Thankfully, my parents never made me listen to edited music, because they didn’t want to shelter me from the real world and knew I was mature enough not to slit my wrists or go on a drug binge because Em joked about it in a song. I was instantly drawn in by his sing-songy voice, insane delivery and funny videos for “My Name Is” and “Guilty Conscience,” but had no idea how demented his material actually was until I copped The Slim Shady LP in the eighth grade. I was “Standrea,” if you will (“Stan” + My name, Andrea = “Standrea”). I was compared to the female equivalent of his infamously dark song “Stan” about a deranged fan who scribbles Em letters until it literally drives him off of a bridge. When asked about his frequent use of the word “faggot,” I cited his “Criminal” lyrics in which he stated, “Come on, relax, guy, I like gay men.”Įminem’s Marshall Mathers LP was my life at the time. “His lyrics go on to say, ‘I don’t wanna go on living in this world without you,’ because he feels so betrayed.” He seemed perturbed by my answer.
“I actually see it as a love song in some sort of weird, twisted way,” I explained. I remember the journalist asking me if I thought Em’s song “Kim,” in which he murders his unfaithful girlfriend and repeats the line “Bleed, bitch. That interview was filmed in my bedroom-plastered with Eminem posters and magazine cutouts on every wall. I was somewhat prepared considering the fact that “The Today Show” grilled me about Eminem’s misogynistic and homophobic lyrics the previous weekend. I sat there apprehensively, trying to anticipate what the audience was going to ask me next. Who could have predicted these few bars of lyrics would have me sitting next to the Grammy president, Michael Greene, at just 16 years old? “My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge / That’ll stab you in the head, whether you’re a fag or lez / Or the homosex, hermaph or a trans-a-vest / Pants or dress, hate fags / The answer’s yes…” – Eminem, “Criminal”