OK, let me jump in here. I read the following post from Carmen Dixon over on AOL Black Voices:
"At the risk of augmenting album sales for a performer I don't personally support, I call your attention to Eminem's latest track attack on Mariah Carey and her husband Nick Cannon's confrontational response. This back and forth is a little more interesting than the standard diss and diss back, because Cannon calls out the racial dynamic of Eminem's sexually derogatory attacks on Mariah Carey in a track called 'Bagpipes From Baghdad' from Eminem's forthcoming album, 'Relapse.' Here's just an excerpt of what Cannon had to say to Eminem, calling him "Slim Lamey," via a Friday blog post, which seems to have been taken down:
Maybe I'm going too far, but I thought we moved beyond the days where white men could spew vulgar obscenities at our beautiful queens and get away with it. What's next? Source: Rap-Up.comCannon continues:
Are we going to let this trash say something horrible about our lovely first lady, Mrs. Michelle Obama? Or would Marshall have talked sideways out of his neck like this about Oprah Winfrey? This act of racist bigotry cannot go unnoticed. Calling my wife a "c-word" and a "whore" is way worse than anything Don Imus could have ever said. So trust, repercussions will be served.Cannon raises an interesting point. Given that Eminem has used racist, derogatory language to describe black people, and black women in particular, in previous lyrics, why do so many black people lap up what he lays down?Reading the comment threads surrounding this drama, I am surprised by the number of women and black people defending Eminem when Asher Roth just got excoriated for joking about "nappy headed hoes." And rightly so, I might add.Please explain it to me. Why does the black community continue to support Eminem despite his racist lyrics?"
Nick, there won't be any repercussions from moi, because, sorry, I am just not feeling your wife Mariah as one of our "beautiful Queens". Yeah yeah yeah, I know she passes the "one drop rule" and the whole nine. But in my humble opinion, to be a black "Queen", you have to first consider yourself a black Queen.
Now I am no big Eminem fan. To me, he is just a decent lyricist who is not afraid to be controversial. But that's about it. As far as rapping goes he is nothing special. Give this old head Talib Kweli, Black Thought, Common, or U-Roy. (Whoops, I almost left out Masta Ace) But Nick Cannon taking on the great white hope of rap is ludicrous. NICK CANNON? The same Nick Cannon who had that coon fest on MTV, "Wild N Out"? Yeah right
Look Nick, I know she is your wife, and you have to defend her honor. You should be commended for that. Just don't expect us field Negroes to sabotage massa's crops over this shit.
I am just saying.
