Dr. Dre's new protégé bring his 'shady' style

Reviewed by SCOTT SWINDELLS
Collegian Staff Writer

Hi kids. Do you like violence?

Then maybe you'll want to see new rap artist Eminem stick nine-inch nails through each of his eyelids.

Yeah, Yeah!

Don't be surprised if he does it. According to his breakthrough album The Slim Shady LP, released on Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records, he's already tried to commit suicide once.

But how seriously are we to take the album-presented image of the Dr. Dre protégé and self-proclaimed poor, white trash rapper?

According to his album voice, the overnight success -- thanks mostly to Dre and MTV -- also has tried mushrooms, Percocet, vengeful murders, acid, crack cocaine, drunk driving, self-torture and growing up as an "outsider" -- the only white kid on his block.

Before you scream, "No, that's Vanilla Ice," remember the persona on the album may be the real Marshall Mathers, the shady rapper's given name. There seems to be way too much humor in the songs for any of his topics to be real.

But there's also a dark side to songs like "My Fault," which ruins an otherwise upbeat song with a sincere lament over a girl who overdosed on Eminem's mushrooms.

Here Eminem comes across sounding more like a caged, abused animal than a phony rapper.

Whether his life has been as pitiful and painful as he says, Eminem seems to be making a much deeper statement than the glorification of drugs, abuse and violence that will make most people write him off right away.

This album is a work of art criticizing censorship and political correctness, going across any boundaries of politics or race by invoking them so violently.

The lyrics to the MTV version of the hit single "My Name Is" makes his point -- almost every line in the video has been changed, including lyrics that really didn't need to be censored.

For example, the word "violence" is changed to "Primus" in the first line of the song.

Is he poking fun at censorship gone amok? We hope it's all a joke -- for Eminem's sake.