In Defense of Controversial Rap Lyrics
By: Marco Ko
On January 17, the same day the Academy hosted its Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities, American rapper Eminem released Music to be Murdered By, his eleventh studio album. With features from the likes of Ed Sheeran and Juice WRLD, the album made a huge splash. It sold 279,000 units in its first week, and hit number one on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.
However, most news publications didn’t trumpet Eminem’s return. They ran articles like “Eminem Went Too Far,” “Eminem’s Juvenile Shock Tactics Ruin Surprise New Album,” and “Eminem Defends His New Album After Backlash Over Controversial Lyrics.”
These articles only focused on one lyric, featured in his song “Unaccommodating”: “I’m contemplating yelling ‘bombs away’ on the game / Like I’m outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting.”
This line is a reference to the Manchester Arena terrorist attack that happened after a concert by Ariana Grande. As an Eminem fan, I agree that this was crude and embarrassing, but it’s clear that Eminem isn’t threatening or advocating for terrorist bombings. He only wrote the lyric to provoke the media and draw attention to himself.
Eminem has been rapping crudely and controversially for over 20 years now. Back in 2000, he rapped in “Criminal” that “A lot of people think that what I say on a record, or what I talk about on a record / That I actually do in real life or that I believe in it / Or if I say that I wanna kill somebody, that I'm actually gonna do it or that I believe in it / Well, if you believe that, then I'll kill you / You know why? ‘Cause I’m a criminal!”
But alongside offensive, horrorcore songs, Eminem also makes deeply personal and emotional ones—songs about his struggles with marriage, grief, drug abuse and more.
Music to be Murdered By is no exception: its lead single, “Darkness,” pleads for better gun control laws in America. It’s a shame that media attention has focused on Eminem’s controversies instead of his messages.
Of course, Eminem isn’t the only rapper to create controversial music. Tyler, the Creator, a rapper from California, has used homophobic slurs in his horrorcore rap songs.
On “Yonkers,” released in 2011, he used a violent, homophobic slur. News articles ran headlines about the issue: “Tyler, The Creator Defends His Use of Other F-Word” and “Tyler, the Creator Reignites Debate About Misogyny in Music.” Tyler became so infamous that he was turned away at British Customs and forced to cancel a tour over homophobic and violent lyrics.
Tyler, however, stunned his fans by revealing his struggles with sexual orientation and personal relationships. Flower Boy, released in 2017, heavily hinted at orientation-related struggles. “Next line, I'll have em' like woah / I've been kissing white boys since 2004” and “Truth is, since a youth kid, thought it was a phase / Thought it'd be like the phrase; "poof," gone / But, it's still goin' on.”
Tyler, the Creator, has never been homophobic or violent; his aggressive and provocative lyrics were just reflections of his inner struggles. Flower Boy was nominated for a Grammy award, and IGOR, which deals with abuse issues in its lyrics, won a Grammy for Best Rap Album.
The best way to fight an offensive lyric is to look past sheer shock value, to find the author’s deeper meaning. Most artists are deliberately offensive and provocative. They want to receive more media coverage and publicity, so they can broadcast deeper, more genuine messages for listeners to discover on their own.