Eminem’s lyrics are disgusting, but that is no good reason why he should not have been Grammy- nominated for the award for best album of the year. In The Marshall Mathers LP, the sharp-tongued rapper promotes homophobia and misogyny, among other hate-based tenets.
But the man has an uncanny rhyming ability, a flowing voice, and a brilliant musical mind. Eminem’s lyrics may be hateful, but they represent a common mindset among the lower-middle-class white population of the United States.Eminem did not win the award, but the nomination was right in coming. With every musical revolution this country goes through, a wide section of the population becomes outraged at the music causing the transformation. It does not matter whether the outrage is a result of the lyrics, sound, performer, or all three.
After each musical revolution the country lives on, and each time it ends up in a better place than it was previously.

When rock ‘n’ roll entered the 1950s, Americans broke out of their post-war straight-edge shell. After ‘classic rock’ and disco music broke into the ‘60s and ‘70s, heavy drug use created the need for a wider drug education, saving the lives of thousands of abusers. The promiscuity of bands like Queen and big-hair 80’s bands heightened AIDS awareness.
Music that we don’t like often teaches us what we need to know. Eminem’s music may start yet another musical revolution.

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences understands the power of racy music. Its members nominated Eminem for his work expressly because of his writing and rapping skills, and the album’s successful representation of a significant percentage of our culture.

Harsh critics of the nomination, namely Bob Herbert of The New York Times, miss the point of the songs entirely, claiming they are direct representations of Eminem’s opinions. Herbert wrote in a column, “[Eminem is] a white rapper who has successfully burrowed his way to the nauseating depths of degradation and self-loathing pioneered by gangsta-rapping blacks. No image is too vile.”

Herbert fails to realize that Eminem is only representing what white youths have sought for nearly two decades. Black “gangsta” culture starts trends that last for years and seep into even the highest classes of society.

The next step is to heed Eminem’s writings. We must understand what the problems are, why we have these problems, and finally, how we can fix them. Eminem, in a sense, has given us a trail map. All that’s left for us to do is break out the compass and find the direction.