THE GRAMMYS have been a joke for as long as I can remember. The most ridiculous people always seem to be nominated. Even the Backstreet Boys, certainly the definition of a marginally talented flash-in-the-pan act, were nominated for Best New Artist one year.
At last week's 2001 Grammy Awards, Eminem was honored with three awards. It stopped being funny.
Eminem, a.k.a Marshall Mathers and Slim Shady, among others, was nominated for four awards, including album of the year. He didn't win the biggest award, but he swept all the big awards in the rap category.
Honoring Eminem is more than just hard to understand - it's also going too far.
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There is no disputing the fact that Eminem's lyrics are vile. They refer to women and gay people with crude slurs and talk about murder and rape as if they were entertaining activities.
Eminem's work, on the whole, is dripping with violence and hate. On the rapper's newest album, The Marshall Mathers LP, he "strangled a woman, raped his mother, and...took credit for inventing violence itself - all before the end of the first verse" ("Lunatic genius, potty mouth, hatemonger, or all of the above? Some thoughts on the surreal Slim Shady," Spin Magazine, January issue).
Of course, Eminem has to be tolerated. His right to talk about such things has to be defended against anyone who would try to censor him.
Just because we have to protect his right to say these things, however, doesn't mean we have to honor him for saying them.
Just because he's shocking and provocative doesn't mean he merits honoring, either.
The recording industry has interesting reasons for nominating Eminem in the first place. They say he's a brilliant writer, that his rhymes are complex and creative. At the same time, they issue press releases condemning the slurs he makes within those rhymes. They seem to want to separate Eminem's "art" from the messages behind his music.
As much as the recording industry may want to cover its tracks by saying that the message isn't the music, it is impossible to separate a musician's ideology from his artistry. In some cases, an artist's message can be so important that it can eclipse his less than stellar musical talent. Bob Dylan is a notable example. The man had a horrible voice, but he sang about important things - the causes of his times - and that is why he is a legend.
Honoring Eminem's art is, at the very least, condoning what he says. By giving him awards, the recording industry says that a person can write songs that are virtually auditory hate crimes and he'll be more than excused for it - he'll be awarded for it. It is saying the violence and hate Eminem raps about is excusable.
It's equally hard to understand where the recording industry sees artistic merit in Eminem in the first place. Whenever another review is written about him, the main reason the reviewer seems to give for liking the record is invariably something about how "fresh" and "original" Eminem is. The term "breaking new ground" also comes up a lot.
This is hard to understand. How, really, is Eminem being original? He comes from a long line of rappers who, for the most part, write about violence and misogyny. He isn't really challenging the norm in that respect. He's talking about the usual stuff, with a large helping of homophobia on the side.
In the end, Eminem doesn't really do anything challenging. He takes the easy way out. It's really easy to write about hate. It's easy not to be constructive and appeal to the lowest common denominator.
What would really be original and ground-breaking would be if Eminem challenged himself and his audience by writing about something other than what they're used to. He could even try to use his popularity and enormous influence among young people for good by putting some sort of positive message in his lyrics.
That's not to say that he should start rapping about puppies and walks in the park on Sunday afternoon after church, but not talking about how homosexuals deserve to die would be a start.
It would not be in-your-face. It would not be as attention-grabbing as talking about raping your mother is.
But it would definitely be deserving of an award.
(Laura Sahramaa is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at lsahramaa@cavalierdaily.com.)
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