A murderous ode to his on-again-off-again relationship, “97 Bonnie and Clyde” brings father and daughter together to dispose of Scott’s dead body in the ocean. For extra authenticity, Eminem brought Hailie to the studio to record a vocal part for the track. “I lied to Kim and told her I was taking Hailie to Chuck E. Cheese that day,” he remembered in Rolling Stone. “But I took her to the studio. When she found out I used our daughter to write a song about killing her, she f—ing blew. We had just got back together for a couple of weeks. Then I played her the song, and she bugged the f— out.”
LYRICS:
C’mon Hai-Hai, we going to the beach
Grab a couple of toys and let Dada strap you in the car seat
Oh, where’s Mama? She’s taking a little nap in the trunk
Oh, that smell? Dada must’ve runned over a skunk
Now, I know what you’re thinking It’s kind of late to go swimmin’
But you know your Mama, she’s one of those type of women
That do crazy things And if she don’t get her way, she’ll throw a fit
Don’t play with Dada’s toy knife, honey, let go of it!
Yes, the lyrics are about wanting to kill his wife, and about his feelings at the time.
But neither of those things is wrong. You're allowed to want to do those things, the important part is what you actually do. Such as writing a song about it instead. The entire point of art, or at least one of them, is to take these strong, raw emotions and do something with them besides the strong, raw thing you truly want to. These violent lyrics don't mean he believes murder is right or others should murder. If he thought that, he'd probably have murdered his wife, instead of writing a fantasy, a fiction, about it.
Now, we can make an argument that using Hailey in the song is a bit off, sure. That is not, and has never been, your argument however.
If it's not wrong, what's your point? Why's it got you all in a twist if it's not wrong? People don't put in such a show condemning a thing if they don't think it's wrong, so either grow a spine and stand by what you're clearly projecting into the world, or stop moaning.
This shit is art, not a literal retelling of a thing that happened. Even if it does mirror the thoughts and feelings at the time, it's absolutely still embellished, and even if it wasn't, no one was hurt (except arguably Hailey, again different argument) so I really don't see the problem.
My point was it is not more nuanced then that, that's all. Stand by your bullshit argument and point to where I condemned it or shut the fuck up big man.
No one says it is always literal, in this case the very post your commenting on has the artist admitting that is the way he actually felt at the time so in this case it's quite literal.
You don't know what you're even arguing about but I do enjoy the unearned confidence.
in this case the very post your commenting on has the artist admitting that is the way he actually felt at the time so in this case it's quite literal.
What does it matter if it's literal? That's the entire point I'm making. People say and feel things that they shouldn't act on all the time.
So, what's the point in saying he actually felt those things at the time? If I'm missing it so broadly, fill me in. Why does it matter that he said those things?