The media has a habit of portraying people in a negative way - no matter what someone does; they never seem to be doing it right. Cleanin’ Out My Closet by Eminem was released September 17th, 2002 and reached number 4 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart. Despite the song’s positive critical reception, Eminem is still seen by the media as a ‘wannabee’ African American who glorifies violence, domestic abuse, and rape amongst other controversial issues. In Cleanin’ Out My Closet, Eminem talks about how the media has silenced, excluded, and marginalized him and how that causes society to have negative view on him, and then talks about how he identifies himself, which rebuts that inaccurate picture the media paints of him. This shows the power a privileged social group can have over those who are socially regarded as inferior.
The song begins with the rhetorical question, “Have you ever been hated or discriminated against?” to which Eminem replies, “I have; I've been protested and demonstrated against; Picket signs for my wicked rhymes…” Historically, hip-hop music was primarily produced and associated to African Americans. Therefore, from the get-go, Eminem was already …show more content…
Evidence of his troubled childhood can be seen in the 1st verse when Eminem says, “all this commotion emotions run deep as oceans exploding.” He uses a simile to compare his emotions and how they run as deep as an ocean, which shows just how vast his troubles were. Moreover, the juxtaposition between ocean and exploding may be a reference to manic depression, because they are two complete opposites. This introduces the social group of those faced with mental disorders- a group that is usually ignored and silenced by society because their problems can’t be seen on the
The song begins with the rhetorical question, “Have you ever been hated or discriminated against?” to which Eminem replies, “I have; I've been protested and demonstrated against; Picket signs for my wicked rhymes…” Historically, hip-hop music was primarily produced and associated to African Americans. Therefore, from the get-go, Eminem was already …show more content…
Evidence of his troubled childhood can be seen in the 1st verse when Eminem says, “all this commotion emotions run deep as oceans exploding.” He uses a simile to compare his emotions and how they run as deep as an ocean, which shows just how vast his troubles were. Moreover, the juxtaposition between ocean and exploding may be a reference to manic depression, because they are two complete opposites. This introduces the social group of those faced with mental disorders- a group that is usually ignored and silenced by society because their problems can’t be seen on the