Song of the day for February 9, 2024
1 min read
The song for today is from Eminem, the song is called Rap God.
On this day in 2001, Eminem beefed up security at his UK concerts following the threat of gay rights protests. Campaigners said the rapper was a homophobe who fuelled prejudice with hate-filled lyrics.
“Rap God” is a song by American rapper Eminem. The song premiered via YouTube on October 14, 2013, and was released in the United States on October 15, 2013, as the third single from Eminem’s eighth studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013). It contains references to previous conflicts in Eminem’s career, as well as to other rappers’ conduct.
It also reintroduced his alter ego Slim Shady.
In the part that begins at 4:26, Eminem raps 99 words containing 157 syllables in 16.45 seconds—an average of 6.1 words per second, or 9.5 syllables per second—which he describes as “supersonic speed”.
The lyrics of “Rap God” were criticized by the LGBTQ+ community and its supporters as homophobic, due to lyrics in the song being “you fags think it’s all a game” and “Little gay-looking boy / So gay I can barely say it with a straight face-looking boy.” In a Rolling Stone interview, Eminem defended his usage of “faggot” and “gay-looking” by saying he “never really equated those words to actually mean ‘homosexual'”.
