every single thing bad about Kid Rock, Eminem skips above so effortlessly you didn't even realise it was a potential pitfall

and, like, I have respect for people who just can't stand Eminem's sound after he started collaborating with Pink and stuff, but Won't Back Down and Berzerk just rock so much harder than Kid does, too

did I mention Kid Rock uses the N word?

i feel like one fundamental difference is that while em has a lot of fans who think they're too good for music by black artists, he doesn't actually reflect that attitude himself, whereas kid rock absolutely does

he's like what racists always wanted eminem to be (and sometimes projected onto him)

oh this reminds me a friend of mine on ffxiv on voice chat in discord last shared, completely unprompted, a story of how marshall himself (circa encore, i think?) stayed the night at my friend's mom's house in indianapolis with his daughter in tow, and kept fucking unplugging the controller when my friend started to win against his daughter in smash melee

not to defend racists but I'm never sure that white rock fans who do the whole "Eminem is the only rapper I listen to" thing are necessarily racist, since it should also be noted that what Eminem does is pretty unique and weird

besides a lot of racists listen to black rappers anyway because racists are not internally consistent

lacerata my god. I am so happy to learn this

which is unrelated except for being about eminem but was a moment where i was like "holly's hyperfixation is bleeding into my own in a really weird way" and also "i have to tell hols this AS SOON AS I CAN"

I am laughing about this SO HARD. I can't think of a more Marshall thing to do

I love that this is Encore era. this is a guy in his 30s

NECROFANTASIA yeah Kid Rock is absolutely what people who hate Eminem think he is (or, ah, one of the Eminems imagined by people who hate him)

one thing that I wasn't prepared for how punishing it is is his use of 80s hip-hop lyric clichés, as if he needs to just remind you what kind of music he's making. it feels superficial. costumey. insincere

like, hip-hop saved Eminem's life. Kid Rock liked listening to it at parties. and you can feel the difference of investment

the particular passage that made me hurl my phone at the wall was in Cowboy: "cuss like a sailor, drink like a M*ck, my only words of wisdom are [Woman's voice: radio edit]"

YOU LITERALLY JUST SAID AN INTRA-WHITE RACIST SLUR EARLIER IN THAT SENTENCE YOU ABSOLUTE PENIS

Berzerk is a perfect point of comparison for how much better Em is, because the song is clearly inspired by Kid (who even appears in the video) but it's actually funny and clever. it's cheeky and self-deprecating rather than cock-windmilling. the storytelling is insightful. his 80s hip-hop references feel borne from love. it has joy and a sense of play.

and Berzerk is like, I struggle to imagine anyone thinking of it as one of his best works ever, you know?

Em: I like the Beastie Boys too, but I do it well.

also worth an observation - Eminem never uses intra-white slurs. when he's being racist to white people (which he does do sometimes) he uses words a Black person might - "white devil! Washed-up honkey! Mixed-up cracker who crossed over to country!" etc. cannot imagine him being shitty about the Irish like that

one thing, from an American perspective a lot of people are ignorant that prejudice against the Irish can actually be a real thing. Not defending slurs though

as a British person I am not going there, though English racism against the Irish isn't, like, slur-racism usually, it's more nasty systemic xenophobia and denying that being Irish is a real thing, so

yes

another reason to hate Kid Rock - he was the first person to get Eminem to do cocaine

mercifully Eminem hated the experience and never touched it again, but did record an uncharacteristically swaggering verse for Kid while under the influence

it's hard to know whether an artist chooses the drug or the drug chooses them sometimes, but the alternate universe where The Marshall Mathers LP was made on coke rather than ecstasy is an awful thing to contemplate

because what makes MMLP work is the love and empathy it has, underneath its button-pushing. Without that all you'd get is the genuinely toxic work people often say the album is

ecstasy has its roots as a therapy drug. it makes you insightful and loving and lets you dig up trauma. coke makes you cold, egomaniacal, bombastic and dumb.