Eminem Freestyles Transphobic Rap Attacking Caitlyn Jenner (And Pretty Much Everyone Else)

Eminem just gifted the world a six-minute piece of shit rap that attacked pretty much anyone and everyone he could think of — including transgender icon Caitlyn Jenner. Lumping her in with Donald Trump, Bill Cosby, and others, Eminem rapped these incredibly transphobic lines:

“I see the bitch in you Caitlyn. Keep the pistol tucked like Bruce Jenner’s dick.”

Which he then followed up with a token “no disrespect” comment:

“No disrespect though, not at all, no pun intended, that took a lot of balls.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQeZDzO_AgQ&feature=youtu.be&t=4m50s

Eminem ended the broadcast by saying that none of his raps are “personal”, but that it is all “for fun.”

I believe that art can be spontaneous, and that the role of art in a society is to push boundaries and, sometimes, yes, even make people uncomfortable. But, on the other hand, being a professional artist should mean that you go beyond just saying whatever hateful shit that just happens to rhyme. It means going beyond looking up the top ten people trending on Twitter and finding clever ways to diss them.

Music is an art, and Eminem is an artist, and he has the right to say whatever he wants to say. But that doesn’t mean he should. He has the money and the resources to spout out practically anything he wants, so maybe he could do better than this six-minute tirade of trash filled with petty “take downs.”

To me, this rap was in poor form. It was tasteless, it was offensive, and it most certainly was not “fun.” None of this is new. Eminem has a long reputation of homophobic, violent, misogynic lyrics. It looks like something that was either done for (1) headlines / commercial, or (2) because Eminem can afford to not give a fuck about the quality and content of his work. It doesn’t strike me as a deliberate Picasso as much as it strikes me as shit in a bucket.

But I don’t have a monopoly on what truth is, and I certainly don’t have the power to decide what art is. That’s up to all of us as individuals, and if you are as repulsed by this stuff as I am, maybe the solution is to just continue keeping Eminem off our iPods and playlists.