Eminem talks about misogyny & homophobia with Anderson Cooper
I’m sad to say that I missed Anderson Cooper’s interview with Eminem last night on 60 Minutes. First of all – Eminem, clean and sober and thoughtful, on 60 Minutes is kind of awesome. I’ve said this before, but I’ve really begun to respect Eminem lately. His interviews to promote his latest album have shown how interesting and intelligent he is, and how he really does have a maturing and increasingly inclusive world-view. In his New York Times profile, Eminem even came out in support of gay marriage, and he’s given a lot of credit to Elton John for Elton’s help and support in getting clean. At about 8:30 mark on the video below, Anderson challenges Eminem on his lyrics, his language, especially regarding violence, misogyny and homophobia. Eminem lets the word “f-ggot” fly (in front of Anderson!).
On last night’s “60 Minutes,” rapper Eminem had an unlikely interviewer: Anderson Cooper. Basically, the hip-hop star repeated the life story that most people learned (in fictionalized form) by watching “8 Mile” in 2002. Cooper did ask Eminem about his use of anti-gay slurs in his lyrics.
Cooper asked Eminem, who has often been branded a homophobe, why he uses words like “lez” and “f*g” in his lyrics, but seemed to accept this answer: “The scene that I came up in, that word was thrown around so much, you know? F****t was, like, it was thrown around constantly, to each other, like in battling, you know what I mean?”
“But, I mean, do you not like gay people?” Cooper asked.
“No I don’t have any problem with nobody, you know what I mean. Like, I’m just whatever,” Eminem replied.
The rapper also said he doesn’t use profanity “around my house, no. But this is music, this is my art, this is what I do.” And as for the people criticizing his lyrics, he feels he’s “singled out,” he says. Other rappers “do and say the same things that I’m saying. And I don’t hear no one saying anything about that. I didn’t just invent saying offensive things.”
Well… Eminem didn’t really answer the question the best way, honestly. Would I like Em to actually apologize for some of the language he’s used in the past? Sure. But I do understand what he’s basically trying to say – that he was going through a process, that those are the words he heard around him, that he is an artist who is still growing. I’m not defending the use of those words, just that I understand what a journey Em has been through, and how far he’s come.
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