Eminem and Politics

Daniel Guzman
03/11/ 2009
Final Draft

Eminem and Politics

A famous artist can have an influence in many people’s decisions and actions when the artist presents a music video. These music videos can have subliminal messages that can encourage their viewers to dress a certain way, buy expensive items, and/or influence people to do illegal substances or activities. Eminem is one of the most controversial rappers to ever step up to the plate with songs about abusing females, killing, and doing countless amounts of drugs. However, in 2004 Eminem would release a single called “Mosh” in which it would have a different cause and effect from his previous songs. “Mosh” would targets voter of all ethnicities and encourages them to go vote for the 2004 election. Eminem sends very clear messages to his audience for the 2004 election by using his lyrics, stories, and the color settings for the video.

The lyrics to this song carry strong language and have struck a cord in the beliefs of so many Americans. Eminem expresses strong feelings on President Bush’s decisions to the level of being completely anti-Bush for the election. He shows his rejection to Bush by using the following lyrics in his song: “FUCK Bush, until they bring our troops home,” “No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil,” “The stars and stripes, they’ve been swiped, washed out and wiped and replaced with his own face.” Eminem’s outburst in his lyrics had influenced a lot of his fans to vote against Bush for the 2004 Presidential Election.

The music video it self shows a few situations of what has been happening in the United States during the four year run of George W. Bush, as our President. The first story shows a black male walking down the streets as a cop pulls him over for no reason. Even though he is released shortly after, he returns home to see an elderly relative watching the television as the Ku Klux Klan are burning a cross and nothing is being done. The next story takes us to Iraq where the troops are enjoying a performance by Eminem. The soldiers are trying to make the best of there situation while being away from home. However, when a soldier returns home from his deployment after serving his time for his country he is greeted, by his wife, with a letter from the government stating that he has been re-assigned to Iraq. The situations in this video also shows us what our economy has come to by showing a single mother getting an eviction notice as she tents to her children. Eminem shows how our lives have changed for the worst during the empowerment of Bush’s presidency.

In the beginning of the video you see a plane flying low as it disappears from the screen just to hear it crash. The video then goes from color to black and white reminding us that in 9/11 the United States lost something that day. Through out the video you can see individuals who are unhappy with the way things are going begin to put on a black sweater. The black sweater is a representation of unity of all the people suffering from the struggles our government is putting us through, as our crippled nation begins to die. However, Eminem message tells us if we all stay united and believe in the same cause we can make a difference in our country. The black sweater was nothing more than a gimmick which stood for something bigger, our unity.

The music video “Mosh” by Eminem was feature to encourage people to go out and vote in the 2004 Presidential Election. In this video situations are shown of what is going on in the United States and how we should fight for what we believe in and not let our government have all the control in our lives; not only for us, but for the next generation too. So to the government, using the songs ending of our young ones voices we ask “you guys hear us?”