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Close to the Edge The RepresentationalTactics of Eminem

M A R C I A A L E S A N D AW K I N S

Introduction Walking the Edge with Pedestrian Speech

THE TITLE OF THIS PIECE IS SAMPLED FROM GRAND MASTER FLASH AND

the Furious Fiversquos lsquolsquoThe Messagersquorsquo a seminal song in the de-velopment of hip-hop culture Flash repeats lsquolsquoDonrsquot push me

cause Irsquom close to the edgeIrsquom tryinrsquo not to lose my headItrsquos like ajungle sometimes that makes me wonderHow I keep from goinrsquounderrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoThe Messagersquorsquo) lsquolsquoThe Messagersquorsquo is hip-hop in its finest formof social critique and expresses the hip-hop method for survival in acompetitive commercial environment Hip-hop avoids extinction byreinventing itself and challenging convention Thus the edge to whichGrand Master Flash refers can be considered the border between whatMichel de Certeau names the lsquolsquonear and far or here and therersquorsquo betweenthe constitution of oneself as a subject and the constitution of an Otherin relation to oneself (98) Walking close to the edge becomes a con-stant motion within lsquolsquoa space of enunciationrsquorsquo and the concept of thelsquolsquohere and therersquorsquo addressed in hip-hop discourse shows the binary op-position of samenessotherness at the heart of Americarsquos entertainmentand transracial politics (de Certeau 98)

The conceptual framework of walking close to the edge betweenhere and there is outlined in Michel de Certeaursquos The Practice of EverydayLife de Certeau maps the basic conditions of cultural navigation spe-cifically those cultural moves that allow for creative cultural productionby those who are traditionally deemed nonproducers The first step isto distinguish between lsquolsquostrategyrsquorsquo and lsquolsquotacticsrsquorsquo Strategy is evidencedin places where subjects can be separated from the environment to

The Journal of Popular Culture Vol 43 No 3 2010r 2010 Wiley Periodicals Inc

463

achieve an objective critical stance Tactics are evidenced in placeswhere subjects are nomadic but able to carve out creative spaces withmaterials in hand without taking places over completely When tacticsare successful they can become standardized strategies Although deCerteau writes about the specific cultural practices of the disempow-ered his framework implies that an artist does not occupy an objectiveposition from which a workrsquos meaning can be fully comprehendedThus an artist does not have a strategy but only fragmentary tacticswhich depend on time and the continuous seizure of opportunities

This article examines the representational tactics of Marshall BruceMathers III known both as Eminem and Slim Shady within theframework of lsquolsquowalking rhetoricsrsquorsquo (de Certeau 100) lsquolsquoTo walkrsquorsquo deCerteau writes lsquolsquois to lack a place It is the indefinite process of beingabsent and in search of a properrsquorsquo (103) In other words walking is thediscursive process through which a subject is constituted by the re-lationship it creates with the Other Walking implying motion and aplane of projection is lsquolsquoa way of operatingrsquorsquo and communicating ineveryday cultural life (100) This movement is contextually bound andfunctions based on the constant manipulation of events and images deCerteau continues

Walking affirms suspects tries out transgresses respects etc thetrajectories it lsquolsquospeaksrsquorsquo All the modalities sing a part in this choruschanging from step to step stepping in through proportions se-quences and intensities which vary according to the time the pathtaken and the walker These enunciatory operations are of an un-limited diversity (98)

With walking as the operational logic Eminemrsquos representational tac-tics create the locations in popular culture from which his image isadapted manipulated and deployed

This theoretical analysis will utilize de Certeaursquos three stages ofcultural adaptation to follow the footprints of Eminemrsquos walkingrhetoric (1) appropriation in which the speaker acquires the languageof a given culture to bear the burden of hisher own experience (2) alsquolsquospatial acting-out of the placersquorsquo through which the speaker createsspace by airing hisher position with relation to the language and (3)allocution through which the speaker posits the Other as the referencepoint for the speakerrsquos own subjectivity and negotiates the relationshipbetween the two positions (de Certeau 97 ndash 98)

464 Marcia Alesan Dawkins

Further it will be argued that Eminem tactically defines the lsquolsquotwopositionsrsquorsquo of here and there by walking in the spaces between white-ness blackness sameness and otherness while refusing to remain fixedin any one position He uses the blackwhite racial binary to carve out aniche within the hip-hop market affiliations with black masculinityprovide cultural acceptance and authenticity which fuel his entry intohip-hop culture White masculinity provides mobility ambivalencefrom white audiences and commercial success (Watts amp Orbe 10) Inthis sense Eminemrsquos artistry is neither defined by nor separated fromhis music but consists of the ways in which he is mobilized as asignifier in various social contexts of production and reception Mostprominent are the ways in which his image is manufactured at the edgefor commercial success through the creation and manipulation of hismechanical reproduction In so doing Eminem engages Walter Ben-jaminrsquos concepts of the lsquolsquoaurarsquorsquo and lsquolsquomechanical reproductionrsquorsquo to be-come a unique social subject of culture and identification Eminemseemingly becomes lsquolsquothe only one that mattersrsquorsquo through the tactics ofmirroring the identity desired by his audiences and by denying asingularity and certainty (Bozza Whatever You Say I Am 64) He ac-complishes all of this with his personal style music and body carefullyplaced within the boundaries established by black popular culture(Hall 470 ndash 71) Next Eminemrsquos tactics of representation will be ex-amined in terms of these three stages of lsquolsquowalking between here andtherersquorsquo in order to understand his operational logic

Appropriation Taking on the Language and Formof Hip-Hop

As applied to Eminem appropriation concerns the deliberate acqui-sition of the language and form of hip-hop From the time hip-hopculture began as an illegal activity fostered by Afrika Bambaataa in theBronx through its reproductions as party music socialpolitical cri-tique gangsta rap and global reception as lsquolsquoghetto sublimersquorsquo it hasalways walked the edge between alienation and acceptance (Dyson 4 ndash10 Smith 84) Today it has replaced country music as the best-sellingmusical genre after rock with 138 percent of the market share in 2002(Recording Industry Association of America News 1) In much the sameway Eminem embodies hip-hoprsquos trajectory through his fusion of the

Close to the Edge 465

best and worst of the culture to chart his path of entry and ultimatesuccess These include The Beastie Boys Vanilla Ice KRS-One TuPacShakur Notorious BIG Cage Dr Dre Kool G Rap and LL Cool Jamong others The most commercially and culturally successful whitehip-hop act before Eminem was The Beastie Boys who had African-American management and audience acceptance With the help ofRussell Simmons they fashioned the formula for white emcees to at-tain success while remaining authentic innovators and not African-American imitators African-American production and managementa-political lyrics and a rock-oriented style (Perkins 36)

