Make It Stop: Eminem’s “We Made You”
I don’t have much to add that Dom and Zeus haven’t already articulated, and honestly, I feel bad heaping derision on Eminem. From 1999-2003, no one, save for Ghostface had a better run, but seeing as though this is a blog, and Eminem remains the last of the video stars, I’m obligated to toss off some half-baked opinions on what will likely consume terrestrial radio from now until the 4th of July.
Simultaneously, technically impressive and terminally pathetic, “We Made You,” distills the worst excesses of Family Guy and attempts to turn it into comedy. Humor relies on freshness and novelty, not attacking stale starlets who’ve already been mocked to death in the Perez Hilton news cycle. The world of the Internet moves too fast for stuff like this. If they cared in the first place, people stopped finding Jessica Simpson-Romo jokes funny 12 months ago. Eminem has become my weird, out-of-touch uncle, who tries to have conversations with me about what young people are into, but can only talk about The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand.
What’s fresh about this? What’s the point? Kim Kardashian has a big ass? Lindsay Lohan is a lesbian? Amy Winehouse does drugs? Why doesn’t he just draw coke boogers? If the jokes aren’t related to the plot, that’s because it doesn’t have one.
Download:
MP3: Eminem-”We Made You” (Left-Click)
Stumble It!
April 7th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Yes, this is really disappointing. I was hoping that the “come back” album might offer a more mature reflective Slim Shady. But this is just a lot of shameless and pointless pop culture references… sigh…
April 7th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
oh, and, his voice sounds terrible here…
April 7th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Wait a second. Eminem has *never* been current. He was dogging Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape in summer 2000, and creating beef with Moby in 2002. Obviously, time operates differently for this guy.
April 7th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I’m ok with this so far because he always does the stupid pop star-mocking song before the album comes out. The thing that scares me, though, is that he thinks this business model is still feasible, in an age where it’s legal to download the only song you like from an album. Back in ‘00 when you had to buy the Marshall Mathers LP to get your “Real Slim Shady” fix and realized he had way better music around, it was a nice bait-and-switch.
Possibly newsworthy thing to come out of this mess: Rolling Stone seems to be the only news outlet that likes the song/video. This may be the first step in Eminem being first rapper to enter their Sacred Cow club (like U2, Dylan, The Stones and Springsteen), where everything they touch is a masterpiece.
April 7th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
@ Marty–That’s what I’m saying, that was all pre-Internet. It’s a different paradigm.
@ Jere–yeah, but at what point, does the schtick feel sedentary. Interesting point about Rolling Stone. I can’t see them giving it less than 4 stars.
April 7th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
There’s also the very sad but salient idea that Em is no longer playing to any of *us*, but to his true fan base, a majority of whom exist in the vast American expanse between NYC and LA (or for that matter, NYC and the Rocky Mountains).
This vid is probably getting huge guffaws at bars all over suburbia, with backwards-baseball-cap-wearing ex-jocks hi-fiving the “return” of Eminem.
I much prefer the “why I love Detroit” video he made for the NCAA finals.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Between this and Crack a Bottle, I’m claiming Relapse “Album of the Year.”*
*when I take my desk at RS
April 8th, 2009 at 4:18 am
Typically when an MC matures, his content changes a little, presumably to match his audience. Yet, Eminem is still putting out singles for the 18-22 year old crowd, while those of us who started listening to the “Marshall Mathers LP,” have moved on. Eminem has dropped the machine gun, nasally, self-deprecating flow, and has tried to become 50. Is 50 really the best lyrical model to try to emulate? Eminem has become Asher Roth…..
April 8th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I’ve never been the biggest fan of Eminem but there’s plenty to admire, musically and lyrically, about all of his albums so far. He does seem out of touch and misaligned with pretty much everything that is happening now: his “I’m so crazy” routine seems frivolous and unserious rather than edgy, his pop culture bashing perfectly in line with (or, as you point out, wayyyy behind) the mainstream, and his self-pity can no longer be taken for introspection. The whininess of his persona felt more like protest and self-assertion five years ago, and I don’t know if the obvious self-serving whine (complete with increasingly nasal voice) now comes from the fact that after several years as one of the biggest pop stars on the planet he seems to be searching for trivial shit to complain about, or if it’s just more visible now that his schtick is no longer new or exciting. Maybe the problem is rather that this song is lazy - a rehash of old tropes, but one that doesn’t even showcase the considerable verbal or intellectual dexterity of his best stuff. His critics have lobbed plenty of charges at him, some of which are more justified than others, but laziness was never one of them.
Also, the sheer expense of this video is jaw-dropping. Without a real guiding theme besides ‘pop culture is dumb’, the thing is just utterly profligate in its production values - dozens of mini-scenes with all sorts of actors, dancers, models, cg treatments. This video just oozes money, all of which is on full display… and for what? Not only does it seem like a production that belongs in another era - the era when $15 million or so for a four-minute video could seem justified - but it’s the sort of video that only the Backstreet Boys or Britneys of the world would have commanded.
In other words, for Eminem, this was, truly, the best week ever. Next week, or whenever it is that his album actually drops, might be another story.