Eminence
Who to vote for, who to vote for. Voting for George W. Bush seems like a no brainer.
Specifically, George W. Bush has Arnold Schwarzenegger, a commercial wolfpack (Wolf Political Action Committee??), and Britney Spears ("...honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that...").
But John Kerry has a much hipper crowd: Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., and Howard Stern. And of course Osama bin Laden is against Bush (though it's unclear that Osama's latest music video is helping Kerry).
But I was holding out till I knew where Eminem stood. And now I know. This week he released the video for "Mosh" on GNN; Salon.com says it "makes Fahrenheit 9/11 look like a GOP campaign spot, and it will almost certainly reach an audience that wouldn't think of shelling out for a documentary...."
![[Eminem voting]](http://i.askask.com/2004/10/26/eninem.png "Eminem say, vote")
It's an emotion-evoking video -- it brought Danah Boyd to tears and David Weinberger was moved, too. Said Geoff Boucher of the L.A. Times in "Eminem Swipes at Bush":
To watch Eminem's new video, click here.
Rapper Eminem, who made headlines with the gleefully profane alias Slim Shady, has taken his deepest plunge yet into the political world with "Mosh," a new song that, along with its music video, slams President Bush and calls on young America to mobilize against the administration.
In the animated video, which had its debut on the Internet this week, Eminem leads an army of young people in hooded sweatshirts who march through the streets of a police-state America. As the ominous, martial cadence of the song builds, the hooded legion gains new members -- a single mom who receives an eviction notice, a soldier who returns home from war only to be ordered back to Iraq, and rapper Lloyd Banks chafes under the harsh authority of police.
The disaffected army makes it past police and soldiers to storm a government building, but inside they don't riot -- the video climaxes with the mob in an orderly line at a table with a placard that reads, "Sign in to vote." The fade shot at the end reads simply: "Vote Tuesday, November 2."
In the lyrics, Eminem savages the president as a liar and a thief of American honor. "Strap him with an AK-47 / Let him go fight his own war / Let him impress daddy that way," the song chides. "Mosh" implores young America to unite for the election. "Let us beg to differ / As we set aside our differences / And assemble our own army / To disarm this weapon of mass destruction / That we call our president / For the present."
Eminem's rhymes have veered to the political before - notably in the song "White America" - but "Mosh" has the usually antisocial firebrand calling for activism instead of anarchy. There are still plenty of hot-button moments, among them a combat knife driven through a portrait of Bush and a sequence that suggests that some of Osama bin Laden's messages have been faked on federal soundstages.
The video also opens with children reciting the pledge of allegiance while a jetliner crashes near their school - and in that scene Eminem is at the front of the class with a children's book, a reference to the president's whereabouts during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The video premiered Monday on the Guerrilla News Network website and was directed by Ian Inaba, a Berkeley-based contributor to the website. It hit MTV on Tuesday, and as of Wednesday afternoon the channel's website listed it as No. 1 on its chart of hot videos.
"Mosh" is Eminem's second single for his upcoming album, "Encore," and follows "Lose It," another music video that grabbed attention with its shots at Michael Jackson. "Encore" arrives in stores Nov. 16.
Other links:
- Eminem's "Mosh": Our Own October Surprise
- Eminem's "Mosh" Music Video - Directed by GNN's Ian Inaba
- Eminem News
- Internet Archive copy
The lyrics to "Mosh" showcase a more mature (but still very angry) Eminem:
[I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
And to the Republic for which it stands,
One nation under God,
Indivisible...]
It feels so good to be back...Scrutinize every word, memorize every line
I spit it once, refuel, reenergize, and rewind
I give sight to the blind, mind sight through the mind
I exercise my right to express when I feel it's time
It's just all in your mind, what you interpret it as
I say to fight, you take it, as I'm gonna whip someone's ass
If you don't understand, don't even bother to ask
A father who has grown up with a fatherless past
Who has blown up now to a rap phenomenon that has
Or at least shows no difficulty to multitask
And juggling both, perhaps mastered his craft slash
Entrepreneur who has held long too few more rap acts
Who has had a few obstacles thrown his way through the last half
Of his career typical manure moving past that
Mister kiss his ass crack, he's a class act
Rubber band man, yea he just snaps backCome along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doorsTo the people up top, on the side and the middle,
Come together, let's all bomb and swamp just a little
Just let it gradually build, from the front to the back
All you can see is a sea of people, some white and some black
Don't matter what color, all that matters is we gathered together
To celebrate for the same cause, no matter the weather
If it rains, let it rain, yeah the wetter the better
They ain't gonna stop us, they can't, we're stronger now more then ever,
They tell us no we say yea, they tell us stop we say go,
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell, we gonna let em know
Stomp, push up, mush, fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home, come on just...Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors, come onImagine it pouring, it's raining down on us,
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone's trying to tell us something, maybe this is God just saying
We're responsible for this monster, this coward, that we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head nodding,
How could we allow something like this, without pumping our fist
Now this is our, final hourLet me be the voice, and your strength, and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme, just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify the times it, and multiply it by six
Teen million people are equal of this high pitch
Maybe we can reach Al Qaida through my speech
Let the President answer on high anarchy
Strap him with AK-47, let him go
Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our soil
No more psychological warfare to trick us to think that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes, it's all lies, the stars and stripes
They've been swiped, washed out and wiped,
And Replaced with his own face, mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you'll know why, because I told you to fightSo come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors[Eminem speaking angrily] And as we proceed, to mosh through this desert storm, in these closing statements, if they should argue, let us beg to differ, as we set aside our differences, and assemble our own army, to disarm this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president, for the present, and mosh for the future of our next generation, to speak and be heard, Mr. President, Mr. Senator... can you hear us?
We've reached a renaissance for music videos now that the message of a video can be more than just a commercial for the artist and song. See Sarah McLachlan's World on Fire for another example.
As for the election, I defer to South Park season 8, episode 8: "When PETA demonstrates against the use of a cow as South Park Elementary’s mascot, the student body is forced to choose a new one. As the election approaches, Kyle tries to convince everyone that his candidate, a giant douche, is better than Cartman’s nominee, a turd sandwich." And I quote:
Stan (the 8 year old): I think voting is great; I just didn't care this time because it was between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.
Adult: But Stan, don't you know, it's always between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. Nearly every election since the beginning of time has been between some douche and some turd. They're the only people who suck up enough to make it that far in politics.
Stan: I guess you're right.
...
(Rock song: Let's get out and vote!
Let's get our voices heard!
We've been given the right to choose
between a douche and a turd...
It's democracy in action (inaction?):
Put your freedom to the test.
A big fat turd or a stupid douche:
which do you like best?)
Boing Boing:
Posted by: Adam | November 17, 2004 at 09:24 PM
i just heard about eminems Encore album really ment the END of eminem. I am so shocked at the moment, i hope em doesnt quit coz not only me looks up to him but thousands and thousands of other people do to.I live in tasmania so i know em will never get over here but if he did id kill just to see his concerts while 50 cent,Dr dre,Snoop Dogg,Bow wow,The game and Hailie.If only wishes came true. FUCK THE FREE WORLD
ur biggest fan danielle oxoxox
Posted by: danielle crossan | October 03, 2005 at 05:11 PM