The New York Times Magazine Mr. Ambassador
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"But now it is two years later, and on a muggy late summer evening, Eminem is performing before his fans in the Detroit suburbs, the last stop of his 2002 Anger Management Tour. A high point of the show is a song in which he exults in his role as universally despised spokesman for alienated Middle American youth. ''White America! I could be one of your kids!'' goes its hectoring refrain, insistently gaining in malevolence as if a furious mob were gearing up for a rampage. At its climax he vows to urinate on the White House lawn and hurls expletives at Lynne Cheney and Tipper Gore. But the roaring throng of 16,000 at the Palace of Auburn Hills is not angry. There is barely a whiff of pot in the air, let alone violence. It's a happy crowd, mixed in race and sex, that might just as well have congregated to cheer the Pistons, who also play at the Palace, or at a megachurch or a mall. Even some boomers are on hand (me among them), as well as a few smiling pre-PG-13 kids perched on their dads' shoulders. ''It's kind of strange,'' Eminem would tell me when I asked if he was noticing any difference in his audience of late. ''It used to range from 10 years old to 25. Now it seems to be from 5 years old to 55.''"

Urban Think Tank Is There A Gangsta Double Standard

"Eminem has been touted as a major talent for his gross content, while Black rap artists are still vilified for theirs. Eminem's lyrics are acceptable to a large portion of American, as are performers like Jim Carrey, Tom Green, and other obnoxious White men, all of whom have made millions from their lowbrow antics.

Unlike some Black rap artists who are appropriately deemed misogynist and homophobic; Eminem gets a pass from most critics on these offenses. The Washington Post's Gene Weingarten concedes that "Eminem is not overly respectful of women or homosexuals or competing recording artists or anyone not technically, Eminem." But, Weingarten adds, "Eminem is a hoot . . . A joke is a joke." A Manhattan writer was quoted in the New York Times as saying of Eminem, "I'm 42 and I have three children . . . I think he's a brilliant vocalist, a brilliant writer, and has something to say." Perhaps times have changed, but when Chuck D and his peers were rapping about having a state holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., police misconduct, and the misery of ghetto life, they were deemed threats to America. Now some years later, a White rapper who refers to gays and women in the crudest of terms and seems to see rape and murder as recreational activities is a brilliant jokester."

AlterNet The Eminem Shtick

"Say what you will about redeeming social (or artistic) value: At its hard core, Eminem's poetics is pornography, and it's accorded the same privileges. Just as we've declared the XXX zone exempt from social thinking, we refuse to subject sexist rap to moral scrutiny. We crave a space free from the demands of equity, especially when it comes to women, whose rise has inspired much more ambivalence than most men are willing to admit. This is especially true in the middle class, where feminism has made its greatest impact. No wonder Eminem is so hot to suburban kids and Downtown alter cockers. He's as nasty as they wanna be.

Once you call this stuff cathartic, it's a small step to removing it from the world entirely. Eminem's music becomes an encapsulated experience, all the more heavily defended because it's a guilty pleasure."

The New York Times The Angry Appeal of Eminem Cuts Across Racial Lines
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"Jose Gallardeo, 16, a student at James Monroe High School in the South Bronx, says that Eminem's revenge fantasies, which have included raping his mother and killing his ex-wife, give him an edge over other rappers.

"It's the kind of music that makes you stop and say, `Is this dude for real?' " he said. "He's not like everybody else."

Mike Brisbain, 18, who lives in the Bronx River Houses, is unimpressed: "He needs to calm down with all that crazy white-boy stuff -- that fight music, yo. That's gonna get him hurt. He's a good lyricist. He should concentrate on that.""