Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame: How Eminem Took Hip-Hop to New Locations

The primary I heard of Eminem’s music was “The Slim Shady LP.” My boy Rod was enthusiastic about it and stated, “You gotta hear this!” so I took his recommendation. However earlier than I put within the cassette, I studied the duvet artwork, and people accompanying photos had been darkish — significantly the illustration of the lifeless physique protruding of the trunk of a automobile. I keep in mind considering, What the heck am I about to listen to?!

Upon first hear, I jumped round, testing songs like “’97 Bonnie & Clyde” (throughout which his Slim Shady alter-ego talks to Eminem’s real-life, then-5-year-old daughter Hailie whereas driving to a pier to dump her mom’s corpse within the water), “Simply Don’t Give a Fuck” (Em disses fellow white rappers Vanilla Ice, Everlast and Miiilkbone) and skits like “Ken Kaniff.” 

I knew from the leap that this cat was completely different due to what and the way he was rapping. However after I noticed how the primary single, “My Identify Is,” was rolled out — with an attention-grabbing music video that had the rapper imitating President Invoice Clinton, Johnny Carson and a porn star — I figured he could be huge. In fact, he ended up being large!

In hip-hop, those that care can hear when it’s dwell — i.e., when it’s actual or when it’s created in a studio — and the way in which Eminem was rapping, you knew the expertise was genuine. Additionally, he confirmed the plenty his genuine perspective from a center America, white-male perspective. Take a look at the earlier Rock Corridor hip-hop inductees like Jay-Z, LL Cool J and N.W.A. — all are from New York Metropolis or L.A. with the bulk being from the East Coast. One might simply make the argument that Eminem’s music took hip hop to new locations and areas that it might not have been performed beforehand and opened up the style to much more folks. With respect to the legends who got here earlier than him, those that introduced the bars, the beat, the DJs, the graffiti, Eminem took this in-your-face artwork type to the following degree.

However Em is greater than a rap star. Together with his notoriety, mystique and tens of hundreds of thousands of followers, he’s additionally a rock star, and sure, he belongs within the Corridor of Fame. Rock and roll and hip-hop are cousins that share lots of the identical rebellious, disruptive, uncooked and genuine traits. Eminem is all of that and extra.

Grey Rizzy may be heard on SiriusXM Shade 45.

This essay is a part of a collection — in partnership with the on-air expertise of SiriusXM — to pay tribute to the performers being inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame on Nov. 5 in Los Angeles.
Catch the entire Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame 2022 Induction Ceremony on HBO Nov. 19, at 8 p.m. ET, together with a simulcast on SiriusXM’s Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame Radio (channel 310). SiriusXM listeners may also catch dwell, backstage protection and commentary on Quantity on the SXM app and on Faction Discuss (channel 103).