Sequel Displacement]]: Go ask someone what Eminem's first album was.

* [[Surprisingly Improved Sequel]]: For the fans who were disappointed in ''Encore'' and ''Relapse'', ''Recovery'' was a significant step forward in quality. [[Creator Backlash|Given how poorly Eminem thought of the albums himself]] in some ''Recovery'' tracks, he feels the same.

* [[True Art Is Angsty]]: [[Cracked]] notes [http://www.cracked.com/article_15631_the-10-best-sci-fi-films-never-made_p2.html here] that "As [Eminem] gets his life together his songs sound more and more like remixes and covers of the old ones. He'll never do 'Bonnie & Clyde' again."

* [[Weird Al Effect]]: "Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?" is actually derived from the 1960s/70s game show ''[[To Tell the Truth]]'''s catchphrase "Will the real [person's name] please stand up?", used to reveal the true mystery guest.

** Considering the popularity of "Airplanes," [[Tropes Are Not Bad|maybe not]].

* [[Win Back the Crowd]]: ''Recovery''.