Eminem learned as much from the success of The Beastie Boys as hedid from the failure of the infamous Vanilla Ice Eminem comments

Look at Vanilla Ice Yo he got exposed You can only put up a frontfor so long before people start coming out of the woodwork Donrsquot talk about growing up in the city if you grew up in thefucking suburbs White rappers if they grew up in the suburbsshould play off it like lsquolsquoHi Irsquom whitersquorsquo

(Bozza Whatever You Say I Am 157)

And that is exactly what Eminem did with his 1998 debut single lsquolsquoMyName Isrsquorsquo He introduced himself to the world as Slim Shady anoutrageous white emcee who is not afraid of self-ridicule Through deCerteaursquos paradigm Eminemrsquos introduction to hip-hop as Slim Shadymarks his point of entry into the rap scene by introducing his sub-jective position He is introduced as the white Other to hip-hop apredominantly African-American and Latino medium and hip-hoprepresents the racialized Other to Eminem This reflexive relationshipallows him to walk the edge between whiteness as sameness andwhiteness as otherness by simultaneously juxtaposing the middle classethic of Leave It to Beaver with white trash stereotypes and by pre-senting himself as a self-conscious and apprehensive guest within thepredominantly nonwhite culture of hip-hop

Eminemrsquos introduction to and subsequent explosion within hip-hopculture embodies a dramatic and important opportunity to (re)considercertain key issues in cultural theory chiefly the tactics of racial iden-tification aesthetics and representation production and consumptionand how these issues connect with social and political realities of twenty-first century America Since his underground debut in 1996 Eminemskyrocketed from low-class midwestern American obscurity into inter-


national fame and fortune sold over 33 million records won GrammyAwards and an Academy Award developed a clothing line called ShadyLtd founded Shady Records 8 Mile Style and Serious Satellite radiostation Shade 45 However his unwillingness to sponsor products thatdo not directly shape his image such as Applersquos I-Pod advertising cam-paign reveals his awareness of and control over his commercial repre-sentation (lsquolsquoEminemrsquos Publisher Sues Applersquorsquo 1) These lsquolsquoShadyrsquorsquo businessenterprises are evidence of Eminemrsquos heightened sense of identity andconsciousness of how personal image is constructed and circulated

Rap scholar Nancy Guevara attributes rap success such as Eminemrsquosto the minstrel-like quality of contemporary hip-hop a series ofghetto-ized fantasy images useful only for advertising and entertainingwhite audiences Guevara writes that lsquolsquothe ahistorical commercial pre-sentation of hip hop is neither accidental nor new Whenever black orLatino aesthetic innovations have been repackaged and sold to whiteaudiences as entertainment fads the contextual and traditional mean-ings of those innovations have been airbrushed outrsquorsquo (49) The appro-priation of African-American and Latino styles is commonplace inAmerican popular culture and hip-hoprsquos absorption by suburban mid-dle-class white youths hankering for lsquolsquoauthenticityrsquorsquo is the latest phaseof a complicated history of transracial entertainment

Eminemrsquos meteoric rise to fame supports and complicates Guevararsquospoint First Eminemrsquos explosion replaces the umbral roots of hip-hopwith the commercialized white rapper Second Eminem lsquolsquorepaysrsquorsquo theAfrican-American hip-hop community because his sales fuel the successof African-American hip-hop mogul Dr Drersquos label a subsidiary ofInterscope Records named Aftermath Records Third Eminemrsquos auraand form of mechanical reproduction are sold to a scopious market ofhip-hop consumers For example in 2002 Eminem made music historywhen The Eminem Show sold 13 million copies in its first week on theshelves and 76 million in its first year (Bozza Whatever You Say I Am85) Eminem addresses this directly in his 2002 interview with RollingStone Magazine

Itrsquos obvious to me that I sold double the records because Irsquom whiteIn my heart I truly believe I have a talent but at the same time Irsquomnot stupid I know when I first came out especially being producedby Dre made it cool and acceptable for white kids to like me In thesuburbs the white kids have to see black people liking you or they


wonrsquot like you You need that foundation of legitimacy The BeastieBoysmdashthey had respect from the hip-hop community and thatrsquoswhat made them

(Bozza lsquolsquoEminem The Rolling Stone Interviewrsquorsquo 5)

Eminem understands the way that hip-hop works for a white rapperand continued to make music history as his third album The MarshallMathers LP was certified nine times platinum in March 2004 (WirelessHip Hop and Urban Lifestyle Homepage 2) and his latest album Encorewas poised to reach five times platinum in the United States and sellover 300000 copies in the United Kingdom before its release(Eminemcom 1 CBBC Newsround 1) Eminemrsquos lsquolsquocultural capitalrsquorsquo as awhite rapper is fueled by his high levels of acceptance among African-American and Latino hip-hop audiences (Bourdieu 171 190 HechtCollier amp Ribeau 55) Although African-Americans and Latinos ranklower in Americarsquos traditional social hierarchy they constitute theoriginators valuators authenticators and figures of acceptance withinhip-hop culture (Gandy 51)

He conveys his frustrating need to impress these groups in the songlsquolsquo8 Milersquorsquo when he laments over his whiteness as an obstacle to hisinitial entry into the rap world He raps lsquolsquoWhy do I put up this fightSometimes I just wanna get up on stage and just kill micsAnd showthese people what my level of skill is likeBut Irsquom still whiteSome-times I just hate lifeSomethinrsquo ainrsquot rightrsquorsquo The audience listens andwonders whether Eminem is suggesting that he should have been bornan African-American Although this discussion argues that the answeris no only Eminem can answer the question definitively What is clearis that through the soundtrack and film 8 Mile Eminemrsquos represen-tational tactics work to officially mythologize him as the underdog onewho can relate to the experiences of the disenfranchised because of hisown impoverished background Like hip-hop itself Eminem is a hy-brid and fluid icon that explodes conventional conceptions about Oth-erness and challenges racially based modes of thinking

