“Detroit! What?” or so goes some incomprehensible post-song verbiage from Eminem, the American poster child for what will happen to your kid if you screw up as much as Ms. Mathers did.
Flowing from a now distant and somewhat painfully real place, Em (or any of the other pseudonyms he’s going by this week) has been able to do something that his less talented and more shocking counterpart Marilyn Manson has not — sustain record sales and popularity for more than two years.
Manson latched onto a burgeoning subset of young goths who thought Jay from Orgy was the hottest thing ever and that it was OK for guys to wear fishnets and eyeliner (which it is not, no matter what the circumstances).
Parodied and mocked endlessly, Manson became a joke, and although he has been a very intelligent, articulate and surprisingly respectful figure in interviews (as evidenced by his appearance in Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine”), he hasn’t been able to fool the public or his former fans enough to stretch his popularity into the present tense.
Sitting at Madison’s best sushi spot, Ton Ton, a few winters ago, I looked out the window after consuming my umpteenth spicy tuna roll and saw none other than Manson walking down the street with his entourage.
In town for a gig at the Dane County Coliseum (as it was then called), Manson was in his standard black trench coat and appeared to be wearing sunglasses at night. As Larry David would say, the only people who wear sunglasses indoors or, in this case, at night, are blind people and assholes.
I momentarily paused to ponder if I should go outside and say hello to the shock-rocker, but what was I going to say? “Hey, Marilyn, I’m not really a fan of your music, but I’m happy you’ve made a boatload of money duping the public”?
Just how long is Eminem going to be able to fool the public that he’s the angriest multimillionaire around? He built his career railing against the sugarcoated pop acts that crossed over on their crossovers just to make a dime, or a few hundred million dimes, and now he’s venturing into waters that would seem to clash with his former and, some would argue, “realer” persona.
This is not to say Em is in the same boat as former pop stars who are currently dropping like flies from the music scene. He’s got an undeniable talent on the mic and came from the most bleak of circumstances. The real Detroit, the Detroit far removed from Eminem’s current upscale suburban living conditions, is one of the bleakest cities in this great country.
It’s on the mend, but you’re not missing a whole lot. It’s no secret that Em needs Detroit to produce his “harder than thou” image, just like Kid Rock (when he was still selling records) needed to lead the public to believe that he came “straight out the trailer,” which was not true. He’s got Pam Anderson, though, so I don’t think he cares about music a whole lot these days.
As of late, Em’s media saturation is at an enormous level. I can’t go anywhere without catching a glimpse of the yellow graffiti logo from “8 Mile” or hearing “Lose Yourself” blaring on the nearest TV or tricked-out 1991 Honda Civic parked next to me.
Catching an outtake of Eminem’s 2002 DVD release “All Access Europe,” I saw Detroit’s pride and joy goofing around with Marilyn Manson during a sound-check and then parading him in front of an unimpressed audience later that evening on “The Way I Am.” Initially, I was baffled why Em would choose to bring out his “shocking” predecessor to perform with him. It all makes sense, though.
To prove he is the headliner and the star of the moment, Em needed to invite and then quickly dismiss Manson as quickly as he slanders the countless individuals in his “TRL”-friendly cuts. After the smash success of The Marshall Mathers LP, Em was everywhere, and he instituted his own media blackout after his performance with Elton John at the Grammys.
He defied many with the unbelievable success of The Eminem Show and “8 Mile,” but just how long will the fair-haired rapper be able to “seize the moment, try to freeze it and own it, squeeze it and hold it”?
It seems like as long as he wants, but if Marilyn Manson taught us anything, it’s that it’s a tough thing to stay angry when you have a mansion and a sore hand from signing checks all day.
