Politics, pop culture and entertainment news of interest to the LGBTQ community
Eminem’s 19-year-old came out as gender-fluid via a TikTok video last week. Captioned ‘forever growing and changing,’ the video takes the viewer through a video montage that begins with the statement, “Watch me become more comfortable with myself.” Continue reading “Eminem’s 19-Year-Old Comes Out As Genderfluid”
By now, I’m sure you’ve probably seen folks taking part in the Dolly Parton challenge where you post four photos of yourself. The idea is to include one appropriate for four social apps: Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram and Tinder.
Dolly began the craze by posting her own on Facebook with the caption, “Get you a woman who can do it all!”
For business networking site LinkedIn, Dolly went with a buttoned-up school teacher pic. For family-friendly Facebook, it’s Christmas sweater Dolly. For style-driven Instagram, country Dolly posing in bell-bottom jeans with a guitar in hand. And for the dating app Tinder, Dolly featured her Playboy bunny pic.
So, Grammy Award-winning rapper Eminem just posted his version on Twitter asking, “Did I do this right?”
Did I do this right? pic.twitter.com/ZkoV5T4yxB
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) January 24, 2020
The 47-year-old used a tasteful ‘shirt & tie’ pic for the Linkedin pic; for Facebook he featured a brooding, bearded photo; the Instagram image shows him dressed as Santa behind (?) a wooden reindeer; and for the final photo, he posed naked with a stick of dynamite covering his crotch but instead of ‘Tinder’ he used the name of the gay dating app Grindr.
Now, you have to wonder: is he playing at something here? Did he get it wrong? Did he think ‘playing gay’ would be more humorous?
Being provocative is old hat for Eminem.
His latest album, Music to Be Murdered By, definitely leans on some shock value.
In one track (“Darkness”), he raps from the perspective of the Las Vegas gunman who committed the largest mass shooting in the U.S. in 2017.
In “Unaccommodating,” he tosses off a line about the bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017.
(image via Twitter/Eminem)
The internet is buzzing after a short clip of a new track by rappers Eminem and Joyner Lucas surfaced titled, “What If I Was Gay?”
With Joyner’s debut studio album on the horizon, it’s widely expected the track will arrive on that release.
The short 13-second snippet, first reported by HipHopNMore, includes some provocative lyrics.
“What if I told you I was out of place? Wait, what if I told you I was gay?” raps Joyner.
Em counters back, “What if I’m a hypocrite who’s just afraid to face truth? Wait, what if I told you I’m gay too?”
Admittedly, there’s no context, but it’s certainly intriguing considering Eminem’s controversial history with the LGBTQ community.
The 15-time Grammy Award winner came under fire for using anti-gay slurs on several of his early tracks like “Marshall Mathers” in 2000 and “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” in 2002.
In an attempt to hit the reset button, he appeared with Elton John at the 2001 Grammy Awards for one of the most memorable duets in Grammy history.
The two artists performed Slim Shady’s “Stan” with Elton at the piano crooning the Dido sample from the track as Em delivered the rap.
In a 2017 interview with Vulture, Eminem was asked about his homophobic lyrics:
The first time I got a taste of being called anti-gay was on ‘My Name Is’ when I said, ‘My English teacher wanted to have sex in junior high / The only problem was my English teacher was a guy.’ All I was saying was I don’t swing that way. So when I started getting flack for it, I thought, ‘Alright, you people think I’m homophobic? Watch this.’ I was trying to push the buttons of people who were calling me something that I wasn’t. The honest-to-God truth is that none of that matters to me: I have no issue with someone’s sexuality, religion, race, none of that.
This new track would be the second collaboration for Joyner and Eminem.
Eminem had previously teamed up with Joyner for “Lucky You” which was featured on Em’s 2018 studio album, Kamikaze.
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After getting slammed for using homophobic language (again) on his latest album, rapper Eminem has now addressed the debacle expressing regret over his choice of words.
First, let’s recap – on the track “Fall” from the new release Kamikaze, Eminem took a verse to swipe at rapper/producer Tyler the Creator.
It seems the 15-time Grammy Award-winner was angry over criticism leveled his way by Tyler who had publicly criticized his Beyoncé collaboration, “Walk on Water,” from Eminem’s 2017 release, Revival.
With that in mind, Eminem dropped this in “Fall:”
Tyler create nothing, I see why you called yourself a faggot, bitch
It’s not just ’cause you lack attention
It’s ’cause you worship D12’s balls, you’re sacrilegious
If you’re gonna critique me, you better at least be as good or better
Immediately, the music industry and the LGBTQ community clapped back at the 45-year-old rapper.
“It’s never ok to say a word that is filled with hate,” said Imagine Dragons frontman (and LGBTQ ally) Dan Reynolds.
it’s never ok to say a word that is filled with hate. I don’t care what year you were born in or what meaning it has to you.if it contributes to hate and bigotry then it is hateful. period.
there is never an ok time to say the word fa**ot
I don’t care who you are.
— Dan Reynolds (@DanReynolds) August 31, 2018
Even Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, who appears on the track, took pains to distance himself tweeting, “Was not in the studio for the Eminem track… came from a session with BJ Burton and Mike Will. Not a fan of the message, it’s tired. Asked them to change the track, wouldn’t do it. Thanks for listening to BRM.”