Further Eminemrsquos adept skill as an artist inflames a complex debateabout the ideologies of racial aesthetics and representation Eminemgained acceptance when he introduced whiteness as Otherness to hip-hop by lsquolsquobringing two of the most infamous white stereotypes to lifeHe was both a crazyass white boy and a hardworking manrsquorsquo (SannehThe Voice of America 2) In the tradition of The Beastie Boys he was


simultaneously amazing gross and innocuous because he did notchallenge the antiwhite rhetoric that fills many hip-hop lyrics Nor didhe ever pretend to be anything but a lsquolsquowhite boyrsquorsquo His self-deprecatinghumor as the persona Slim Shady introduced in lsquolsquoMy Name Isrsquorsquo lsquolsquoGuiltyConsciencersquorsquo lsquolsquoThe Real Slim Shadyrsquorsquo lsquolsquoWithout Mersquorsquo and lsquolsquoJust Lose Itrsquorsquoon four different albums painted less-than-perfect pictures of whiteAmerica These songs also allowed him to act out his suppressed pas-sions on four dimensions (1) as the average stereotypical Americanwhite youth who can be found in any mediated image or family (re-flected in his portrayal of the President and the Beaver in lsquolsquoMy NameIsrsquorsquo and in his song lsquolsquoWhite Americarsquorsquo) (2) as an angry misogynistfamily man who wants to stab his wife and kidnap his daughter (re-flected in his portrayal of the evil conscience in lsquolsquoGuilty Consciencersquorsquo) orreminisce about them in lsquolsquoMockingbirdrsquorsquo (3) as the only white emcee ina field dominated by men of color in lsquolsquoThe Real Slim Shadyrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoTheWay I Amrsquorsquo and (4) as a rapping superhero and celebrity impersonatorwho saves us all from taking hip-hop too seriously in lsquolsquoWithout Mersquorsquoand lsquolsquoJust Lose Itrsquorsquo These actions are integral to his commercial successlsquolsquoFor white rappersrsquorsquo he says lsquolsquotherersquos such a fine line between shit youcan and canrsquot dorsquorsquo (Bozza Whatever You Say I Am 157) For example heis not allowed to state that white people are superior in any detectableway To this end he refuses to use the lsquolsquoNrsquorsquo word in any of his lyricssaying lsquolsquoitrsquos just not a term I choose to fuck with because I do Blackmusic I always show that respectrsquorsquo (Jenkins 113) He is conscious of hisposition as the Other in the predominantly African-American andLatino world of American hip-hop

Spatial Acting-out of the Place Slim Shady MarshallMathers and Eminem

Walking the edge between lsquolsquohere and therersquorsquo makes Eminemrsquos tacticshighly dialectical As a consequence his walk manufactures what WalterBenjamin in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction refers toas his lsquolsquoaurarsquorsquo lsquolsquoAurarsquorsquo is the distance between a work of art and itsaudience It is what makes uniqueness an essential characteristic (218ndash19) Benjamin explains how removing the aura levels the playing field

the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced objectfrom the domain of tradition By making many reproductions it


substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence And in per-mitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his ownparticular situation it reactivates the object produced (221)

Benjamin celebrates the demise of the aura and the possibility for per-ceiving the unexpected via the technique of mechanical reproduction

Benjaminrsquos argument applies to Eminem in a unique manner FirstEminemrsquos success depends on the mechanical reproduction of a credibleand indestructible aura Eminem primarily uses his alter-ego SlimShady to manufacture this aura Slim Shady is someone inaccessible andelusive someone highly valued but who is also both deceptive anduntouchable He admits that therersquos a little Slim Shady in all of us butonly he can be the real Slim Shady The mechanical reproduction ofEminem reflected by Slim Shady distances him further and furtheraway from his audience while preserving his aura By utilizing thispersona especially on MTV to bring each of his albums to market hecontrols and dispenses his aura as a market value and positions himselfas the Other This both ensures his success and allows little room forthe expression or expectation of any authentic identity

Second Eminem uses additional alter egos to increase the distancebetween himself and his art which is another dimension of his aura Attimes that call for serious and contemplative biographical speech aimedat white males he refers to himself by his birth name Marshall Mat-hers At times when he negates or excludes hip-hop Others (eghomosexuals women himself and other white men) he invokes humorand horror often dresses in drag and always inhabits his alter-ego popmusic persona of Slim Shady In battle raps hip-hoprsquos traditional rhe-torical situations in which he struggles for street credibility and is theOther he refers to himself as Eminem These personae link his lsquolsquoactsand footstepsrsquorsquo which open him up to multiple meanings and direc-tions They carve out liberated and unstable spaces within the aura thatEminem can occupy (de Certeau 117 Mailer 11) Ultimately theyreveal that he must maintain his aura by controlling his own me-chanical reproduction to capitalize upon the hysteria his indetermi-nacy creates (see Table 1)

Instead of letting go of his music through the process of mechanicalreproduction he and his publicity team mechanically reproduce theaura tether it to his personae and market art and artist as one fixedcommodity He lays out this argument in the video for lsquolsquoThe Real Slim


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Shadyrsquorsquo when he raps as the authentic artist from within a factory thatmass produces Slim Shady clones from a mental institution whichmass produces the psychotic behavior for which Slim Shady is infa-mous from within a classroom which mass produces the kind of con-formist thinking he battles against and from a carnivalesque JerrySpringer-like talk show which mass produces strife allowing him tointerface with audiences and modulate his aura This video suggeststhat Eminemrsquos art only emerges when his authenticity is threatened bymechanical reproduction controlled by someone else This is Eminemrsquosaura at its most tangible where he achieves mechanical reproductionwithout removing the art from its shell Eminem artist and his ar-tistry remains one unique unit

Eminem reproduces another unit G-Unit by introducing 50 Centin his breakout single lsquolsquoIn Da Clubrsquorsquo In this video Eminem and DrDre design oversee regulate and approve 50 Centrsquos aura in threedistinct settings in the laboratory in which he is literally built out ofmechanical parts and tested in a nightclub in which he interacts with apredominantly African-American audience and in the recording studiowhere he delivers the lyrics that will become his own mechanicalreproduction 50 Cent is always viewed through the eyes of Eminemand Dr Dre to ensure his hip-hop legitimacy thug persona andlsquolsquogroupie loversquorsquo The mechanical reproduction of 50 Cent allowsEminem to remain lsquolsquothe real Slim Shadyrsquorsquo Similarly D-12rsquos mainstreamhip-hop introduction titled My Band is another although somewhatless successful example of Eminemrsquos tactical use of the aura D-12capitalizes off of an irreverent reproduction of Eminemrsquos self-ridiculingSlim Shady persona and 50 Centrsquos thug persona to establish theircredibility A method of representation surfaces in which Eminemrsquosaura implies authenticity but must acknowledge that there is no au-thenticity without its destruction in mechanical reproducibility ThusBenjaminrsquos concept of aura and mechanical reproduction find inimi-table hip-hop expression in Eminem

The implication here is that the label lsquolsquoEminemrsquorsquo does not refercleanly to a real individualmdashit refers to a brand which paints Eminemas lsquolsquothe only one that mattersrsquorsquo (Bozza Whatever You Say I Am 64)The brand name Eminem is more than a play on his initials M andM Like the MampM candy he is packaged and colored differently on thesurface depending on the expectations of his intended audiences Healso takes a message from the candy as an innuendo for his social


identity as black on the inside His color lsquolsquomelts in your mouth and notin your handrsquorsquo leaving no material trace other than the satisfyingchocolate flavor He acknowledges this in lsquolsquoWithout Mersquorsquo when he re-minds the audience that he will follow the formula for success set forthby Elvis Presley and become successful by making blackness present inpopular music only in its absence in the identity of the musician Heraps lsquolsquoI am the worst thing since Elvis Presleyto do black music soselfishly and use it to get myself wealthyrsquorsquo (Mathers lsquolsquoWithout Mersquorsquo) Inlight of this many critics argue that he is nothing more than a kitschyminstrel who devours and performs blackness but cannot ever attain itFurther adversaries argue that this is the key component to his success(Cobb 32 Osorio 78 Rux 37) Although this may be true to somedegree Eminemrsquos success is due in larger part to the tactical maneu-vering of his own mechanical reproduction and the mechanical repro-duction of his hip-hop scions

