Sam Hiebendaal: Anger management - with rapper it's retaliation first

After listening to Eminem's new album for the first time I feared that the critics were right, that the raw anger which once fuelled his attacks was now no more than overdone petulance.

And it's true. His fury is gone. The instant shock and repulsion that he once inspired - that made him famous - have been replaced by predictable controversy.

When I listened the second time, something became clear: Eminem knows it, too. His lyrics on Encore seem to answer every criticism that has been levelled against him on the album's release. He knew what you were going to say before you did. He answered you before you even asked the question.

The balance of Eminem's power now rests in his indomitable wit and mastery of his art. And he knows it. In My 1st Single he claims: "I'm at the top of my game, that s*** is not gonna change."

I tend to believe him. His anger was the bait, but his wordplay is what keeps me hooked.

I love to hear the smooth sound of the scalpel with which he dissects pop culture and the American world view.

We are finally forced to appreciate the brilliance of his well-crafted rhymes which have, until now, been overshadowed by his rage.

And even though he states that Encore will not outsell The Eminem Show, I'm not so sure. Because Eminem is an incredibly cunning man.

So cunning, in fact, that his shrewdness seems to have rubbed off on some of the people selling his new album.

The CD and DVD Store has publicly denounced Encore as verbal porn, and is apparently so upset by the album that it will donate $6 to Women's Refuge and youth suicide prevention organisations for every album sold.

But it knows that we've become insulated against the shock Eminem once generated. So it has decided to up the voltage. Don't buy this evil album, it is saying - well aware that forbidden fruit tastes so much sweeter.

The donations are great; they are going to worthy causes. But morality is not a smorgasbord from which you take what tastes good and leave the veges in their dishes.

How strongly do you really believe in your cause if you are willing to profit from what you are campaigning against? And profit quite well, too. Encore sold out in two stores on the first day of its release.

To prove that it wasn't only clever marketing, the company needs to donate all profits from Encore to charity. Otherwise, it's just materialism under the guise of morality.

Who could blame it, though? It is just trying to make a go of capitalism, that great American Dream. Well, Eminem has been there and renounced that. He has done for some time. Unfortunately, most people interpret it as the whining of a poor rich boy.

He's all too aware of that fact, too. That's why he rejects the whining theory in the album's first song.

Contrary to parental advice, Eminem is not even close to being stupid. He's at the forefront of the human race, having a great time looking back at those of us behind him. For all that he protests about the American Dream, he still keeps the money he got out of it. The CD and DVD Store has learned from the master.

It's not Eminem's repeated use of internal rhyme, rhythm, alliteration or biting social commentary that has gained him a legion of teenage fans. Not directly, anyway.

Your angsty teenage years are when you first find out that Winnie the Pooh really isn't an accurate portrayal of the world or the events that happen in it. You realise that there are popular people, ugly people, stupid people and a whole host of other labels. Chances are, you'll identify with one of the insalubrious groups at some stage. When you do, you become the station from where Eminem's money train started its world tour.

It's the time you realise the world is not a great place to live; there's a really hot girl at school who doesn't know your name; you have few or no friends.

Then a little white guy called Slim Shady, Eminem's alter ego, comes into your world, screaming at the people he hates with vile and belligerent filth.

He knows how you're feeling because he is just like you. Except he's free from the restraints of the adult world.

He does what you want to do, he says what you want to say. Or maybe you just like Eminem for the jaw-dropping antics and crazy, childish gimmicks.

However Eminem got into your head, he won't be leaving any time soon. He got his foot in the door with the gimmicks, and that was all he needed. Slim Shady personifies angst and insecurity and pumps it straight into your brain.

The hate and anger you so desperately want to hear expressed is woven so tightly and cleverly in his rhymes, your ears don't have time to wave the words past as they insinuate themselves into your mind.

But it is his wit that has kept Eminem at the top. That's why I like him. He is the only artist whose lyrics send shivers down my spine.

Three-quarters of his listeners probably don't know what assonance or social commentary are. He does, though. He knows that there is a difference between form and content, and he has colossal quality in both.

Do the people who try to ban his brilliance remember some guy called Elvis Presley? How hard do you laugh when you think of the censors who banned that gyrating pelvis from television screens? Now they look so uptight, so stupid.

In 50 years' time, when we look back at Eminem and the controversy he provoked, how will the people who condemned him look?

* Sam Hiebendaal is a West Auckland student.

* Encore sits at the top of the New Zealand charts and in America it has sold 1.6 million copies in 10 days.