Eminem's Go To Heaven masterwork

[geniph]

Artists of all types dream of this: that one moment, one inspiration, one work, that I call a "Go To Heaven" moment. It can be a book, a movie, a song, a photograph, that is so powerful, such a leap forward, that if there's a Heaven, it alone would justify that artist entrance.

Eminem has just made his Go To Heaven.

[DrWeird]

1. I haven't seen the whole thing...

I caught a clip last night on the news. Doesn't look as good as some of the other stuff he's done.

[geniph]

3. Dr Weird, it is a powerful piece

and you should check it out. MTV.com has it on their front page, or it's available at Guerrilla News Network.

[high density]

11. Link to Quicktime video

http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=independent_news&collectionid=Mosh2

The site reports that last night it was being downloaded two times per second and sucking up about 500Mbps worth of bandwidth.

[The Flaming Red Head]

14. My son says thank you, cya'll later and out

[Mad_Dem_X]

22. Brilliant

Never been a fan of the man, but that video is very powerful. It made me cry. Good job, Em! :yourock:

[Sugarbleus]

2. I totally agree!!

AND I'M A (young)GRANNY!! LOL. I'm tellin' ya, the guy is some kind of genius. Thank you Slim!!

[Wheaty]

4. Shade 45 on Satellite Radio

He just debuted his own radio station on Sirius Satellite radio 15 minutes ago the first song he played was Mosh.

They'll be broadcasting live from The Roseland Ballroom tonight at the Shady National Convention. I'm assuming he'll have a few interesting things to say.

[Johnyawl]

5. It knocked my socks off

and I'm not a fan of rap. But that, as a protest song transends genre

[vi5]

6. Please tell me it's not a reference to the Grateful Dead album...

I love the dead but if you consider that album their masterwork then I'm quite suspect.

[geniph]

8. No, it's not

I'm fond of the Dead, but that album's kind of lame. Now, American Beauty, that's a whole 'nother story.

[Union Thug]

7. 40 years old, never like rap.. BUT

Eminem knocked me on my ass with this! AWESOME work. JUST FRIGGIN AWESOME! Go get 'em Slim!

[geniph]

10. Yeah, I'm 45 myself

and I haven't been that moved by a protest song since the first time I heard Eve of Destruction!

[Chichiri]

9. Hehe, reminds me of what a movie critic once said

...when removing the movie he was in a few years back: "In the unlikely event that Enimen is someday nominated for sainthood, '8 Mile' will be Exhibit A."

It's still unlikely, but I think Mosh must be Exhibit B. :D

[Union Thug]

12. Good point. 8 Mile was unexpectedly great work!

I was telling my 18 year old last night, Eminem has completely won my respect. My wife was also struck by this vid/rap...and she's a ruskie by birth who said the frustration and drive that motivated MOSH was impossible to take your eyes off of.

Dude, you just won over another generation. Keep it up!

[Johnyawl]

15. He's won me over...

...and I'm an old curmedgeon. (54) I'll never bad mouth rap music again.

[Sterling]

13. Heres a cool review at CopV CIA

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/102104_popular_culture.shtml
The video opens with the World Trade Center being struck by UA Flight 175, sending tremors throughout a nearby building. As the camera swoops in through the window, we see Eminem in a classroom reading to schoolchildren. This is, of course, a reenactment of what happened on 9/11, when Bush continued to read about goats in Booker Elementary School after he was told, "America is under attack." While the "Grand Old Party" would prefer to remember this as the moment when the Commander was first informed of the attacks, in reality Dubya knew all about the first WTC impact before he made the trip from the hotel to Booker Elementary. Either way, the goats in the book had little to offer in the way of life-saving advice.

The footage of Bush at Booker was first used by the NYC Video Production Crew Shadow Government Television in their documentary Osama is a Bush, but was seen worldwide when Michael Moore used the same footage in Fahrenheit 9/11. Eminem's decision to reenact the scene brings a vast new audience to the unanswered questions:

Why didn't the president react? How could the Secret Service have been so sure another plane wasn't headed for the elementary school to kill Bush? Who was America's Commander in Chief while Bush read about goats?

[chookie]

16. I agree

Eminem is a fucking genius.

I watched Mosh and shouted -- who the hell is this guy?

This is what art does -- whatever its means, whatever its style -- its SCREAMS truth and is understood across worlds, across centuries.

Mosh is one of the most powerful expressions of political art I have ever seen.

He used his art brilliantly. He certainly reached a hell of a lot of people outside of his more usual audience with this song. I certainly was ignorant enough to think that hiphop had nothing to offer me artistically -- I "got it" now.