In monitoring his own mechanical reproduction he accesses whatErick Watts and Mark P Orbe refer to as lsquolsquowhite ambivalencersquorsquo (10 ndash11) At first glance Eminem elicits a white fear of blackness a la thethug The fear is squelched upon closer scrutiny because he is revealedas a product of white America with enough of a black aura to make himcool His whiteness provides limited invisibility and unlimited mo-bility within which he plays on difference and universality He doeshowever fall victim to critiques based on his outrageous lyrical contentfrom detractors such as Tipper Gore the National Organization ofWomen the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Defamation League and The SourceMany argue however that he only has the platform to make suchoutrageous statements because of the color of his skin and that hismarket success and free speech are privileges ascribed to whiteness (Rux18 Cobb 33) (see Appendix A)

Eminem a brand consisting of artist and his product exhibits anaura that cannot be separated from its packaging The packaging em-phasizes Eminemrsquos uniqueness that he and his art are one The aura iscommodified and marketed as widely as possible via mechanical re-production The tactics of mechanical reproduction are deployedthrough various conduitsmdashfilm music fashion entertainment man-agement and media interviews His representational strategy also in-corporates the support or opposition of other black and whiteentertainers to expose new audiences to his products (eg Dr DreJay-Z Elton John Madonna Fat Joe Marilyn Manson and Michael


Jackson) It could be argued that a strategy seems to emerge To theeffect that Eminem maintains consistent methods of quality controlover the mechanical reproduction of his representation he enjoys massappeal He achieves the result of mechanical reproduction namely thathe and his discourse are everywhere without the perception of thelsquolsquosense of the universal equality of thingsrsquorsquo (Benjamin 223) He does nothave to share his spoils

Allocution Positing the Other Through Discourse

Eminem speaks from within the free play of his own discourse and isnot afraid of self-critique In his songs lsquolsquoThe Way I Amrsquorsquo lsquolsquoWhiteAmericarsquorsquo and lsquolsquoMy Name Isrsquorsquo he reveals that the relationship to theself and the process of identification can be activities of giving style toonersquos strengths and weaknesses rather than trying to reveal an au-thentic self As a result the once secure and dependable set of collectiveideologies erodes the marker between the symbiotic same and Other orlsquolsquoIrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoYoursquorsquo It is now possible for the same and the Other to share asimilar vocabulary and worldview as evidenced in his song lsquolsquoMoshrsquorsquo asymbolically charged political critique of President Bush and the IraqWar aimed at all sectors of the hip-hop audience

As aforementioned Eminemrsquos discourse and personae do not paint apicture of Marshall Mathers Rather they paint a picture of who Mar-shall Mathers wants his audience to believe and buy into who he is(Slim Shady Eminem) based upon how he positions the audience asOther This is the heart of his representational tactics In lsquolsquoThe Way IAmrsquorsquo his audience the lsquolsquoYoursquorsquo or the Other is posited as the subjectempowered to define and describe him To paraphrase Benjaminrsquos ob-servation lsquolsquothe distinction between author and public lose[s] itsbase character At any moment the reader is ready to turn into awriter literary license is now common propertyrsquorsquo (232) Eminemexplains how this affects his career in the video for this song as he rapswhile plummeting toward his death that he is whatever we (the au-dience media) say he is Once these words are transported to consumersEminem is no longer the author and has no fixed position He suffers ametaphorical death and is a guest to the text on display As a result ofthe death of himself as an author Eminemrsquos identity lies in the hands ofmedia critics and fans (the Other) lsquolsquoThe Way I Amrsquorsquo is Eminemrsquos


manifesto for communication with his audiences He explains that heand his team control the mechanical reproductions of his personae tomeet listeners in their own contexts via media representation Hissubjectivity is then ironically reactivated in this process As an ad-dendum Eminem murders his audience in his final album Encorewhich may imply the end of this phase of his representational tacticsand the beginning of another in which we refer to him primarily as abrand rather than as a rapper

Eminemrsquos discourse also defines his subjectivity by positing hisfamily as the Other For instance in the singles lsquolsquoCleaning Out MyClosetrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoMockingbirdrsquorsquo Eminem raps about his broken familyalong with the toll it took on his own self-esteem and relationshipswith ex-wife (Kim) and daughter (Hailie Jade) Eminem expressessorrow for the life and family he never experienced and vows to be abetter parent to his daughter and niece His experiences as an outcast inlow-income housing as the child of an absentee father and as the sonof a mother who battled drug addiction bring him closer to main-stream Americarsquos stereotypical version of African-American Otherness

Within de Certeaursquos paradigm of pedestrian speech lsquolsquoCleaning OutMy Closetrsquorsquo inaugurates Marshall Mathers as a subject It is a text inwhich the author walks between person and persona or between hereand there He lsquolsquobegins the walk that Freud compares to the tramplingunderfoot of the mother-landrsquorsquo (de Certeau 110) In the video for thissong Eminem digs his (or his motherrsquos) grave and imagines an emptychurch in which he alone is present to mourn the death In some sensehe not only digs his grave but his unique niche as he burrows into hispast in order to understand the world around him as an adult He useshis childhood as the place to do away with his mother andor himselfand lsquolsquobe other and to move toward the otherrsquorsquo (de Certeau 110) Thedeeper he digs the closer he gets to his Otherness He is forced tolsquolsquoclean out his closetrsquorsquo and address his internalized self-hatred destruc-tive impulses and nihilism

Since Eminem is consciously operating in an African-Americandominated medium the concept of nihilism is important to noteCornel West defines nihilism as

The lived experience of coping with a life of horrifying meaning-lessness hopelessness and (most important) lovelessness Thefrightening result is a numbing detachment from others and a


self-destructive disposition toward the world the self-fulfillingprophecy of the nihilistic threat is that without hope there can be nofuture that without meaning there can be no struggle (14 ndash 15)

