So, you may find Eminem to be extremely offensive, and you should, a lot of the things in his music are offensive. However, I just cannot deny that regardless of how offensive Eminem is, Marshall Mathers is a really talented rapper. Everytime I hear a radio edit of one of his songs (so most of the offensiveness is removed), I just can't help but be impressed.

While, I'm on the topic, if you don't know much about Eminem, you might not know that he's a character. I've talked to people about this before, but Eminem is different than Marshall Mathers (the name of the person, see the M and M connection? eh? eh? get it?! sorry...) Anyway, I've listened to quite a bit of his records, and Eminem is actually a character that Marshall Mathers plays on his albums. When he refers to himself as Marshall in the song, there are generally no offensive references at all, the songs are generally about some serious topic. For example, Stan is one of his first popular songs (the one that had a Dido track mixed in). The song talks about a fan sending Marshall letters, but not getting responses and eventually going over the edge and killing his girlfriend and their unborn child. It's a harsh song, but in a little-to-late response in the song Marshall is trying to get "Stan" to understand that regardless of what the music says, you need to seperate fantasy from reality, that hurting people and yourself is not acceptable, etc.

We seperate performers from what they perform all the time, but we don't do it with music for some reason. Is Anthony Hopkins reviled because he plays Hannibal Lecter? No. However, Marshall Mathers is just because he plays Eminem.

He's a really talented rapper and I think he takes more abuse than he should (although I'm sure it doesn't hurt his album sales). Keep in mind, I'm not saying you shouldn't be offended by things that Eminem says, they are pretty damn offensive. I haven't purchased any of the albums, because it's too much for me, but I always look forward to hearing the radio edits.