Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? Because it seems like there’s a whole TikTok campaign to have you cancelled.
Marshall Bruce Mathers III has become the subject of a cancel campaign on TikTok after a Gen Z user of the app pointed out a controversial line in his and Rihanna’s 2010 hit “Love The Way You Lie”. The song appears on the rappers seventh studio album, ‘Recovery’ and the line in question sees Eminem rapping:
“If she ever tries to f***ing leave again, I’mma tie her/to the bed and set this house on fire.”
Despite the original video calling out the rapper dating back to February this year, the cancel campaign has recently picked up traction as more ‘zoomers’ (those born in the late 90s and early 2000s) agree with the user – whose account is now unavailable on the app. They argue that the line glorifies toxic relationships and domestic violence. The user isn’t wrong – the lyrics are violent in nature. However, the fact that it’s being brought up now, seemingly out of nowhere is rather surprising. Having been active since 1988, Eminem isn’t exactly known to be a ‘gentle’ rapper – his alter ego is Slim Shady. With that being said, millennials on the app aren’t having it, with the generation growing up listening to the 15-time Grammy award winner. As it happens, “Love The Way You Lie” was a commercial hit, earning five Grammy nominations and becoming Eminem’s best-selling single. Rihanna herself – being a survivor of domestic violence – joined the collaboration because she could relate to the theme of the song, as she and Eminem had been in difficult relationships on “different ends of the table”. Rihanna has said herself that the “Stan” rapper’s aforementioned verse was actually a condemnation — and not a celebration — of domestic abuse.
As this millennial TikTok user pointed out, “Eminem’s been pissing people off for 22 years and you want to cancel him for this song?”
@thisissavvyStitch with @snmmerr ##greenscreenvideo ##eminem♬ original sound – Sav!
The ‘Rap God’ has been called out for everything from homophobic lyrics to rapping about fantasizing about murdering and verbally abusing his then-wife Kimberly Scott. He’s even been embroiled in celebrity feuds with Christina Aguilera, Machine Gun Kelly and Will Smith, to name a few.
A different user, whose TikTok has been viewed over 5 million times, raps to the beat of “Forgot About Dre” as she defends the 48-year-old rapper.
@cassiesmith607LEAVE. HIM. BE. ##VideoSnapChallenge ##ASOSFashunWeek ##funnyvideos?? ##millennialsoftiktok ##genz ##eminem
Of course, Eminem (being Eminem) isn’t staying out of this either. The Detroit MC fired back at his critics with an animated lyric video for the song “Tone Deaf”. Originally from his 2020 album ‘Music to Be Murdered By – Side B’, the video sees him doubling down on the controversial issues he’s faced.
“I won’t stop even when my hair turns grey (I’m tone-deaf) / ‘Cause they won’t stop until they cancel me” #ToneDeaf lyric video up on my channel- https://t.co/kd4Iw5j9TI pic.twitter.com/nw1Q2eUyzN
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) March 5, 2021
If there’s one constant about Eminem it’s that he has never cared for the opinions of others. Let’s not forget this line that he dropped while speaking to MTV:
“It’d be stupid for me to sit here and say that there aren’t kids who look up to me, but my responsibility is not to them. I’m not a baby sitter.”
*Cover image credits: Instagram / @eminem as photographed by @jeremydeputat
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