West goes on to explain that nihilism threatens Americarsquos existenceAlthough he introduces this lsquolsquonihilistic threatrsquorsquo within an African-American context Eminem is evidence that nihilism persists through-out other racial and ethnic communities His discourse invites hisauditors to view the world as he does as a solitary environment inwhich identity personal meaning and self-esteem are absent He en-gages white ambivalence along with black acceptance by aligning thepains of his experience to the necessary pain of a credible hip-hoppersona Rather than mask his own white nihilism he marries it to aspecific and accessible African-American experience through theintensity of its pain Consequently he presents a version of African-American experience that mainstream American audiences can em-brace

Eminem constitutes himself as a rejected Other when he raps abouthis childhood in a poor single-parent household and finding solace inthe angry expressions of rock and rap The rhetoric of rock and raptaught Eminem the language of Otherness His childhood experiencesin Detroit a city whose black population exceeds eighty percent ac-cording to the U S Census Bureau provided firsthand knowledge ofand contact with African-American culture Together the music andlife experiences showed him how to construct his art and personae andhow to address his transracial social identity and audiences By em-phasizing his white identity through the lens of class he is most likelyto gain black acceptance which fuels white ambivalence From thisperspective he can speak from the spaces here and there unwilling toposition himself in any fixed place

In addition to social and emotional identification with an African-American perspective of nihilism Eminem publicly adheres to thehip-hop codes of conduct in order to generate and maintain blackacceptance namely African-American collaboration management hu-mility in the face of black criticism and recognition of his status as theOther in this medium He relates to African Americans by relating tothe significance of the black lsquolsquomark of difference inside forms of popularculturersquorsquo (Hall 471) His own white body bears the mark of differenceinside a form of black popular culture Stylistically he compensates for


this difference through performativity He dons his hip-hop uniformmdashbaggy pants tattoos sneakers jewelry beats and rhymesmdashto walk thetight rope between Other within the world of hip-hop and same withinmainstream popular culture He is sensitized to the importance of hisstyle the meaning and primacy of his music as a text and the use of hisbody as a lsquolsquocanvas of representationrsquorsquo (470) In effect Eminem attacheshis body to the lsquolsquointercultural bodyrsquorsquo of hip-hop in a global context(Osumare 30)

Negotiating with Otherness Eminemrsquos Contract withBlackness and Whiteness

Eminemrsquos racial and cultural identities can appear fractured and scat-tered like the broken glass Grandmaster Flash rapped about over 20years ago However they are not He walks close to the edge betweenthe shards of identification in order to negotiate the boundaries ofblackness and whiteness in the world of transracial entertainment Onthe track lsquolsquoWhite Americarsquorsquo Eminem addresses his white audience froma position of sameness that allows him to acknowledge white racismand not apologize for using it to his advantage His skin signifies hisaccess to opportunity audience and strong market value His skin andblue eyes he writes make him marketable as the Other preciselybecause they signify his whiteness and status as a part of the same (seeAppendix A)

In his song lsquolsquoThe Way I Amrsquorsquo Eminem reveals an alternative view ofmainstream white America when he expresses frustration with beingmisunderstood by white people as a lsquolsquowiggerrsquorsquo or white nigger and goeson to inform African-American hip-hop fans that he identifies closelywith them and tries to understand their viewpoints without trying tobe perceived as a black person It is key for Eminem to be perceived aswhite because whiteness allows for mobility across lines of identifi-cation greater transracial acceptance a wider platform for social cri-tique and uniqueness within hip-hop popular culture At the MTVEurope Music Awards in November 2003 for instance Eminem ac-cepted his fifth consecutive award for best male rap artist and called themostly white audience a bunch of lsquolsquoracist crackersrsquorsquo while eating crack-ers He stated that he appreciates the adulation and recognition butknows that there are other and better African-American and Latino


artists at work in contemporary hip-hop This is but another exampleof how Eminem effectively merges sameness and Otherness to addressthe inherent contradictions of hip-hop as transracial and transnationalentertainment

In addition to his talent Eminemrsquos whiteness makes him distinctopen to multiple audiences mobile and highly marketable His white-ness is the asset that affords him the privilege of easily straddling the linebetween sameness and Otherness without appearing inauthentic How-ever this kind of mass exposure could have a hip-hop neophyte believinghe is the first emcee rather than one of the first white rappers to be takenseriously As a result many African-American and Latino hip-hop jour-nalists fans and rappers criticize Eminem for ignoring his role as theOther in the world of hip-hop even though he continually articulatesthat he has not (Moody 1 Osorio 72 Sanneh Voice of America 2 D 2ndash3)African-American rapper Ja Rule articulated his politics of resentmentwhen he challenged Eminem to a battle and charged that Eminem couldnever understand the experiences of blackness (Atkins lsquolsquoThe Warningrsquorsquo)Jay-Z also commented on a change within hip-hop since Eminemrsquosemergence when he remarked about the large degree to which whitenessfuels record sales (Carter lsquolsquoWhat More Can I Sayrsquorsquo) Now nonwhite rap-pers have a higher standard of skills and sales to uphold especially whenthey are not directly affiliated with Eminem A serious implication ofthis success is that Eminem can take everything from hip-hop except theburdens of Otherness

In the face of this criticism Eminem worked to publicly repair hisrelationship with his African-American constituents and consumersthrough staged acknowledgments and apologies In February 2003 heaccepted a Grammy for The Eminem Show as best rap album and tookthe stage with an entirely African-American entourage He humblyaccepted the award and paid homage to the emcees that paved the wayfor and inspired him These included emcees and groups such as RunDMC The Beastie Boys LL Cool J Kool G Rap Masta Ace RakimDr Dre NWA KRS-One Tretch Nas Tupac Shakur Notorious BIGand Jay-Z He concluded by saying lsquolsquothanks I learned from all of yoursquorsquoAnd according to EminemCom he produced lsquolsquoMoment of Clarityrsquorsquo forJay-Z lsquolsquoRunninrsquorsquo (lsquolsquoDying to Liversquorsquo) and other posthumous tribute songsfor lyrics written and delivered by TuPac Shakur and Notorious BIG

Eminemrsquos Otherness was most notoriously highlighted and attackedby hip-hop magazine The Source for lyrics written circa 1993 describing


African-American women as insipid gold-digging bitches ( Jenkins113 Sanneh lsquolsquoUnguarded Lyrics Embarrass Eminemrsquorsquo 3) Unlike con-troversies regarding his homophobia or domestic relationships withwhite women this is an example where the discourse of race trumpsthe discourse of gender Ironically insulting black women is a speechact that many black male rappers are authorized to perform but it is adiscursive opportunity not afforded to Eminem (D 2 ndash 4) These lyricsare evidence that he has stepped out of the bounds of the lsquolsquohere andtherersquorsquo into a forbidden discursive territory In a February 2004 C-SPAN interview for Booknotes titled lsquolsquoThe Collected Poetry of NikkiGiovannirsquorsquo African-American poetess Nikki Giovanni commented onthis situation Giovanni remarked lsquolsquoSo Eminem you know does nothave a right to dis black women when hersquos making a living in a blackart form and you ndash you get sick of thatrsquorsquo (8) He responded by statingthat lsquolsquoIrsquod just broken up with my girlfriend who was African Amer-ican and I reacted like the angry stupid kid I was I hope people willtake it for the foolishness that it was not for what somebody is tryingto make it into todayrsquorsquo (Moody 1) As for the accusation that he usedthe N word in another song Eminem was reluctant to acknowledge therecording as his own until the release of his latest album Encore inwhich he explained the incident away as a youthful indiscretion Thesecontroversies are evidence that Eminem cannot occupy a comfortableor permanent place in hip-hop Understanding this his controversialtactics keep him in the limelight temporarily and create opportunitiesfor rebuttals in which he attempts to pull in a larger audience

