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If you were waiting for Eminem to apologize for his rap lyrics about the Manchester bomb attack, then you just don’t know Marshall Mathers. While Slim Shady did not give an apology for his new album, Eminem did respond to the criticisms of using violent themes in Music To Be Murdered By and said it was “designed to shock the conscience” and “not made for the squeamish.”
Eminem released a surprise album last week, but what grabbed the most headlines was lyrics from his new track Unaccomadating. The second track in the album features Young M.A.. The song references the 2017 Manchester Arena suicide bomb attack during an Ariana Grande concert that took the lives of 23 people and wounded 139, more than half of which were children.
“I’m contemplating yelling bombs away on the game like I’m outside an Ariana Grande concert,” Marshall Mathers raps on the track and is followed by the sound of an explosion.
The song received criticism for the rap lyrics being “insensitive” and even Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham called the hip-hop lyrics “unnecessarily hurtful and deeply disrespectful.”
On Thursday, Eminem addressed the controversy with an Instagram post with a bloody letter where he was not apologetic for the song.
Gentle Listener, In today’s wonderful world murder has become so commonplace that we are a society obsessed and fascinated by it. I thought why not make a sport of it and murder over beats? So before you jump the gun, please let me explain. This album was not made for the squeamish. If you are easily offended or unnerved at the screams of bloody murder, this may not be the collection for you. Certain selections have been designed to shock the conscience, which may cause positive action. Unfortunately, darkness has truly fallen upon us. So you see, murder in this instance isn’t always literal, nor pleasant. These bars are only meant for the sharpest knives in the drawer. For the victims of the album, may you rest peacefully. For the rest of you, please listen more closely next time. Goodnight! With deepest sympathy, Eminem.
Slim Shady captioned the Instagram post: “Cause, see, they call me a menace and if the shoe fits, I’ll wear it. But if it don’t, then y’all will swallow the truth, grin and bear it.”
In the new music video for Darkness, another track from Music To Be Murdered By, Em depicts the bloody massacre from the 2017 Las Vegas shooting that killed 58 and wounded 413 at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada.
Controversy has never hurt Eminem in the sales department, and Music To Be Murdered By is no exception. Eminem’s 11th studio album is on track to sell around 280,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending on January 23, according to Billboard. This will be Eminem’s 10th straight No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
[Complex]