Eminem & J.J. Abrams

Eminem's first single off of the upcoming 'Recovery' album leaked, and I like it. It's not for everybody...or actually, it is, and that will be the problem the more hardcore Em fans will have with it. Much like Lose Yourself, it is kind of a blatant pandering to a larger, untapped Eminem audience in popular culture. And that's where I prefer his career to go. I like to imagine a world in which Enimen's cleverness, craft, and uncensored/uncompromised honesty are focused for a greater good, with no trace of homophobia or irrational hatred. Of course, I'm ok if he still wants to bash stupid ass celebrities. I think this is the reason that Encore has grown on me over the last year or two, and I now really prefer it to the larger portion of his work, although I still think that Mosh single is the corniest thing of all time. I heard an unreleased track where he said something like "Every CD the critics gave it a 3/and 3 years later they went back and re-rate it/and call The Slim Shady LP the greatest/Marshall Mathers was a classic/Eminem Show was fantastic/but Encore just didn't have the calibur to match it/I guess enough time just ain't passed yet/a couple more years and that shit'll be Illmatic." I was happy to hear little-to-no homophobia on the pharmeceutical tongue twister Relapse (aside from Dr. Dre predictibly dropping the f-bomb), but he then made a sideways comment at Clay Aiken and Adam Lambert on an unreleased track (whose music may be terrible, but this obviously has nothing to do with their sexual orientation.) Maybe this is a sign that he has second-guessed himself on those type of bigotries. I have begun to think of the Eminem/Dr. Dre homophobia situation the same as my own grandmother. They come from a different social world than I do, and although it is regrettable and shameful that they have been shaped by these ignorant social forces, it is still import to appreciate what they DO have to offer society. Remember how white people in america had to learn to stop hating black people and women before they got to gays? Well, black people are still in the learning-to-stop-hating-white-people phase. They are at a different stage in social evolution due to the gentrification of America by white people post-slavery (aka the purposeful isolation of black people into ghettos.) And when will mexican/latin-american people get their equality in america, with no "illegal alien" stigma or any other cultural stigmas? Who here isn't an immigrant? Europeans straight up slaughtered the native american and stole the land, everyone is an immigrant. Or as Jack White said, "Why don't you kick yourself out? You're an immigrant, too."

Also, J.J. Abrams' new show 'Undercovers' sounds very cute and relationship-py yet exciting and Alias-esque in terms of Genre material. I'm on board!