The Eminem Blog

The D12 crew is composed of 6 talented and hardworking emcees from Detroit. Since the beginning of their carreer, D12 has been targetted by the media and negatively criticized �for making money by exploiting the world�s misery�. D12�s first fight is against censorship and it is all about freedom of speech. It seems like their fight has been facing many difficulties mainly due to to the FCC�s censorship. Being asked in an XXL interview about political censorship, Eminem and Bizarre expressed about the problems they had to face with the �Purple Pills� song:

XXL:But politics have hit you before. Like when you had to change �Purple Pills� to �Purple Hills��did that bother you?
SLIM: That bothered the fuck out of us.
BIZARRE: It bothered me. But then when I heard lil� kids rappin� it, I would rather them rap the clean version than the bad.
So did you fight it until the end?
BIZARRE: We lost.
SLIM: I mean, we could stick to our guns and say, �Look, we�re making it �Purple Pills.�� And then guess what? No radio play, no record sales. If you want to eat, this is what you gotta do. You change �pills� to �hills.� It�s the difference between �mills� and �bills.�

If you ask me, one of the most hypocritical censorships is MTV�s censorship of �Without Me� where you will see �a little bit of weed� replaced by � a little bit of me� while �hard lickor� remains authorized.

Besides their fight for freedom of speech, the D12 are fed up to be confused with some artists of the fake world of pop. The song �My Band�- that has also been misunderstood by some people since its release- is all about that kind of confusion. Many people actually take Eminem for the lead singer of a band. It often angers me when Eminem gets called a �singer�. I do feel the same when D12 gets called a �band�.

Because he�s blond haired and white, many people who have no idea what Eminem is about confuse him with a pop artist.
Eminem and D12 are hip hop and it�s high time people realized it. Eminem never intented to be the �leader� of the D12 group. The D12 group exists since 1990, long before Eminem launched his career. The creation of the group was Proof�s idea. D12 is a story of friendship and loyalty. The first to become famous was supposed to do something for his fellows:

�We made a pact years ago, “which ever one of us gets signed comes back for the rest.� (Eminem)

Eminem never forgot his friends who grew up in the same place as him and a similar background. Their roots are hip hop and it would be a big mistake to call them �singers� instead of �rappers�.

When the �Devil�s Night� album was released, the 6 emcees had to face a lot of negative criticism. �Devil�s Night� is nothing else but a true reflection of life in the Detroit underground. I remember Eminem saying on MTV how much hard he had worked with his fellows on that album. And this time, he wasn�t joking.

The D12 crew has also another important point to prove. I have heard so often:

�Eminem can rap so well, but the other MC�s of the group are worth nothing. Their lyrics suck and they�re bad rappers.�

Which is so untrue.

The 5 other emcees of the group are gifted. A better examination of their solo work will make people realize their individual talent. Eminem is brilliant, for sure, but his fellows are doing excellent work too. If you take a deeper look at their work you will find Bizarre�s ill rhymes funny and amazing. You will certainly enjoy Proof as a solo artist and see a gifted freestyler in him. You will certainly love Swifty�s wicked rhymes and enjoy Kuniva and Kon Artis� voices and parts inside of a D12 song. �D12 World� is also about that:
Eminem�s friends want to show you their talent if you just agree to have a look.
Won�t you give them a chance?