His name is... Slim Shady!

On Friday 2nd December, Marshall Mathers III, more commonly known as Eminem and Slim Shady, will be touring Australia for the first time in over 10 years. That length of time is close to the same amount of years I have individually been a fanatic of this strange and genius hip-hop artist. In this post, I will attempt to explain the genius that is Slim with a few concepts studied in psychology. To start with, I would like readers to watch this documentary video based on parts of his life over the past 12 years.

Eminem has been a polarized figure for most of his life. Even before coming to fame, the difficulties of living in the Detroit neighborhood without a father and a drug addictive mother has had a major effect on his personality and life to date. In a review titled Metaphorical Conceptions in Hip-Hop Music, Crossley (2005)  describes the Hip Hop culture as "predominantly African-American" and rap music "is the principle medium for the expression of the worldviews of African American youth." Despite Eminem being a European American, his successful use of the hip hop culture to elevate his status has been an enigma. However, in the same review, we can find clues to uncover this riddle.

Crossley (2005) writes that rappers use metaphors to construct views about their lives. The constructivism concept states that "the objective world is not directly accessible but rather constructed on the basis of the constraining influences of human knowledge and languages where metaphors aids in creating reality." Within this concept, Eminem's success is largely based on his ability to incorporate wordplay and bending of words to build metaphors that depict the harsh realities of his life. As shown in the 60 minutes documentary, his genius can be found in the way he refuses to accept the constraints in use of words such as 'orange'. The quick-fire example he provides is just one of many underlying reasons that separates him from other hip hop artists. His ability to remain within a largely African American scene is grounded in his talent for using constructivism in a number of creative ways and doing so better than other artists.

In another view, Slim has been polarized and successful at the same time because he is consistent with much of the perspectives expressed by hip hop artists. Crossley (2005) states that "a part of hip hop's immoral philosophy finds its origin in the fact that the civil rights movement did not fulfill its promise on Black America." He goes on to say that the rap community realizes the inconsistency of "the Black urban neighborhoods as mythically emblematic of the distance American society has not covered in its effort to end segregation" Based on this, the metaphors portrayed in rap music can be seen to exemplify how African Americans have become disenfranchised with US power structures. Here, Eminem has turned the conceptual view of hip hop music on its head because he represents the non-African American group that struggles with civil institutions and systems. In the songs The Way I Am and White America, Eminem expresses this representation with simplistic and exquisite accuracy. This has allowed him to become the voice of those 'white' Americans who represent the difficult and problematic white neighborhoods.

To further discuss why I believe Eminem has been so successful, I now draw your attention to a study that looked closely at creativity in relation to intrinsic motivation and personality traits - openness to experience, self-efficacy, and perseverance (Prabhu, Sutton, & Sauser, 2008). In this study and many others before it, the authors found that intrinsic motivation has a positive relationship in mediating creativity (Hennessey & Amabile, 2010). Furthermore, they also found that openness to experience and self-efficacy (self confidence) were closely related to creativity and helped enhance its expression when coupled with intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation can be defined as an individual's intrinsic task interest which the authors propose leads to voluntary investigation of new alternatives and ideas (Prabhu, Sutton, & Sauser, 2008). For Eminem, this notion goes a long way to explaining his ability to be creative. As he explains it, he was motivated internally to succeed and become 'respected' in the hip hop scene. This motivation coupled with his belief in himself that "no matter how bad (he) was at school, no matter how low (his) grades were sometimes, (he) was always good at English." The self-efficacy and confidence he displays as well as his intrinsic desire to be good at his craft are strong reasons for his success.

In my opinion, Eminem is one of the greatest rappers of all-time (a true GOAT as they say). There can be many different explanations drawn to explain it, I have endeavored to list just a subset of what I believe makes him so great. In saying that, you don't need to read this to see how talented he is, all you would need to do is listen to this...

References:

Crossley, S. (2005). Metaphorical Conceptions in Hip Hop. African American Review, 39(4), 501-512.

Hennessey, B.A. and Amabile, T.M. (2010). Creativity. Annual Review Psychology, 61, 569-598.

Prabhu, V., Sutton, C., and Sauser, W. (2008). Creativity and Certain Personality Traits: Understanding the Mediating Effect of Intrinsic Motivation. Creativity Research Journal, 20 (1), 53-66.