People close to me would know how obsessed and fascinated I am with Eminem. I am not sure how it all started but ever since I can remember, Eminem has been my favorite rapper/singer of all time and I don’t get seem to be enough of him.
The biggest regret that I have though is that I didn’t attend his concert at Detroit. I still remember that evening. I was sitting in my apartment after a long day at work, enjoying my beer. Then, suddenly I opened my Facebook feed and saw pictures from someone at the concert. I cursed myself so much. I know it had been only a couple weeks for me at Michigan, so I was not able to drive by myself, but if I had at least tried, I think, I would have made it to the concert.
The more painful point for me is that due to this pandemic, I don’t know, when he will have his concert at Detroit and I really want Em’s concert to be the first one that I attend. So, hopefully next year might just be the year with his two new albums – Kamikaze and Music To be Murdered By, there is a high chance that he will have his next concert at Detroit and hopefully, I will be able to make it to that one!
Now, that the heavy load is off of my chest, let us talk about some of the things that he has influenced me over the years.
English Literacy – Em is, by far, the most acclaimed rapper of the modern times when it comes to lyrical capability and influence. The most amazing thing I find about him is that he was not gifted with the lyrical ability and kind of words he can use in his songs, but, he earned it. In the movie 8 mile, you can see how hard the rapper B Rabbit struggled to make his mark, but through GRIT, PERSEVERANCE, and HARD WORK, he finally gets it and wins the championship.
As you might know, I hail from a small village in the state of Maharashtra, India. I am fortunate to have lovely parents who predicted English and Computers are key to success and provided us all necessary tools to excel in these two categories. I was drawn to both of them from the young age and could write MSDOS commands by the time I reach 4th grade.
However, with no one around, I found it hard to perfect my English. That’s when MTV arrived in India and it changed my life. I started listening to Michael Jackson, Blue, Linkin Park, and finally Eminem. This is where my English literacy rate skyrocketed as I tried humming songs from these great artists. I found Em too fast for a 5th grader in India, so immediately skipped past him and landed on Blue and LP. I started listening, singing, and humming songs all day long, just to improve my English fluency. I must tell you, these small things added up and they helped so much while transitioning from grade 10 to 11 that I didn’t have a hiccup and could excel in exams without much hesitation.
So, yes, if taken correctly, rap music and rappers can be beneficial for your personal development.
Motivation – I cannot stress this enough how motivating Em’s lyrics are. He is a wordsmith and I realized this while listening to his song in collaboration with Rihanna – Love the way you lie. In this song, there is a line “Out the window, guess that’s why they call it window pane”. I was blown away with the last word of this line. It is so simple and subtle, you just bow down to the genius of Em. If you see the video, you will see the protagonist (the girl) is going through so much pain in the toxic relationship with the antagonist (the guy) and Em wanted to show the struggle of their relationship and how the girl decides to leave the guy and that is when this line makes more sense showing the “pain” from the guy’s point of view and literally watching the girl through the window “pane”. Simple concept – Pane and Pain are homophones and by including those in his lyrics, the song just went to some another level for me.
One of his most famous songs – Lose Yourself acts as an instant dose of Motivation for me. If you listen to this song and don’t get motivated, I don’t know what else can motivate you. 😛
A perfect start for the day – For me, an ideal day start with listening to Lose Yourself and I usually do that once I sit down at my workstation at home. Man, I get goosebumps every time I listen to this song. If I listen to this song in the morning, and if you are around me, you will see how energized I am and I have to contain that excitement and energy before I try doing so many things at once. IT IS AN INSTANT HIGH.
Simply writing and thinking about the song is giving me goosebumps and I know, I am typing quite ferociously on my Mac. While preparing for my Marathon, I remember, listening to this song on loop and have grown, frankly, addicted to it. I can’t seem to get enough of it, so when Eminem performed this song at the Oscars, I remember, watching his performance on YouTube at least 10-15 times. You can watch it here.
Letting go off people/things – This has been the biggest learning for me from Em. If you take a close look at his lyrics over the last 2 decades, you will see that he has come a long way. His initial lyrics used to focus on small and petty things, followed by his struggle with the drug addiction, then determining to come out clean, and now, attacking on the new age rapper who barely rap and mostly use autotunes for their songs. Recently, he has raised voice against the gun and racial violence too in America and I really loved the song and the music video.
His songs have made such an impact and after understanding those songs, you see, how petty small things are in life and we should always focus on the big picture and for the betterment of the society and this Mother Earth. That is why it has become so easy for me to let go of things and people, and carry on with your own life.
This brings us to the end of this post. I could have gone for more content, but limited myself to avoid any overdoing, but, trust me, if you meet me, I will bore you with details from Em’s song. The next goal in life – attend his concert.
Till then, see ya!
stochasticity 