The Real Slim Shady

As some may recall, the hip-hop magazine the Source has accused Eminem of racism based on the distasteful lyrics of a song Eminem composed early in his career. The lyrics are, no doubt, profoundly embarrassing to Eminem, not only for their open racism but also for their lameness. And Eminem is using every tool at his command to suppress the lyrics. The New York Times has a story indicating that Eminem's lawyers have persuaded a judge that the Source may not post the lyrics to their website. This is a hard case, but I think the judge got it wrong.

This work was (wisely) never commercially released by Eminem and he is entitled to a measure of deference because of this. Additionally, the songs appears to be a "freestyle" rap, generated on the spot without a lot of thought or consideration. In absolute, absolute fairness to Eminem he might have regretted his words moments after composing them.

BUT ...

... Eminem built his career in great part by directly addressing and challenging questions of race is his work. The lyrics to "Without Me" offer a striking example of his consciousness of the complexity of his role as a white performer in a genre invented and dominated by African-Americans:

Though I'm not the first king of controversy

I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley, to do Black Music so selfishly

and use it to get myself wealthy (Hey)

there's a concept that works

20 million other white rappers emerge

but no matter how many fish in the sea it'd be so empty without me

In this context, the presence of even a juvenile work so at odds with an established persona is newsworthy and ought to be the focus of sustained interrogation and criticism. Fair use provides for this, and offers tremendous deference to scholars and critics. Indeed, "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research," are all specified as uses favored by the fair use doctine in the U.S. Code. For the Source to address the question of how and whether Eminem's racist lyrics should be understood in the broader context of Eminem's work, the lyrics need to be seen, and in this case, the context provided by reading the lyrics in their entirety is needed for readers to make a fair assessment of just what might have been in Eminem's mind at that time.

So Eminem's assertion of his copyright to suppress these lyrics ought to be understood as an attempt to preclude comment and criticism, and my hope is that a smarter judge will correct this ruling. In the meantime, Eminem's lawsuit is having the predictable effect of calling greater attention to the lyrics, which are widely available on the Web.