His lyrics don't melt in your mouth

Eminem is the latest of the so-called shocking and vulgar performers to be misunderstood

Marshall Mathers III writes some arresting lyrics, which is not to say those lyrics should see him arrested.

Mathers, better known as the rap sensation Eminem, blew into town Thursday for a sold-out show at SkyDome with a provincial government posse lookin' to bust him. Talk about misguided. To rebellious teens, that was just lighter fluid on the BBQ.

The rap on the rapper is his purported advocacy of domestic violence.

"The lyrics are shocking and disgusting," explained Attorney-General Jim Flaherty in prompting the attempt to bar the multi-Grammy-award-winning artist from entering the country. "I would hope that people in Ontario who agree about the evil of domestic violence would not support this person financially by either going to his concert or letting their children go to his concert or buying these CDs that have these lyrics on them."

Packed houses

Judging by SkyDome's packed house Thursday and the sold-out show in Montreal last night, obviously the message failed to register. And let's be emphatic, that's not to dismiss the very serious issue of domestic abuse. But what we have here, to borrow from Strother Martin in Cool Hand Luke, is "a failure to communicate."

There's no denying Eminem's lyrics on certain songs are disconcerting and alarming. In the single Kim, off the current CD, for example, the phrase "Bleed bitch, bleed" is screamed repeatedly at the end of this horrific and disturbing portrayal of domestic violence, which ends with the murder of the young couple's baby and ultimately, the protagonist's wife, Kim (which just happens to be the name of Mathers' ex).

Even sans musical accompaniment here, you can appreciate this is not the kind of song the kids would dance to. Although context is important. In fact, it's critical to understanding the music and maelstrom surrounding Eminem.

What the rap artist does is paint graphic oral narratives. In the case of Kim, it's a third-person narrative, one that is at once shocking, revolting, and profoundly unsettling. Pretty much mirroring the starkly depressing spectre of domestic violence itself.

The character he raps about in this particular piece is a fragile and emotionally unstable young father unhinged by the fact that the mother of his child has shifted the focus in their relationship towards the baby. He loses it and in a nihilistic rage, wastes everybody. Not pretty, not easy to hum or sing along to. Rather, it's a story, people! Albeit one that tragically plays out to some degree or other in more domestic situations than we may care to acknowledge.

But the ugly and profane come in many permutations and if that's the criteria we would establish to stifle any such expression, we may find ourselves on a slippery slope towards censoring equally provocative art, literature, films and other works of merit that jar our sensibilities.

Besides, let's give the white boy his props.

While admittedly not for every taste and sensibility, the 27-year-old Detroit native is a wordsmith of some renown. A poet for his generation, others insist.

There's no denying that words are his axe, one that he wields with a slashing ferocity. To wit: "I'm sick of you little girl and boy groups/all you do is annoy me/so I have been sent here to destroy you/ and there's a million of us just like me/ who cuss like me/ who just don't give a f--k like me/who dress like me/walk, talk and act like me/ and just might be /the next best thing/but not quite me!"

Forget Britney

Perhaps now some parents understand why their kids took a pass on the Britney Spears tickets, choosing instead to attend Thursday night's show.

It's Elvis Presley vs. Pat Boone, only 40 years removed.

Or just maybe it's the no-BS posture of Eminem that's so compelling; a self-confessed "naughty rotten rhymer, cursin' at you players worse than Marty Shottenheimer." I mean, anyone who invokes the memory of the dour Cleveland Browns coach from the 1980s or disses puerile (Canadian) comedian Tom Green as he does on The Real Slim Shady can't be that bad.

It's just possible the young man engendering so much controversy is merely the latest in a long line of so-called shocking and vulgar performers to be misunderstood.

From the now-deified King of Rock 'n' Roll to Alice Cooper to Marilyn Manson, have we not seen this movie before? In fact, I have it on good authority Marilyn Manson is Alice Cooper. And Alice Cooper is really Vincent Fournier, an avid golfer who regularly plays in celebrity pro-ams.

The antichrist is a six handicap.

Lock up your daughters.