So, did you hear that hot rumor about Christina Aguilera? Or did you just listen to the new Eminem cut? Yes, leave it to Eminem, alter-ego Slim Shady, to give social commentary a bad name.
The hip-hop phenomenon, whose irreverent 1999 debut album “Slip Shady LP” won over suburban kids and industry moguls alike, is courting trouble again with the unapologetically scathing lyrics on his forthcoming album “The Marshall Mathers LP,” due out May 23.
The track in contention, titled “The Real Slim Shady,” is also the first single to come out of the sophomore album. And keeping very much to his lyrical forte, the song is an all-out banter binge, a catalogue of tailor-made dis served up to some of today’s high-profile entertainment types.
Among the folks getting the rough side of Eminem’s tongue this song around include the Tommy Lees (“Jaws all on the floor like Pam, like Tommy just burst in the door/And started whooping her ass worse than before”), Will Smith (“Will Smith don’t gotta cuss in his raps to sell his records/Well I do so f*** him and f*** you too!”), and MTV kook Tom Green (“Sometimes I wanna get on TV and just let loose, but can’t/But it’s cool for Tom Green to hump a dead moose”).
As unsparing as the above tongue-lashing may be, the emcee provocateur saved the best of his wrath-ridden rhymes for budding popstress Aguilera.
To summarize the Eminem rap, the coquettish singer is alluded to having, er, non-puritanical sex with two MTV faves — veejay Carson Daly and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst. (“S*** Christina Aguilera better switch chairs/So I can sit next to Carson Daly and Fred Durst/And hear them argue over who she gave head to first”).
Both Durst and Aguilera have issued statements disclaiming and condemning the Eminem song, but their woes have done little to curb the popularity of the song.
“[Christina] thinks the song is disgusting and offensive, and above all, it’s not true. She’s done all that she can do, and she’s said all that she can say,” Aguilera’s rep told us.
And Aguilera can add Eminem’s video being on heavy MTV rotation to the list of things she’s powerless to change. The music trendsetter has been playing the video like it’s going out of style, skidding the diplomatic issue of promoting something that renders the channel’s most beloved artists, not to mention its own heartthrob darling Carson Daly, as babbling fools.
Quothe an MTV spokesperson: “The song is No. 2 on ‘Total Request Live.’ [Carson] has a fun attitude about it, and the video is being played. That fact alone can speak for itself.”
Given MTV’s stance, what has the third part of the fictitious ménage a trois — puppy-faced Carson Daly — been saying and doing ’bout bein’ openly disrespected?
Submissively introducing the video version of the song on his afternoon show, “TRL.”
