Role Model
I was talking about Eminem to the cool peeps on Twitter (Dioracat, She Hate Me, Niccolus, and Sir Dom Corleone) yesterday. I been hearing some of his new material lately and wanted to revisit his past works. We talked about our favorite Em songs and what not. One I did not mention was “Role Model”.
Not his most lyrical song but still heat nonetheless. This song has a special place in my heart because I when I was in the 4th grade, I wanted to use this song for the talent show at school. I was going to North Bend Elementary and we were having an annual talent show. I decided to enter with a friend of mine. Now, by this time I was writing my own raps but my friend didn’t write. So instead of writing for him, he let me pick a song for us to rap.
I went with “Role Model” because it was so refreshing to what I was used to hearing. Plus, Eminem was becoming mega popular at the time. I took a day and studied the lyrics, scratched out the curse words and everything. I was planning on handing the lyrics off to my friend but thats when the inevitable hit. My father found out what I was performing.
Yeah, it was a wrap. I remember how it happened. He looks at me and says, “Your in the talent show, huh?”. I was making sure my shoes were tied tight and looked and him, then said, “Yes”. “What you doing?”, he says. “Rapping”, I quickly replied. “Rapping what?”, is what he followed up with. “Role Model”, I told him. “You got the lyrics?”, he asked. I pretty much handed him the lyrics after that.
He just was reading the lyrics and I pretty much saw it on his face that he was gonna have something to say. He then says, “Find something else, your not performing this fucking song”. I was crushed at first until I thought I could get over on him. My plan was to perform the song anyway BUT he decided to come to the damn show! So when my friend asked for the lyrics (did I mention he threw them away?) I didn’t have them. To make a long story short we performed a Big Tymers song, “Everybody Get Your Roll On”.
Not sure if my dad knows this or not but that actually made me like the song just that much more. I began to write crazy random lyrics myself until Dad saw that and slapped me. Might sound like my pops was mean but I look back and understand that he was trying to protect me. I mean shit, I was only 10. Would you be comfortable with your 10 year old knowing lyrics that include “I get a clean shave, bath and go to rave/ Die from an overdose and dig myself out of my grave/”, probably not. What if your 10 year old started writing shit like that? My point exactly. Come to think about it, my dad actually influenced my writing more than I’ll admit lol. Thank you, Daddy (no pauses or no homos here. You only get one father on Earth and I’m lucky he stuck around lol)
Awww benditoo!!! Im So sorry i been M.I.A. from your blog, its finals week, and schools almost over so im basically doing a bunch of stuff.
Your dad is all slapping you around and stuff, lol, no but i think lyrics like that are what made me love Em more. The chaoticness of it all, i remember the first thing i THINK i heard eminem say; it was “Hi Kids, You Like Violence? Wanna see me stick nine inch nails up my eyelids?” and i was like WTF …i lovveee this shit LOL
That’s your dad for you. Still haven’t told your parents face to face that I have a seed on the way yet.
Don’t worry, I told em LOL