However just like music videos, sometimes the album covers objectify women, and promote misogynist ideals. They aim to be attention grabbing and in certain cases can become legendary artwork in their own right- think The Beatles Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band or the iconic banana Andy Warhol designed for The Velvet Underground. Like a music video, album covers are a form of advertising for musicians. He wants the woman to go into cardiac arrest – I don’t think he means dance so hard she’ll need a defibrillator – and then he’s going to throw a party.īut, more importantly, what does the popularity of a man who talks a whole lot about hurting woman say about our culture at large, a world where, despite significant advancements, gender equality has a long way to go? If we accept poor political representation, the gender pay gap, attitudes towards sexual assault, sex discrimination in employment and occupational segregation, why wouldn’t we accept music that marginalises women? Are Eminem’s lyrics just a mirror of an attitude prevalent in Western society and is it hypocritical of us to baulk at his words when misogyny is rampant? Just in case you skimmed over that, Eminem is saying he wants to kill a woman he particularly despises with a machine gun.
“I got 99 problems and the bitch ain’t one / She’s all 99 of them I need a machine gun / I take ‘em all out I hope you hear this song / And go into a cardiac arrest, have a heart attack / And just drop dead and I’mma throw a fucking party after this”.
On ‘So Much Better’ he calls women “fucking pigs” that are only good for “doink doink doink” recalling that old misogynist Nietzsche who famously wrote “everything about woman has a single solution: that is, pregnancy”. “Snatch the bitch out her car through the window, she screamin’ / I body slam her onto the cement, until the concrete gave and created a sinkhole / Bury this stink ho in it, then paid to have the street re-paved.” According to Eminem’s eighth album was the fastest-selling album of 2013 in the US and UK, adding to the 220 million records he’s already sold.īut here are some of the more questionable lyrics Em uses on the album.