Discussion Marshall Matters

The representational tactics of Eminem are important because theyreveal the careful work it takes to manipulate an artistrsquos mechanicalreproduction to maintain the necessary aura Eminem is marketed as aunique expression of artist and artistry as fixed commodity Precariousimplications of this method of representation for transracial entertain-ment are fourfold (1) this method highlights the fragility of thedifference-based binary of sameOther and of the aesthetic techniquesthat capitalize upon it (2) this method reveals that transracial enter-tainment is not a growth industry with a lsquolsquosense of the universalequality of thingsrsquorsquo which pries the aura from its shell (Benjamin 223)


artist and artistry are one in the same so there can be no other suc-cessful white rapper as long as he maintains that space (3) these rep-resentational tactics culminate in the consolidation of lsquolsquoEminemrsquorsquo as acorporate brand and optimistically (4) Eminemrsquos success points to-ward the potential for intercultural bonding and communicative in-teraction within popular culture

First Eminemrsquos method requires careful maneuvering subtlety andconstant vigilance to operate effectively Further he has to control andsaturate many media outlets to combat his vulnerability In additionEminem understands that his presence and popularity necessarily ex-clude other lsquolsquohip-hop Othersrsquorsquo This is why he marginalizes homosexualscelebrities women and other white men in his lyrics and businesspractices His uniqueness is reinforced through the continued mechan-ical reproduction of his aura and through the tactical deployment of thataura to introduce black hip-hop artists in whom he has a vested interest

Second transracial entertainment is not an industry with an ethic inlsquolsquothe universal equality of thingsrsquorsquo On the macro level of cultural rep-resentation The Eminem Show and Encore seem to have brought hip-hopand rap from their Latino and African-American urban roots to thepinnacle of mimesis in white suburbia Will artists of color who are notaffiliated with Eminem reach these levels of commercial success On amicro level Eminem must maintain a firm grasp on his unique nichewithin hip-hop in order to facilitate continued popularity On his tracklsquolsquoWithout Mersquorsquo he articulates his nightmare an industrial attack of theclones as the new marketing strategy Yet Eminemrsquos imitators have notarrived We begin to realize that Eminemrsquos greatest skill is in main-taining his uniqueness He is distinct from Elvis Presley in this regardbecause Eminem is the only one authorized to parody himself Infact he has to be a lsquolsquometa-Elvis whose life and work [are] constantlyrebounding off each otherrsquorsquo (Gabler 1)

As aforementioned like the M amp M candy he reinvents himself withdifferent packaging by surrounding himself with assorted black whiteand brown entertainers via cross-selling through various outlets in themarket of popular culture (ie Shady Ltd clothing line ownership ofShady Records ownership of SIRIUS radio station Shade 45) and bytaking on multiple personalities or flavors in music videos and lyricsto make audiences forget that there is only one of him In so doing hecloses the door for other transracial artists and preserves inequalitybecause the entire package not just the work of art must be reproduced


in context After all lsquolsquoThe Real Slim Shadyrsquorsquo reminds listeners that theremay be a million others who look like him but there is only one realSlim Shady who will stand up to the test of time and rules of hip-hoppopular culture Therefore it can be concluded that transracial enter-tainment in America will remain a singular enterprise where art andartist are tied and incapable of spawning duplicates alone The key tosuccess in transracial entertainment is control of an aura control overthe outlets for mechanical reproduction and an unbreakable bond be-tween artist and artistry To Benjaminrsquos dismay it can be concluded thateven in mechanical reproduction the art cannot take on a life of its own

In 2005 the art does however take on a brand identity of its ownLike lsquolsquoJ-Lorsquorsquo lsquolsquoEminemrsquorsquo comes to represent a particular popular musica popular musicianentrepreneur a clothing style music video stylerecord label and a radio station This multifaceted brand deliversEminemrsquos lsquolsquoclose to the edgersquorsquo message clearly confirms his credibilityas an artist and businessman emotionally connects with his audiencesmotivates listenersconsumers and creates customer loyalty The im-plication of this representational strategy for Eminemrsquos business isefficiency the creation of opportunities for endorsements and cross-selling (ie G-Unit attire and footwear films) the ability to shapefuture demand for lsquolsquoEminemrsquorsquo the artist and global expansion This iswhere the next phase of Eminemrsquos representational strategy beginsmdashwhere popular music becomes the platform upon which other productsare launched sold and bought

Finally Eminemrsquos representational tactics beg the question ofwhether transracial entertainment or walkingcrossing over the edgecan lead to enriching forms of cultural bonding and interaction Echo-ing legendary old school emcee KRS-One Eminemrsquos answer is yes Heasserts that hip-hop is unique because it has this power more than anyother musical genre Like Eminem hip-hop borrows elements from allother cultural genres He notes lsquolsquothe fact that hip-hop has so manydifferent people different types of people coming to hip-hop showsrsquorsquo asincredible positive and progressive ( Jenkins 121ndash 22) In this regardit creates a common syntax and lsquolsquointercultural bodyrsquorsquo through whichhip-hop culture is performed and reproduced (Osumare 31 ndash 32) In theend hip-hoprsquos ultimate message remains the same Eminemrsquos repre-sentational strategy is proof that as we continue to walk close to theedges of lsquolsquohere and therersquorsquo a common ground upon which we will meetremains popular music


Works Cited

Atkins JeffreylsquolsquoThe Warningrsquorsquo The Last Temptation New York DefJam Records 2002

mdashmdashmdash lsquolsquoThe Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni 1968 ndash 1998rsquorsquo HostBrian Lamb Booknotes C-SPAN New York 8 Feb 2004 Tran-script

Benjamin Walter lsquolsquoThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Re-productionrsquorsquo Illuminations Ed Hannah Arendt New York Schoc-ken Books 1969 217 ndash 53

Bourdieu Pierre Distinction A Social Critique of the Judgment of TasteTrans Richard Nice Cambridge MA Harvard UP 1984

