Eminem is no stranger to controversy, nor is he a stranger to tackling hard-hitting issues, so it’s no surprise that he should release a song, Love the Way You Lie detailing the physical abuse a woman suffers at the hands of her lover.
Making A Hit Song
And yet, here we are once again, debating the worthiness of the song that has made it to the number one spot on The Billboard Top 100. It seems the song itself, without the video, was already popular and it’s no surprise.
It has a catchy beat and Rihanna’s voice definitely lends a succinct sorrow with which we are all familiar. Eminem’s new album, Recovery, was poised for success as he foretold that he wanted to create an album that moved back to the old days when he made us all sit up and listen.
Dirty Lyrics
Hip hop heads agree that he is a great lyricist even if some of the content of his songs has made me almost want to cry in shame. And I’ve often found myself curling my lip in disgust when he threatened to lock Kim Mathers – his twice divorced ex-wife – in the boot of his car and drown her.
That said, Eminem has never apologised for his music. In an interview once, he told parents that his lyrics such as, ‘Hi there little boys and girls (FUCK YOU!) Today we’re gonna learn how to poison squirrels’, did not make him responsible for how children act or behave as it was ultimately the caregivers’ job to ensure good social etiquette. Perhaps Marshall Mathers does not quite understand the depth of influence of culture and the media on impressionable minds.
Video Debut
The video for Love the Way You Lie debuted on Thursday and it has got forum and social networking sites blazing with some loving it and speaking openly of his genius while others, yet again, shun his ‘anything for publicity’ stunts. But the question everyone is asking is, ‘Is this really just another attempt at selling records or is Eminem finally standing up against domestic violence?’ In the
The truth is you would only have to look at his track record to quickly assume that his latest song is nothing more than a cheap stunt done in poor taste when considering the number of women abused in relationships by their partners. But then, you have to ask yourself that he collaborated with Rihanna on this particular song, a victim herself of abuse at the hands of then partner Chris Brown and that fact denotes that there may be more to the song than making people laugh.
Rihanna’s Role in the Video
Since images of Rihanna leaked to the global media showing a grotesquely swollen face, the singer came out vowing to help other young women who face the same plight. As Jocelyn Noveck writes, she even won the Glamour Woman of the Year award as part of her work against domestic violence. We commend her work, but the pendulum swings in the other direction when you listen to the angry blast of her collaboration with Eminem:
I know I'm a liar
If she ever tries to fucking leave again
I'mma tie her to the bed
And set the house on fire
The last line explains the fire imagery that features in the video, although I think it speaks more of the fire that often is mistaken for passion and how that passion can very often be dangerous if not checked. How many times have you heard the excuse about a couple’s fiery love when everything around them tells a different story? The video features Rihanna with bright red hair, another metaphor of the fire, under a hoodie singing the chorus and from someone who has been beaten, it is very haunting:
Just gonna stand there
And watch me burn
But that's alright
Because I like
The way it hurts
Just gonna stand there
And hear me cry
But that's alright
Because I love
The way you lie
I love the way you lie
Actors in the Video
Alongside Rihanna and Eminem who gesticulates wildly as he raps in an open field, are Megan Fox and actor Dominic Monaghan who play a couple living through domestic violence. The acting is believable and when you see him, him being any man, raise his hands to hit her, her being a woman just like you and I, you realise yet again there are no sacred cows wherever Eminem is concerned.
The video is dark and moody and the lyrics are raw, hitting out like the punches so many women receive on a daily basis. How else could you illustrate the profanity of physical abuse?
The Controversy of Speaking Out
Popular women’s magazine Marie Claire publish their Naked Issue every year amidst much controversy. It features naked celebrity men and women baring themselves in positions most comfortable for them in a bid to highlight the status of rape in
Marshall Mathers in Art
I believe rapper and hip hop artist Eminem is a brilliant creative as well as a genius at playing the music business game. He knows what sells and he rides that train, but he’s also one of the few artists, especially in the hip hop industry, who gets people thinking and talking.
In retrospect, Eminen, very cleverly chooses to be a mirror for society’s ills, while showcasing his own fallibilities. Let’s be real – the rap industry is not one for showing men in a poor light. It’s misogynistic favouring women who are willing to ‘get down on their knees and then start juggling’. You get my drift.
Hard-hitting Content
Marshall Mathers is a white boy who had to fight to be heard in a predominantly black industry. There are no excuses for his insanity on his numerous albums. He has done drugs, emotionally and physically abused women and on this album, Recovery, he could be stating that he’s beaten a woman as well. The real controversy for many people is that there isn’t a clear and defined happy ending where he apologises and promises never to do it again so that we can all go back to our television dinners and play at happy families.
Sure he apologises like any abuser does, but he comes back, almost sharing a private thought with each of us, watching and listening to the song, letting us know that if she ever tried to leave him, he would kill her. To my consternation, I think most people have missed the point. For millions of women around the world that video and those lyrics are their everyday reality.
Eminem pushes the gun into our mouth and doesn’t take it out until we have tasted the metal, felt the heaviness of it and realised that if we don’t do something now, it won’t go away. The trigger will simply be pulled and another woman will die as you eat your television dinner and pretend the world is always a safe, genial place.
