Grammy this time all about a violent rapper

Grammy this time all about a violent rapper
REUTERS

LOS ANGELES, FEBRUARY 21: Will Wednesday's Grammy Awards honour a rapper who boasts about beating his wife, having sex with his mother and killing gay people? Or will the 12,000 voters who decide the music industry's most prestigious awards opt for veteran singer-songwriter Paul Simon or acclaimed British rock band Radiohead?

For the first time in years, the Grammy field is both controversial and wide open. The big story is 28-year-old rapper Eminem, who has four nominations and will hog the headlines, whether he wins or loses.

While he's inside the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Wednesday performing his hit song, Stan, in a duet with one of his biggest fans, openly gay singer Elton John, a coalition of gay, women's and religious groups will hold a `Rally Against Hate' outside the venue.

Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, said she was dismayed that the 28-year-old bad boy of American rap might walk away with several awards. But she was even more upset that John should appear to be sanctioning his violent stance.

``This is a man who talks about murdering his own mother, he talks about murdering women generally. He talks about killing them slowly so you can hear them scream for a long time,'' she told CNN.

``Why Elton John is performing with him is baffling. Gays and lesbians are particularly upset at this,'' said Scott Seomin of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

Boston Globe columnist Derrick Jackson last week blasted the proposed Eminem-John duet as ``heartless manipulation''.

``Eminem gets gay activists off his back for a hot minute and John rides Eminem's back into the fires of renewed fame,'' wrote Jackson.

No other release last year was as commercially and critically successful as Eminem's album of the year contender, The Marshall Mathers LP, but its violent imagery provoked outrage. Or, more to the point, it both intrigued and offended many people. Gay activists said the album contained 18 uses of the word ``faggot''. The lyrics also boast about knifing homosexuals, shooting women and choking whores.

``Personally, I don't think it's really cool to talk about slicing people up and things like that,'' said Grammy-winning songwriter Diane Warren, who nonetheless loved the album and considered Eminem ``a talented guy''.

Stan is one of the album's milder songs: a fan ties up his pregnant girlfriend, stuffs her in the trunk of the car and drives off a bridge in a murder-suicide pact, annoyed that Eminem has not answered his increasingly psychotic letters.

Eminem fans have called the album visionary and say his diatribes against gays and women are merely a joke. ``To me his lyrics are funny. I think they are misunderstood. People are over-anlaysing them,'' said Andrea Aguilar, a Los Angeles high school student who runs an Eminem fan website.

Soul legend Stevie Wonder told reporters on Monday night it was his favourite song on the album. ``I think that it's very visual...I think that it's very real,'' he said.

CBS censors will still be working overtime to bleep certain words for the telecast.

The other album of the year contenders are Simon's You'rethe One, Radiohead's Kid A, jazz-rock duo Steely Dan's Two Against Nature and modern rocker Beck's Midnite Vultures.

Combined US sales for the foursome are about a third of the eight million sold by Marshall Mathers but the Grammys are supposed to be about artistic achievement.

Recording Academy President Michael Greene, whose 12,000 members helped nominate Eminem and will choose the Grammy winners in Wednesday's ceremony, defended the singer while not sanctioning his views.

``You can'T pick your art...art is free,'' Greene said at a Los Angeles meeting, noting the sanctity of freedom of speech in US society.