Bozza Anthony Whatever You Say I Am The Life and Times of EminemNew York Crown Publishers 2003

mdashmdashmdashlsquolsquoEminem The Rolling Stone Interviewrsquorsquo Rolling Stone Magazine4ndash14 July 2002 1 Oct 2003 hhttpwwwrollingstonecomi

Carter SeanlsquolsquoWhat More Can I Sayrsquorsquo The Black Album Def JamRecords 2003

CBBC Newsround lsquolsquoEminem Set for Record Album Salesrsquorsquo 13 Nov2004 1 Dec 2004 hhttpnewsbbccoukcbbcnewshinewsid_4000000newsid_40093004009353stmi

Cobb William J lsquolsquoWhite Negro Pleasersquorsquo The Progressive 671 (2003)32 ndash 33

de Certeau Michel The Practice of Everyday Life Los Angeles U ofCalifornia P 1984

Dyson Michael Eric Reflecting Black African-American Cultural Crit-icism Minneapolis U of Minnesota P 1993

Eminemcom 26 May 2005 31 May 2005 hhttpwwweminemcomilsquolsquoEminemrsquos Publisher Sues Applersquorsquo 24 Feb 2004 CNNcom 24 Feb

2004 25 Feb 2004 hhttpwwwcnncomiFlash Grand Master and The Furious Five lsquolsquoThe Messagersquorsquo The Mes-

sage New York Sugarhill Records 1982Gabler NeallsquolsquoIdeas and Trends For Eminem Art is Hype and Vice

Versarsquorsquo New York Times 17 Nov 2002 20 Apr 2004 hhttpweblexis-nexiscomuniversei

Gandy Oscar H Jr Communication and Race A Structural PerspectiveNew York Oxford UP 1998

Gates Henry Louis Jr Signifying Monkey A Theory of African AmericanLiterary Criticism Cambridge UK Oxford UP 1990

Guevara Nancy lsquolsquoWomen Writinrsquo Rappinrsquo Breakinrsquorsquorsquo Droppinrsquo ScienceCritical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture Ed William EPerkins Philadelphia Temple UP 1996 49 ndash 62


Hall Stuart lsquolsquoWhat is This lsquoBlack in Black Popular Culturersquorsquorsquo CriticalDialogues in Cultural Studies Eds David Morley and Kuan-HsingChen London Routledge 1996 465ndash 475

Hecht Michael L Mary Jane Collier and Sidney A Ribeau AfricanAmerican Communication Ethnic Identity and Cultural InterpretationLanguage and Language Behaviors 2 London Sage 1993

Jenkins SachalsquolsquoBlow It Outrsquorsquo XXL Mar 2004 110ndash 22Mailer Norman The White Negro San Francisco Dissent Associates

1957Mathers Marshall Bruce III The Slim Shady LP AftermathInterscope

Records 1999mdashmdashmdash The Marshall Mathers LP AftermathInterscope Records 2000mdashmdashmdash lsquolsquo8 milersquorsquo 8 Mile Road Music from and inspired by the motion

picture 8 Mile ShadyInterscope Records 2002mdashmdashmdash The Eminem Show AftermathInterscope Records 2002mdashmdashmdash Encore ShadyAftermathInterscope Records 2004Moody Nekesa MumbilsquolsquoMagazine Accuses Eminem of Racism for Old

Song that Rapper Calls lsquoFoolishrsquorsquorsquo The Associated Press 20 Nov 200320 Nov 2003 hhttpweblexis-nexiscomuniversedocumenti

Osorio KimlsquolsquoThe Real Slim Shadyrsquorsquo The Source Feb 2004 67ndash85 97ndash8Osumare Halifu lsquolsquoGlobal Break Dancing and the Intercultural Bodyrsquorsquo

Dance Research Journal 342 (2002) 30 ndash 45Perkins William Eric lsquolsquoThe Rap Attack An Introductionrsquorsquo Droppinrsquo

Science Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture Ed Wil-liam Eric Perkins Philadelphia Temple UP 1996 1 ndash 48

Recording Industry Association of America Homepage 1 May 2004hhttpwwwriaacomnewsi

Rux Carl Hancock lsquolsquoEminem The New White Negrorsquorsquo Everything butthe Burden What White People are Taking from Black Culture EdGreg Tate New York Harlem Moon Books 2003 15 ndash 38

Sanneh KalefalsquolsquoThe Voice of Americarsquorsquo Rolling Stone Magazine 24 July2003 1 Oct 2003 hhttpwwwrollingstonecomi

mdashmdashmdash lsquolsquoUnguarded Lyrics Embarrass Eminemrsquorsquo New York Times20 Nov 2003 21 Nov 2003 hhttpwwwnytimescomi

Smith Christopher H lsquolsquolsquoI Donrsquot Like to Dream about Getting PaidrsquoRepresentations of Social Mobility and the Emergence of the Hip-Hop Mogulrsquorsquo Social Text 77 214 (2003) 69 ndash 97

U S Census Bureau 2000 Census 1 Aug 2000 31 May 2005 hhttpwwwcensusgovi

Watts Eric King and Mark P Orbe lsquolsquoThe Spectacular Consumption oflsquoTruersquo African American Culture lsquoWhassuprsquo with the BudweiserGuysrsquorsquo Critical Studies in Media Communication 191 (2002) 1 ndash 20


West Cornel Race Matters New York Random House 1994

Wireless Hip Hop and Urban Lifestyle Homepage 30 Apr 20045 May 2004 hhttpwwwurbankindcomi

Appendix A Negotiation

Tactics of Representation

y-axis black rhetorical

x-axis white semantic

Aura(The Edge)

black acceptance

white ambivalence

there

here

This graph represents the Negotiation step of Eminemrsquos represen-tational tactics These axes are borrowed from Henry Louis Gates Jrrsquosmodel of African-American rhetorical practices in The SignifyingMonkey According to Gates African-Americans communicate alongthe y-axis of rhetoric labeled here in my conceptual schema Whitescommunicate along the x-axis of semantics labeled there in myconceptual schema Successful transracial communication is difficultbecause of these axes of orientation

Eminemrsquos success depends upon his negotiation of these axes throughthe mechanical reproduction of his aura Eminemrsquos aura is located at thelsquolsquoedgersquorsquo between here and there Black acceptance and white ambivalencecan shortenlengthen the distance between here and there The auraallows Eminem to move across all quadrants while staying on the edgedepending on the places of a particular speech act in time Audiencesreside in all four quadrants and are tactically addressed at key momentsin the discourse depending upon which persona is doing the speakingmdashEminem Marshall Mathers or Slim Shady


