I used to think that rap/hip-hop songs are crap, especially their lyrics which contain tons of kinda f-words, violence, and even some (beep——you know what's that). Plus,the melody (if have) is also irritating like rechewing a chewing gum for 3 days. This easily led my mind to severe bias towards those who "create such many pieces of junk" and that's all my first impression to rap and rap singers.
Then my thought has minorly changed. I could easily understand that many rappers' tough childhood and the unique cultural/musical customs which succeed from their African ancestors make them a specific style of singing. But there was no attitude change with their performed contents and I still didn't give a sh!t about the rap itself.
But after that, there came Eminem. When a friend of mine started to introduce his rap to me I found himself very interesting cuz he's a white guy (you know that most of the rappers are blacks——that partially caused my bias towards the rappers at first...GTFO you goddamn racist lol) which is rarely appeared...Well that's just an incident. Things are definitely not that case (or I will turn to a REAL racist). His lyrics, mostly, are inspiring and explicit relatively with an unstoptable momentum when he scream them out (see "Not Afraid", the most hot-blooded one of his raps IMO) unlike the past singers, which I‘ve mentioned in the very begining, who made their songs full of drugs/whores/conflicts/all negative events and superficially thought that was pretty cool. He is always (well, not that always) trying to make things better after his depression (frequently happened though), and, undoubtedly, to become a genius in word plays. He is always showing his courage to challenge, to fight, not to sugarcoat anything in his lyrics but in every time those words do make sense like a straight ball darting the target within a speed of 160km/h. People would quote that with "Oh yeah, that was exactly what I though about!" and follow his rap in particular resonance. If I have to name a Chinese singer who is similar with Eminem in this way, I would choose Eason Chan.
However, his work attracts me more on the tender feeling it reveals. He seems to be very cool, ironhearted and a husband who has no more good relationships with his wife, but he really puts a tremendous effort on his daughter. As many rappers did Eminem also had a bitter adolescent and found it very hard to make a living especially his daughter Hailey was born. But even in the worst situation, along with his wife he gave his whole world to his daughter. It hit me so badly cuz this made me resemble of the storyline of Clannad, a popular Japanese anime which is consistently emphasizing the importance of family love. There are many similarities between Eminem and Okazaki Tomoya, the male protagnist of Clannad: They were both great fathers like showing kindness to their daughter, facing the biggest challenge in their own life but not moved...OK, I'm moved. Eminem does make it clear that in his song, his love is just so REAL for the audience——you could feel to touch it (maybe a little bit overheated so watch out). Also, in Chinese culture and in my deep, family is always playing the biggest role, so I guess that's partly the reason Eminem gets so popular in China.
Now I still don't have any idea about hip-hop and pop culture and it still sucks to me. Heckit's ture, I know nothing about rap...maybe I'll never near to know, but when I'm talking about Eminem, I'm not talking about a rapper, I'm just talking about some characteristics on his body that I appreciate, and some of his songs just "happened" to be perfect to reflect those highlights. As a rapper, he might not be the best (cuz I don't know many of them). But as a father, which I will turn to in several years, and as an idol, he will stand on the very top of my list.
Then my thought has minorly changed. I could easily understand that many rappers' tough childhood and the unique cultural/musical customs which succeed from their African ancestors make them a specific style of singing. But there was no attitude change with their performed contents and I still didn't give a sh!t about the rap itself.
But after that, there came Eminem. When a friend of mine started to introduce his rap to me I found himself very interesting cuz he's a white guy (you know that most of the rappers are blacks——that partially caused my bias towards the rappers at first...GTFO you goddamn racist lol) which is rarely appeared...Well that's just an incident. Things are definitely not that case (or I will turn to a REAL racist). His lyrics, mostly, are inspiring and explicit relatively with an unstoptable momentum when he scream them out (see "Not Afraid", the most hot-blooded one of his raps IMO) unlike the past singers, which I‘ve mentioned in the very begining, who made their songs full of drugs/whores/conflicts/all negative events and superficially thought that was pretty cool. He is always (well, not that always) trying to make things better after his depression (frequently happened though), and, undoubtedly, to become a genius in word plays. He is always showing his courage to challenge, to fight, not to sugarcoat anything in his lyrics but in every time those words do make sense like a straight ball darting the target within a speed of 160km/h. People would quote that with "Oh yeah, that was exactly what I though about!" and follow his rap in particular resonance. If I have to name a Chinese singer who is similar with Eminem in this way, I would choose Eason Chan.
However, his work attracts me more on the tender feeling it reveals. He seems to be very cool, ironhearted and a husband who has no more good relationships with his wife, but he really puts a tremendous effort on his daughter. As many rappers did Eminem also had a bitter adolescent and found it very hard to make a living especially his daughter Hailey was born. But even in the worst situation, along with his wife he gave his whole world to his daughter. It hit me so badly cuz this made me resemble of the storyline of Clannad, a popular Japanese anime which is consistently emphasizing the importance of family love. There are many similarities between Eminem and Okazaki Tomoya, the male protagnist of Clannad: They were both great fathers like showing kindness to their daughter, facing the biggest challenge in their own life but not moved...OK, I'm moved. Eminem does make it clear that in his song, his love is just so REAL for the audience——you could feel to touch it (maybe a little bit overheated so watch out). Also, in Chinese culture and in my deep, family is always playing the biggest role, so I guess that's partly the reason Eminem gets so popular in China.
Now I still don't have any idea about hip-hop and pop culture and it still sucks to me. Heckit's ture, I know nothing about rap...maybe I'll never near to know, but when I'm talking about Eminem, I'm not talking about a rapper, I'm just talking about some characteristics on his body that I appreciate, and some of his songs just "happened" to be perfect to reflect those highlights. As a rapper, he might not be the best (cuz I don't know many of them). But as a father, which I will turn to in several years, and as an idol, he will stand on the very top of my list.
