These days, if you say you’re English the critically-acclaimed, genre-defining rapper Marshall Mathers, they’ll arrest you and throw you in jail
Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has leapt to the defence of Eminem after TikTok users attempted to cancel the legendary rapper.
A couple of weeks ago, the hashtag #CancelEminem was trending on TikTok after a small section of users discovered violent lyrics in his 2010 duet with Rihanna, Love The Way You Lie, specifically the line about tying his lover to a bed and setting the house on fire.
Eminem’s entire discography contains similar imagery, but is it worthy of ‘cancellation’? Not if you ask Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor.
Taylor told 95.5 KLOS’s New & Approved series that he is planning on writing a fifth book, a follow-up to 2017’s America 51: A Probe Into The Realities That Are Hiding Inside The Greatest Country In The World.
Taylor said he is “starting to get that itch” to write again and has “a concept in mind”.
He went on to explain how his new book will touch on issues such as cancel culture and faux-outrage displayed on social media.
“It has to do with social media and the age that we live in – the ‘outrage age’,” Taylor said.
“And it’s starting to really kind of form in my head, I may actually write it soon. Because it’s really kind of out-of-control out there right now.”
The interview then made its way onto the topic of Eminem, and the way TikTok users tried to cancel the rapper for his supposedly problematic lyrics.
Slipknot frontman Taylor wasn’t having any of it.
“I was reading about how Gen Z is trying to ‘cancel’ Eminem because of one line that was in a Rihanna song that he did with her.
“And I’m just like, is that where we are right now? I mean, at this point, you’re talking about the Salem witch trials. You’re talking about America in the ’20s where the KKK was a political force. You’re talking about complete condemnation without context or any rationalisation for an action like that.”
Taylor believes Eminem is the victim of mob rule, and says social media has killed any notion of irony and nuance.
“To me, that’s most dangerous – when the mob decides that you’re gone. That is Caesar at the Colosseum, for God’s sakes. That’s when it’s dangerous.
“However, the flip-side of that is that you can’t even make a joke any more – even in the cleanest of situations.
“People completely turn on you – and there’s not one hint of satire, there’s no hint of irony – it’s just all-out rage. It’s all through this [holds phone up to the screen]. That’s when it’s really greedy, that’s when it’s really dirty.”