“This is not the time to criticize youth, it’s the time to listen, to act” added Vernon. “It is certainly not the time for slurs. Wish they would have listened when we asked them to change it.”
Which brings us to yesterday as Eminem sat down for a lengthy video interview with rapper/reporter Sway about the new project.
During the chat (which has already garnered over 2.2 million views in a day), Sway asked about using the word “faggot” on the track.
“With the Tyler the Creator thing, man, I realize now, I realize I wasn’t, in the mind frame of – I realize I was angry when I said the sh*t about Tyler,” says the Slim Shady rapper.
“The word that I called him on the album, on that song, was one of the things where I felt like, this might be too far. Because in my quest to hurt him, I realized that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it.”
This isn’t the Oscar winner’s first trip to the homophobic rodeo, though.
His sophomore album, Marshall Mathers LP, received similar criticism for his repeated use of the word ‘fag’.
And the issue reared its head again when he used the term on the track “Rap God” in 2013.
At the time, he said he didn’t think of it as a slur, just a word he’d grown up using as a put-down in rap battles.
However – at the age of 45-years-old, in the year 2018, is it too much to ask that he leave the homophobic language behind?
You can watch Eminem explain below.
Some news items you might have missed:
• How about some ‘Transformation Tuesday?’ I’ve featured InstaHunk and paleontologist Francesc Gascó many times on The Randy Report. But check out his before/after pic above. Francesc notes, “The biggest change is on the inside.”
• A new documentary, American Circumcision, looks at the effects of circumcision and a movement to end the practice in the United States.
• Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says the Trumpster will try to block the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report. Because that’s what innocent people do? #AbuseOfPower
• The Vatican has now admitted representatives lied about whether the Pope knew who Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis was when he met with her in private in 2015.
• Scientists now say no amount of alcohol may be safe to drink. #RuhRoh
• Eminem released his new album last Friday and already there’s scandal surrounding it as the rapper chooses to use the word “faggot.” LGBTQ ally and Imagine Dragons front man Dan Reynolds was not having it:
it’s never ok to say a word that is filled with hate. I don’t care what year you were born in or what meaning it has to you.if it contributes to hate and bigotry then it is hateful. period.
there is never an ok time to say the word fa**ot
I don’t care who you are.
— Dan Reynolds (@DanReynolds) August 31, 2018
it’s disgusting to be told this is being “overly sensitive” or “millennial”.LGBTQ kids are TAKING THEIR LIVES after being bullied with homophobic slurs.
it’s not “sensitive” to take a stand against a word that has been used to spread hate for years.
— Dan Reynolds (@DanReynolds) September 2, 2018
I’ve lived enough of my life remaining silent on these issues because of fear or lack of education.I don’t live in fear anymore.
I still have lots to learn. but no. I will not be a silent voice with this platform I have been given.
— Dan Reynolds (@DanReynolds) September 2, 2018
2 things to say1. in trying to be an ally it it’s v easy for a straight white “famous” man to be lauded as a hero for simply saying a few words and organizing an event. I have done v little and am no hero. I’m not seeking to be one. I want change. Period.
— Dan Reynolds (@DanReynolds) September 3, 2018
2. I don’t speak for the LGBTQ community. If they want 2 reclaim the word for themselves that is their decision & their’s only. I was only speaking to someone of great influence thinking it’s ok for him to say it time after time for years. It’s notand with that I’m done on this
— Dan Reynolds (@DanReynolds) September 3, 2018
In the newly released Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy film The Interview, rapper Eminem “comes out” during an appearance in the film’s talk show Skylark.
In the scene, when asked what his lyrics mean, Eminem tells James Franco’s talk show host character he is ‘gay’ and ‘a homosexual’.
‘When I say things about gay people, or people think my lyrics are homophobic – it’s because I’m gay.’
When Franco’s character – in freakout mode – asks Eminem to clarify, the rapper says, ‘I’m more shocked that people haven’t figured it out yet. I mean, it’s kind of like I’ve been playing gay peek-a-boo.’
In the TV studio control room, pandemonium ensues as Seth Rogen, as producer of the show, starts pulling up gay-related lyrics from Eminem’s catalog even as he’s throwing Em’s publicist out of the control room.
In real life, Em has had a love/hate relationship with the LGBT community as he’s frequently written homophobic lyrics. But the rapper has always contended he’s not an enemy of the community and the lyrics represent his performance art and not his heart.
Kerry Washington hosting SNL this Saturday, Nov. 2, and Eminem is performing as musical act. SNL released two promos featuring the two unlikely co-stars.
In the first, SNL regular Nasim Pedrad cheerfully asks the rapper, “Eminem, are you having fun?,” he refuses to acknowledge her perkiness and continues to stare straight ahead. Kerry, however, keeps up the positivity, doing a little dance of sorts while Eminem stays in his own zone.
In clip number 2, Kerry says after Saturday’s “great show,” the gang is “going out for cupcakes”— noting this was Eminem’s idea. In response, the rapper turns to face the pregnant star and deadpans, “I love cupcakes.”
Sounds like good times, right?
Looking forward to the Sunday morning recaps already.
(Via EOnline)