I have been sick of musicians my own age, how bankrupt their art has become. I have felt betrayed by old heroes (Pete). I have been wondering -- where are the artists, where are the musicians at this time? Obviously, in hiphop. Eyes open.

[geniph]

17. YES!

Chookie, that's exactly what I was trying to convey.

"art...SCREAMS truth and is understood across worlds, across centuries."

EXACTLY!

[hiphopnation]

18. Ask yourself

is this his "go to heaven" work because it is a truly unique and masterful piece of art or because it makes a bold & timely political statement that you happen to espouse? And is there a difference?

[Bosso 63]

21. good point .

I have never liked rap or hip hop, despite the fact that many
people I respect have told me that it was a real and valid art
form. Its not that I didn't believe it was art, It's just that
I never heard anything that spoke to me, and this spoke to me
- it moved me. So I guess to answer your question, Yes, it
makes a political statement that I espouse, which made me more
open to the experience. Now that I have had a positive
experience with the genre, I hope that I will be open to the
works of other artists even if they have different
perspectives.    

[chookie]

26. yes

Both.

But it's more than that -- this goes WAY beyond a merely timely message against Bush and the last few years. This is no specific protest song -- it is the very essence of the spirit of rebellion and independence and railing against tyranny and injustice -- with the urgency NEEDED right now, before it is too late and we lose what we FOUGHT for the last 200+ years. It is the hand of the artist identifying the monster and demanding truth. It is not "safe", it is not "temperate", it is not "measured" -- it is art giving voice to the truth that urgently needs to be heard, while there is still a moment to hope we can change things. Enimen has immortalized our moment in history -- people forever and from wherever can watch Mosh and KNOW what we were going through, what we were facing....

I have seen this monster fingered before -- by Picasso in Guernica, or Goya in The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid or any of his other works in his Atrocities of War series.

No -- this is not an ephemeral work -- this is great art. Eminem is a MASTER.

I have been WAITING for great art to come out of our time....now I have seen it.

Finally -- as I posted above -- I had been IGNORANT of hiphop; didn't think it had anything to offer me -- and now I see clearly that these are the artists who are speaking for me, my anger, my life. I am going to start paying attention -- this is a major breakthrough for me -- because, as I said, I find most music numbing, and most of my old heroes totally fucking irrelevant in these times. (cue sound of smashing glass -- my ignorance being dispelled and my soul being liberated)

[Taylor Mason Powell]

19. This is not Eminem's masterwork.

This is the masterwork of the video director and animator(s) and the folks who conceptualized, storyboarded, and executed the video. Eminem probably had a hand in all that, so props to him.

But in terms of songwriting, it's far from his best work.

I say this as an Eminem fan and as someone who thought the Mosh video was absolutely breathtaking.

[hiphopnation]

20. Blasphemer!!

Thirty lashes!! Off with his head!! Stone him in public!!

[Taylor Mason Powell]

24. At least I didn't criticize Michael Moore!

.
.
.

(even though he's fat and his movies suck)



JUST KIDDING! PLEASE DON'T STONE ME!

[Iceburg]

23. Count Basey/ Bix Beiderbecke household here ... we're impressed

[ursacorwin]

27. i concur.

wow. DU sure is white! (stone away ;-)
seriously, this isn't art- it's agitprop. which is cool. and the fact that TPTB have 'allowed' this to come out now, during *'s 'worst week ever' tells you something. i hope.
MM is one of 'my kind' in that some of my family is from the same area. it's hard to understand him, let alone forgive him, for his many inflammatory outbursts. this is different, which at this point, is all that matters. kudos, man! this little vingette is close to perfection...anyone can understand the critique. genius.

[geniph]

28. That's a good point

I was assuming Eminem had a hand in deciding what the video was going to be; certainly he must have approved it. I thought he was fairly involved in his videos; is that not the case?

But chookie's later post makes the case I was trying to make; regardless of this individual SONG's merits or lack of same, the overall effect of the video transcends any one person's achievement or any genre and edges over into the realm of true art. Political art, yes, but still - ART.

[marlakay]

25. my husband just told me he is on SNL this saturday

hope he does his new song!! We are gone and taping the show.

[Hatalles]

30. Awesome! n/t

[Ladyhawk]

29. I am not a rap fan, but I love the Mosh video!

I went to Ross and got me a black hoodie. ;) I rarely buy clothes...can't afford it right now. Hey, I can use it next time I find the funds to go whale watching.

[BushRel4Kerry JH]

31. I agree!!

I usually hate rap, but I went to a website where I could see the whole video, and I found it very powerful.

Jeanny
http://www.bushrelativesforkerry.com