Eminem & Survival Of The Fittest

The pundits were surprised when Eminem came out with a heavy guitar based hip hop anthem, ‘Survival’, for his new single. The riff (and marketing push) linked to Call of Duty. This kind of old school track was presumed dead, too cliché to touch. Nonetheless it is an excellent track and the lyrical content is quite inspiring and uplifting.

In truth I am not a huge fan of the whole hip hop thing, much of it represents ridiculous music for the ego. Music was supposed to convey emotion and harmony, but now it has to convey how many girls I’ve banged and what a nice car I have? What happened to Beethoven, Pink Floyd, Progressive Trance – music that took you on a journey and didn’t require you to sport sunglasses to hide behind (other than to protect your LSD inflated pupils).

One of the saddest things in the world is rich young white boys in California and New York, that come from well to do homes, and live in the lap of luxury, calling each other nigga while riding about in mommies SLK, complete with her Louis Vuitton make up bag in the glove box. Not a .45 to be seen. I’m sure if you pop the trunk you’ll find her pink Juicy Couture gym bag in place of a Mosberg and pound of coke. Ride on white boys, you’re the shit. You have so little integrity and identity of your own, you have to take one from a pop song.

Whilst it’s easy to identify with the art of an impoverished class, reduced to a life of crime (or pipe dream music success for the chosen few), and whilst I cannot deny the angst, energy and hope that much hip hop contains, the commercialization of it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Youngsters embracing the gangster lifestyle and thinking they have any kind of empathy with that violent world, is more beta than buying their girlfriend a strap-on.  The most violence in their life is Jose’s lawn mower, grinding the grass on daddy’s 5 acre estate.

Still, I think it is important to recognize hip-hop for the art form and expression that it is. It is also interesting to see the polarity of the sexes still exists in hip hop, where men are surely men that take no shit and carve out their own existence. While the women, albeit black, (sorry trolls, had to slip that little politically incorrect faux pas in there) are sexy and luscious females.

Back to Eminem. His new track is great for many reasons. The pounding guitar has a ring of the almost forgotten heavy metal era, it’s a shame that the shredded guitar solo is lost in the mix, but the vibe is still there. His point is put across perfectly. “This is Survival of the Fittest, This is do or Die. This is The Winner Takes it All… So take it all.”

Why not? That is what men do.

Eminem is always politically incorrect, setting out to ruffle as many feathers as possible and while this track is perfect bubble gum pop in many respects and no one is going to be up in arms about his lyrics on Survival, that is actually the genius of it. He has managed to preserve the ultra alpha attitude (chauvinist, misogynist scream the feminists), that women’s advocates the world over have tried to rail him for – without actually giving them anything to talk about. Art is meant to dip into your subconscious and Eminem accomplishes that. It’s a man’s track, and it perfectly captures the attitude a man needs, without making any social references or causing you to feel the need to pretend you are an extra in Al Pacino’s Scarface. You can leave mommies Benz in the garage and build your own vibe.

Even with all his wealth, accomplishment and success, Eminem, who has surely had his personal ups and downs, sign seals and delivers as he spits – not just the emotion and fear he still goes through to this day when trying to maintain his persona and success, but also conveys the psyche and drive he must conjure up to carry on putting out material and remain credible as an artist.

I love how he shoots down his detractors with such lyrical precision, firing himself up and executing a rap that is just as good as any of his first material:

Wasn’t ready to be no millionaire, I was ill-prepared
I was prepared to be ill though, the skill was there
In the beginning, it wasn’t ’bout the ends
It was ’bout busting raps and standing for something, fucking acronym
Cut the fucking act like you’re happy, I’m fucking back again
With another anthem, why stop when it doesn’t have to end?
It ain’t over ’til I say it’s over – enough when I say enough
Throw me to them wolves and close the gate up
I’m afraid of what’ll happen to them wolves
When the thought of being thrown into an alligator pit, I salivated it
Weight is up, hands up like it’s 12 noon, nah, homie
Hold them bitches straight up, wave ‘em ’til you dislocate a rotator cuff
Came up rough, came to ruffle feathers, nah, egos
I ain’t deflated enough, last chance to make this whole stadium erupt cause

This is survival of the fittest
This is do or die
This is the winner takes it all
So take it all

He avoids all the niggas in the hood BS, which sounds absurdly pompous coming from guys like Jay-Z and Kanye. No matter what your background, you can’t pretend to live an under privileged life and rap about it, while criss-crossing the globe in a private jet as a part of pop music royalty. Talk about a coconut (yes… more totally inappropriate racist jokes).

One of the nicest things about blunt and to the point communication, is that it cuts straight to business. We can learn a lot from the way the hip-hop artists have neutralized the N word, and a lot about their attitudes and aggressive language. If we learn to take criticisms as they come and not be worried about detractors, and stop pussy footing about with some kind of false pride; pretending that we are oh so offended because someone was swearing or calling us a mother fucker, we will all be so much better off.

You see that world of attention to detail and social mechanics is largely a woman’s world. I am quite sure that most of the time, when I drop the F word to the clerk at the bank she is not offended at all, but simply seeking a mechanism to obtain some kind of power over me. FUCK YOU BITCH. I will talk how I want.

Stop being offended

The more we care, the more we attach ourselves to external things, the more just about anything can ruin our day. People’s impression of us, judgmental or derogatory comments, and our own minor screw ups and so on and so forth, the more we tie our happiness to the external – the more we are likely to fail in life.

Getting offended by anything is about as valid as making the life decision to only be happy on sunny days. It’s raining so I will be miserable today. My buddy called me a fucking idiot so I am sad today. My girlfriend sucked off my dad so I feel sad today. Fuck all that. This is survival of the fittest.

First and foremost, fittest in this day and age, means emotionally robust. Water off a duck’s back. All the obstacles and detractors are simply the weights and the gymnasium to build muscle with. Otherwise you are no more than an animal jumping from one situation to the next. Acting and reacting according to external stimulus. Unfortunately today we do not embrace survival of the fittest. We embrace survival of the handbag and sunglasses. Whoever has the most expensive logo on his shirt and motor car is the winner.

It would be nice to learn from mistakes and fire up that success and credibility while I am still alive, certainly. It would be nice to benefit from the wealth, success, social life (think endless hot pussy) and creature comforts that it would bring, but as Eminem’s own example and track makes clear, getting rich and successful is just the beginning of your problems. The more money in your bank account, the more you will have to worry about and maintain. You will have to run just to stand still and all your character flaws will be amplified. Few get to rest on their laurels and when they do, they are bored and fed up.

Survival is my psych up song of the month

Any time you are heading out on the game, have a difficult problem to solve, women trouble, work issues, money problems or whatever, this track will hit the spot and get you in the right mood.

They said I was washed up, and kinda blood-bathed
I’m not a rapper, I’m an adapter, I can adjust
Plus I can just walk up to a mic and just bust
So floor’s open if you’d like to discuss

And if there should ever come a time where my life’s in a rut
And I look like I might just give up, eh you might’ve mistook

Let me remind you of what got me this far, picture me quitting
Now draw a circle around it and put a line through it, slut
It’s survival of what?

Remember it is survival of the fittest. Life owes you nothing more than a miserable lonely death. Anything beyond that you have to create for yourself, a large part of which involves maintaining your own mental and emotional state and ignoring everyone else’s opinion.

Pay respect to those more successful than yourself; try your best to engage politics and social mechanics when needed, in part to get a leg up from a friendly mentor, but otherwise to hell with them all, especially the fat black feminist bitches and their beta manginas.

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