I'm currently at university and there are many conversations here about parents financing appartments, sponsoring some time abroad and so on. Of course not everybody is swimming in luxuries, many of us need to work, but there is clearly financial and emotional support from home in most cases. My parents help me and make it possible for me to have this education, it becomes much harder to do these things if you're mostly on your own.
Eminem is very, very smart. How can you listen to SSLP, MMLP, and TES and think otherwise? Quite a bit of stuff from Relapse and Recovery qualifies as well. He nails the hipocrisy of the media, politics and organized religion. He explains the problems that come with fame. He paints an accurate picture of the dynamics of domestic violence. He analyzes his own addiction in funny and insightful ways and takes responsibility for his fuck-ups. He acknowledges his privilege as a white rapper. And he does all of that while rhyming well (for the most part
). But it seems to me that many in the media have difficulty giving props for that because they're often themselves college-educated blowhards who can't see past the "trailer trash" bit when it comes to Eminem. Or past "ghetto" "scary black man" etc. when it comes to rap in general.So I think that Eminem often doesn't get his due from critics because of his genre (that's often linked to a "trashy" lifestyle) and because of his lower class roots. Hence this compulsive need to take everything he says in his songs literally and not bother with interpretation. Do you think this plays a role in public perception or am I just running amok because I've read too many fancy sociology essays in my time?
With Carey, I think, you're already in murkier water. No, she's not proclaimed a genius. Alicia Keys is sometimes, though. IMO because she markets herself as "serious songwriter". I think this stuff goes on in pop as well, Gaga is a genius while Aguilera is declared a trashy copycat even though she's been around a decade or so longer.