Being a huge Eminem fan, I have been confronted to those questions many times : ‘ How will Hailie react as a teenager when she will discover the full version of ‘ Bonnie and Clyde ‘ and of songs like ‘ Kim ‘, for instance ?
Many Eminem detractors have objected me that Eminem was so ‘ evil ‘, that his daughter would end up hating her father.
I am totally convinced of the contrary and let me tell you why :
–
Eminem is a devoted father to Hailie who feels very concerned by her well being. He is very cautious when Hailie listens to his music. She only listens to clean versions of his songs.
– Eminem’s approach of education with Hailie is liberal. Recently Hailie even learnt how to use some cusswords from her cool daddy who thought it was high time for her to learn some, she’d hear some cusswords at school anyway.
– The little girl is also used to her daddy’s sense of humor. She is also part of his artistic creation and lend her voice to her daddy’s records since she was 2 and a half.
– When Hailie will be old enough, Eminem will spend some time with his daughter to explain her the meaning behind the words. He will explain her in which context he wrote ‘ 97 Bonnie and Clyde ‘ and ‘ Kim ‘. Hailie will understand that her caring dad had been hurt by her mom and that he wanted to get her back. She will understand that those songs that shocked the media are nothing else than Eminem’s expression of love towards Kim. Hailie will understand that her parents, despite their arguments, had strong feelings for each other.
In 1999, when Hailie was 3, Kurt Loder from MTV asked Eminem about the song ‘ Guilty conscience ‘. He wanted to know how Eminem would explain the song to his daughter. The part with the 15 years old girl in particular :
‘ Yo! This girl’s only fifteen years old
You shouldn’t take advantage of her, that’s not fair)
Yo, look at her bush.. does it got hair? (Uh huh!)
Fuck this bitch right here on the spot bare
Til she passes out and she forgot how she got there
(Man, ain’t you ever seen that one movie _Kids_?)
No, but I seen the porno with SunDoobiest!
(Shit, you wanna get hauled off to jail?)
Man fuck that, hit that shit raw dawg and bail’ ‘
There are clear references to rape in ‘ Guilty Conscience ‘. But why should Eminem hide those things to Hailie ? Eminem envisions America’s bad side in the song and he is referring to reality.
There is no reason for him to overprotect his daughter and to hide reality to her.
This is how Eminem answered to Kurt :
Eminem:” I would be able to explain that song to her just like I would to any other child on the face of this earth. Anyone with a half a brain can see that “Guilty Conscience” was me just talking about the ways of the world and your conscience. It’s a concept song.It’s like you got the bad half of you and you have the good half — and it seems like in America these days, the evil side always rules. And that’s what I was trying to do with that song. It was a concept, you know, me taking little stabs at Dr. Dre and him throwing them back. As a kid growing up, my daughter is gonna know right from wrong. She’s gonna know what to do and what not to do. She’s also gonna go through the same things that other children do when growing up. When I was 12 years old, if I heard an NWA record or I heard an Ice-T record, I never went out and shot somebody. You have to be smart enough to know.”According to me, Eminem is a good father who is doing the right thing with his little daughter. When she will be old enough to understand, he will explain his lyrics to her. He will help her to distinguish between right and wrong. We should expose reality to our kids in its uglyness and roughness : that’s the best way to prepare them to their adult life. Life won’t always be sugarcoated for them. It is useless to act as of danger and violence didn’t exist. Kids who are far from reality will be weakened in their adult life.”
Parents, should also be tolerant about their kids’ musical tastes. Music helps them to grow up and is not necessarly a bad influence.
As Eminem points it out, he stated listening to NWA and Ice T when he was 12 and he never shot anybody. Take your kid’s CD for what it actually is: words and music.
3 thoughts on “How is Hailie gonna react when she grows up?”
Comments are closed.
hailies bound to ask questions when shes older and im sure she is starting to ask questions now but you can help how kim has been and you cant protect hailie from the world forever but i think that eminem is an amazing father and that is coming from me a 13 year old
eminem is soo kwl!
i think that hailie is very pretty and eminem is lucky to have a good relationship with her!
yea hailie is gonna ask questions what child doesnt but if i were her i would be proud of my dad (marshall)