he has always been controversial and definitely doesn’t bite his tongue. He likes to crawl through famous people and others in his joyful work. In the songs “Without Me”, “We Made You” and “The Real Slim Shady”, he mocks stars such as Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Amy Winehouse, Lana Del Rey, Christina Aguilera and P. Diddy. The rapper also criticized the diva Mariah Carey, responded in one of his songs to Moby accusing him of lyrical brutality, and about fights with other rappers and celebrities such as Everlast, Ja Rule or Machine Gun Kelly (Megan Fox’s former fiancé wrote an indiscriminate tweet about how in his opinion, Eminem’s daughter is attractive) we won’t even mention it. Well, let’s take a look at what’s happening in his latest song “Houdini”, which from May 31 to June 4 collected 37,37,635,666 views on YouTube alone.
Eminem’s new song is a global hit. He insults everyone in the text one by one
“Houdini” is largely a reference to the classic single “Without Me” from 2002. “Guess who’s back, who’s back again / Shady’s here again, tell your friends,” announces the lyrical subject’s return of the famous alter ego. The clip in a comic book style directly refers to “Without Me” and features Eminem from the past, i.e. from 2002, who travels through a portal to the future. The new and the old rapper are very different from each other, because the world and the artist himself have changed enormously over the years. “Young” Eminem is an angry rebel, this contemporary has slightly changed his approach to life. As a result, we get a specific satire in which the “new me” and the “old me” fight each other not to waste the artist’s 20-year career. The music video features guest appearances, among others: 50 Cent, Pete Davidson, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Alchemist. The issue also includes quotes from the song “Abracadabra” by Steve Miller Band, and in the text Eminem did not refrain from referring to the once famous incident with Megan Thee Stallion, when the artist was shot. Somehow they get scolded, among others. also producer and mentor Dr. Dre or drag icon RuPaul (but not entirely seriously). Who else?
List of people Eminem insults in the new single
- Gen-Z
Eminem is not one of the favorites of young Tik-Tok users, because from time to time a wave of videos passes through the platform in which they complain about how vulgar and unpleasant his lyrics are. The lines: “My sh*t may not be age-appropriate / but I will hit an 8-year-old in the face with a participation trophy / ’cause I have zero doubts, that this whole world’s” seem to be an answer to such accusations. ’bout to turn into some girl scouts. Which roughly translates as follows: My stuff isn’t suitable for children / But I’m going to punch an 8-year-old in the face with a participation award / because I have no doubt that this whole world is about to turn into Scouting.
- R. Kelly
Eminem uses a play on words in the lyrics, using the similar sound of the band’s name Black Eyed Peas and the phrase “Black guy pees” in the line “Bumpin’ R. Kelly’s favorite group, the Black Eyed Peas”. Additionally, he rhymes that this is the convicted musician’s favorite band. Let us remind you: he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexual crimes, including abusing women, possessing child pornography and inciting minors to engage in sexual activity. Eminem refers to the process in his lyrics.
- Paul Rosenberg aka “Bad Manager”
The first single from the new album begins with a conversation between the rapper and his long-time manager, Paul Rosenberg. Let us add that Paul appears on Eminem’s albums basically from the very beginning of his career and is generally described as a man who definitely does not like the way Eminem does his job. This time is no different. After listening to the new album, Paul is clearly disgusted and says: Hey Em, it’s Paul. I listened to the album. Good luck, you’re on your own. So in the song, Eminem raps “Go ahead Paul, quit” in the verse about how he won’t stop saying what he thinks, won’t follow parental censorship guidelines, and generally will continue to say things that are annoying a lot of people.
- Megan Thee Stallion
“If I asked Megan Thee Stallion if she wanted to record something with me / would I really have a chance to pull that stunt?” (“If I was to ask for Megan Thee Stallion if she would collab with me / Would I really have a shot at a feat?”) – asks Eminem. The sentence “would I really have a shot at a feat?” is another play on words and a reference to the shooting in which Megan was wounded in the foot. The words “feet” and “a feat” sound very similar.
- Sherri Papini
In the song we have the line “…and see the kidnappin’ never did happen like Sherri Papini”, which means more or less that we are talking about a kidnapping that never happened, as was the case with Sherri Papini. Let us recall: in 2016, Papini disappeared for 22 days. She went for a run and mysteriously disappeared, which was reported to the police by her husband. Less than a month later, Sherii was found and claimed that she had been kidnapped by two Latina women. Investigators finally determined that Papini had faked the entire kidnapping, lying to her ex-partner and telling him that her husband was abusing her in order to get his help. But when she started missing her children, she decided to return home. Everything came to light and the case became very famous. Papini was even arrested and faced 18 months in prison for fraud, but after she confessed to everything, the sentence was waived.
- In one verse: Eminem’s daughter Hailie, Eminem, his friends and everyone
The new song includes the line “F*ck Dre, f*ck Jimmy, f*ck me, f*ck you, f*ck own kids, they’re brats.” “Fuck you, fuck even my own children, they’re brats.” The piece is clearly not to be taken very literally, but this litany serves to emphasize how much the artist does not intend to give up ruthless honesty and freedom of artistic expression. I mean, he’ll keep saying mean things.
However, let us remind you that Eminem once rapped to all his colleagues that “if they say Hailie’s name in a song, he will get them.” Family is a sacred thing. Unless you use hyperbole, you can insult your own children. And they even showed up in the clip at the exact moment when daddy raps that he’s “fuckin’ them.” In the comments under the new song, listeners praise the perversity of the whole concept: “Eminem is the only person who can get away with dissing Eminem’s children. Brilliant”, “Eminem should diss himself for dissing his own children”, “Wow, that’s cute, that his kids agreed to appear in the video and in the scene where he tells them he’s screwing them up. They definitely inherited their dad’s sense of humor.”
- Jimmy Iovine
The Jimmy from the line “fuck Jimmy” is exactly Jimmy Iovine, co-founder of Interscope. He appears in the latest music video, as well as Eminem’s previous songs, because the record publisher is never satisfied with sales results.
- Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre discovered and promoted Eminem, and has been his producer since 1999. Em likes to insult him in lyrics since the release of the song “My Name Is”.
- RuPaul
The famous drag performer appears in the verse as part of a metaphor about Paul’s manager’s testicles – the comparison is probably intended to indicate that Rosenberg’s friend Rosenberg’s organs are not very large. Which, as we know, is a colloquial metaphor meaning that Paul, who is being insulted here, is not very brave or decisive.
“Houdini” has already collected 2.4 million likes on YouTube, and is also ranked first in the “Trending” tab. Listeners are delighted with the song, they also praise the idea for the music video and the song: “The new Eminem trying to stop the old Em from making them sing is really the funniest idea for a concept album I’ve ever heard of”, “Apart from all the nostalgia, it’s great you can see Em having so much fun here”, “This song has only been available for four days and it’s already a classic”, “He resurrected the times when music videos were really interesting” – they praise.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