Marcia Alesan Dawkins is assistant professor of Human Com-munication at California State University Fullerton She blogs teaches andconducts research in the areas of political communication diversity rhetoricand new media Her forthcoming book Things Said in Passing is a criticalanalysis of instances of racial passing in the United States from the latenineteenth through early twenty-first centuries She writes lectures andconsults on these and other issues related to contemporary communicationContact httpwwwmarciadawkinscom


achieve an objective critical stance Tactics are evidenced in placeswhere subjects are nomadic but able to carve out creative spaces withmaterials in hand without taking places over completely When tacticsare successful they can become standardized strategies Although deCerteau writes about the specific cultural practices of the disempow-ered his framework implies that an artist does not occupy an objectiveposition from which a workrsquos meaning can be fully comprehendedThus an artist does not have a strategy but only fragmentary tacticswhich depend on time and the continuous seizure of opportunities

This article examines the representational tactics of Marshall BruceMathers III known both as Eminem and Slim Shady within theframework of lsquolsquowalking rhetoricsrsquorsquo (de Certeau 100) lsquolsquoTo walkrsquorsquo deCerteau writes lsquolsquois to lack a place It is the indefinite process of beingabsent and in search of a properrsquorsquo (103) In other words walking is thediscursive process through which a subject is constituted by the re-lationship it creates with the Other Walking implying motion and aplane of projection is lsquolsquoa way of operatingrsquorsquo and communicating ineveryday cultural life (100) This movement is contextually bound andfunctions based on the constant manipulation of events and images deCerteau continues

Walking affirms suspects tries out transgresses respects etc thetrajectories it lsquolsquospeaksrsquorsquo All the modalities sing a part in this choruschanging from step to step stepping in through proportions se-quences and intensities which vary according to the time the pathtaken and the walker These enunciatory operations are of an un-limited diversity (98)

With walking as the operational logic Eminemrsquos representational tac-tics create the locations in popular culture from which his image isadapted manipulated and deployed

This theoretical analysis will utilize de Certeaursquos three stages ofcultural adaptation to follow the footprints of Eminemrsquos walkingrhetoric (1) appropriation in which the speaker acquires the languageof a given culture to bear the burden of hisher own experience (2) alsquolsquospatial acting-out of the placersquorsquo through which the speaker createsspace by airing hisher position with relation to the language and (3)allocution through which the speaker posits the Other as the referencepoint for the speakerrsquos own subjectivity and negotiates the relationshipbetween the two positions (de Certeau 97 ndash 98)



































TA

BL

E1

Spat

ial

Act

ing

out

of(P

erso

nifi

ed)

Pla

ce

Per

son

aSl

imSh

ady

Mar

shal

lM

ath

ers

Em

inem

Mes

sag

eco

nte

nt

Neg

ates

orex

clu

des

hip

-hop

Oth

ers

(eg

w

omen

h

omos

exu

als

him

self

w

hit

em

en)

Seri

ous

con

tem

pla

tive

bio

gra

ph

ical

spee

chB

attl

era

pp

erw

ho

stru

gg

les

for

stre

etcr

edib

ilit

yan

dis

the

Oth

er

lsquolsquoth

eu

nd

erd

ogrsquorsquo

Exa

mp

les

lsquolsquoMy

Nam

eIs


he

Rea

lSl

imSh

ady


ith

out

Mersquo

rsquolsquolsquoW

hit

eA

mer

ica


qu

are

Dan

cersquorsquo

lsquolsquoCle

anin

gO

ut

My

Clo

set


osh

rsquorsquo(p

orti

ons)

lsquolsquo8M

ile


he

Way

IA

mrsquorsquo

lsquolsquoSay

Wh

atY

ouSa

yrsquorsquo

lsquolsquoMos

hrsquorsquo

(por

tion

s)Ly

rica

lsn

ipp

ets

lsquolsquoHer

ersquos

aco

nce

pt

20

mil

lion

oth

erw

hit

era

pp

ers

emer

ge

Irsquom

the

real

Slim

Shad

yrsquorsquo

lsquolsquoLoo

kat

thes

eey

esb

aby

blu

eb

aby

just

lik

eyo

urs

elfrsquo

rsquolsquolsquoI

just

do

not

got

the

pat

ien

ceto

dea

lw

ith

thes

eco

cky

Cau

casi

ans

rsquorsquo

Tar

get

aud

ien

ceT

ran

srac

ial

aud

ien

ceP

red

omin

antl

yw

hit

em

ain

stre

amau

die

nce

Pre

dom

inan

tb

lack

Lat

ino

aud

ien

ce

















































Works Cited












































Aura(The Edge)

black acceptance

white ambivalence

there

here







































TA

BL

E1

Spat

ial

Act

ing

out

of(P

erso

nifi

ed)

Pla

ce

Per

son

aSl

imSh

ady

Mar

shal

lM

ath

ers

Em

inem

Mes

sag

eco

nte

nt

Neg

ates

orex

clu

des

hip

-hop

Oth

ers

(eg

w

omen

h

omos

exu

als

him

self

w

hit

em

en)

Seri

ous

con

tem

pla

tive

bio

gra

ph

ical

spee

chB

attl

era

pp

erw

ho

stru

gg

les

for

stre

etcr

edib

ilit

yan

dis

the

Oth

er

lsquolsquoth

eu

nd

erd

ogrsquorsquo

Exa

mp

les

lsquolsquoMy

Nam

eIs


he

Rea

lSl

imSh

ady


ith

out

Mersquo

rsquolsquolsquoW

hit

eA

mer

ica


qu

are

Dan

cersquorsquo

lsquolsquoCle

anin

gO

ut

My

Clo

set


osh

rsquorsquo(p

orti

ons)

lsquolsquo8M

ile


he

Way

IA

mrsquorsquo

lsquolsquoSay

Wh

atY

ouSa

yrsquorsquo

lsquolsquoMos

hrsquorsquo

(por

tion

s)Ly

rica

lsn

ipp

ets

lsquolsquoHer

ersquos

aco

nce

pt

20

mil

lion

oth

erw

hit

era

pp

ers

emer

ge

Irsquom

the

real

Slim

Shad

yrsquorsquo

lsquolsquoLoo

kat

thes

eey

esb

aby

blu

eb

aby

just

lik

eyo

urs

elfrsquo

rsquolsquolsquoI

just

do

not

got

the

pat

ien

ceto

dea

lw

ith

thes

eco

cky

Cau

casi

ans

rsquorsquo

Tar

get

aud

ien

ceT

ran

srac

ial

aud

ien

ceP

red

omin

antl

yw

hit

em

ain

stre

amau

die

nce

Pre

dom

inan

tb

lack

Lat

ino

aud

ien

ce

















































Works Cited












































Aura(The Edge)

black acceptance

white ambivalence

there

here





















































Works Cited












































Aura(The Edge)

black acceptance

white ambivalence

there

here






























Aura(The Edge)

black acceptance

white ambivalence

there

here






close to the edge: the representational tactics of · pdf fileclose to the edge: the...

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