eminem (was Re: hiphop discourse

[jbor]

on 7/5/01 8:20 AM, Thomas Eckhardt at thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de wrote:

> I am not so certain about the first part either. Parody just like satire needs
> a
> target, something that is being parodied. Certainly, his music is not a parody
> of
> gangsta rap. 

I assumed that he meant that that he is parodying the attitudes which the
characters in the songs are giving voice to. These are attitudes which
commonly exist in society. They would thus be the "target" of his parody.

I admit that there is an irony in the -- let's say "plot" -- of "Stan", in
that the rapper whom Stan idolises eventually does respond to Stan's
obsessed correspondences, and the final irony of recognition that the
murder/suicide that he had heard about on the radio is the same fan the
rapper is responding to is, in literary terms, quite well done and poignant.
But what I think eminem meant in the interview was that he is "parodying",
or satirising, his various characters' attitudes -- that is, Stan's attitude
in that lyric (and in the video/role play, where there is an additional
twist in that eminem acts out both the "Stan" role and the rapstar role).

On the other hand, I do have a little bit of trouble sorting out what's
parody and what's stupidity in the mini-saga of eminem doing that terrible
duet on the Grammies (?) with Elton John and then his comments post-gig once
he -- apparently -- found out that John was gay, or in all the
gun/girlfriend/mother court sagas. I sort of hope that eminem (the real
celeb.) is consciously parodying himself, but I doubt it.

The other connection between rap music and postmodern fiction, one which has
been made by several critics, is the way that "sampling" and hybridity are
openly embraced in both mediums, often forming a basis for the structure of
the text itself. The way that that Dido song (from _Notting Hill_) is
sampled in 'Stan' is both a tribute to the original and part of the parody
(Jameson's category of "blank parody" fits in nicely here): I think the same
sorts of things can be said about Pynchon's tribute to/parody of eighteenth
century literary style in his text of _M&D_.

best