In an article from Star Magazine, Eminem talks about the attraction of kids towards cursewords. He’s so right about it. Kids like it.
He remembers Nathan enjoying cursing when he was a little 3 years old boy:
“Of course you don’t want your kids walking around in public going [in a robotic voice], ‘Fuck.’ ‘Shit.’ ‘Cunt.’ ‘Ass.’ ‘Bitch.’ But remember how fun it was to cuss when you were in the first grade? Just to be like, ‘Fuck.’ ‘Shit.’ My little brother was 3 years old, running around the house saying, ‘Shit.’ ‘Shittty-shit.’ ‘Butterfly-firebutt.’ It’s like you can’t stop it.”
On chiprowe.com, I found this interesting comment:
‘ Language Hitlers say anyone who swears doesn’t have sufficient mastery of the language. Bullshit. Invoke Shakespeare when someone cuts you off in traffic and see how fast you get through town. ‘
You can read the full article here :
http://www.chiprowe.com/articles/swear.html
I totally agree with the author of this comment. People confuse everything: they confuse the mastery of a language and the use of cusswords, which is totally different. How many times have I been mocked by people for claiming that Eminem is a lyrical genius. Those people used to tell me:
‘If he uses so many cusswords in his songs, he cannot be a lyrical genius.’
Little did they know about the use and abuse of words’ power.
Eminem’s songs may be full of cusswords, but the way he handles them inside of a text makes them totally much with the text, rythm and melody.
‘The Way I Am’ lyrics are an example of Eminem’s ingenius use of cusswords inside of his lyrics. Those lyrics are particularly interesting, because Eminem also plays with the word curse in the third line:
‘I sit back with the pack of zig zags and this bag of this weed it gives me
the shit needed to be the most meanest MC
On this earth and sence birth I’ve been cursed with this curse to just curse
and just blirk it’s bazerk and bizare shit that works
And it sells and it helps in itself to relieve all this tension despensin me
sentence is gettin the stress that’s been eatin me recently off of this
chest and I rest again peacefully
But at least have the decency in you to leave me alone when you freaks see
me out in the street when I’m eatin or feedin my daughter to not come and
speak to me
I don’t know you and no i don’t owe you a mutha’ fuckin thing I’m not
Mr.N’SYNC I’m not what your friends think I’m not Mr. Friendly I can be a
prick if you tempt me my tank is on empty
No patience is in me and if you offend me I’m lifting you ten feet
In the air I don’t care who was there and who saw me destroy you I’ll call
you a lawyer file you a law suite I’ll smile in the court room and buy you a
wardsrobe I’m tired of arguin’
I don’t mean to be mean but that’s all I can be it’s just me…’
The lyrics of ‘Remember Me’ are also fullfilled with cusswords. The following exerpt of ‘Remember Me’ is particularly interesting, because Eminem jokes about the use of cusswords from the critics’ point of view. It is so well made and hilarious at the same time:
‘When I go out, I’ma go out shootin
I don’t mean when I die, I mean when I go out to the club, stupid
I’m tryin to clear up my fuckin’ image,
so I promised the fuckin critics
I wouldn’t say “fuckin” for six minutes
(*click* Six minutes, Slim Shady, you’re on)
My baby’s mom, bitch made me an angry blonde
So I made me a song, killed her and put Hailie on
I may be wrong, I keep thinkin these crazy thoughts
in my cranium, but I’m stuck with a crazy mom
(“Is she really on as much dope as you say she’s on?”)
Came home, and somebody musta broke in the back window
and stole two loaded machine guns and both of my trenchcoats
Sick sick dreams of picnic scenes, two kids, sixteen
with M-16’s and ten clips each
And them shits reach through six kids each
And Slim gets blamed in Bill Clint’s speech to fix these streets?
FUCK THAT! PBBT! Tou faggots can vanish to volcanic ash
and re-appear in hell with a can of gas, AND a match
Aftermath, Dre, grab the gat, show ’em where it’s at
(What the fuck you starin at, nigga?)’
So many people are shocked (or maybe do as if) by cusswords, but they often use them in their privacy. I wish some of them could stop being such hypocrits. Who hasn’t used at least one of them in a lifetime?
Cusswords help to express some rage under specific circumstances. When somebody gets on my nerves, I don’t feel ashamed to use them. It is even a relief for me to use them when I’m confronted to narrow minded and stupid people.
Being a foreign languages lover, I also know that one of the best ways to learn a foreign languages is to curse.
I remember how much I loved to curse in German as a little kid since I had caught my grandfather cursing.
And- by the way- to be perfectly honest, I enjoy the many cusswords in Eminem’s lyrics. I enjoy reading them, singing them along with him and also playing with them in my allday life. Eminem’s words including his cusswords have empowered my use of the English language.
And if you don’t like it, ‘fuck you punkbitchassmotherfucker’!
I’m just playing. You know I don’t mean it