#rap olympics

[dailyeminem]

EM fact 11/22/23

Eminem entered the rap olympics in 1997, winning 2nd place to rapper Otherwize. This is where he was originally discovered, leading him to be recommended to Dr. Dre

[culturekingblog]

Bless MC Juice With The Freedom He Deserves. Read More… Help MC Juice Clear His Name: The Link. MC Juice reaches out to you, as he's currently facing terrible consequences for a crime he didn't commit. The legendary Chicago MC and freestyle phenom tells his compelling story in the video above, and for your help you can get your hands on not just one, but two new studio albums: Bar'd Up and It Is What It Is. Go here to send your support towards one of our greatest talents.

[2011mustang-blog]

Eminem at the '97 Rap Olympics

[largethingslargerthings]

An attempt to make philosophical sense out of B.O.B's "Airplanes"

On the surface B.O.B's "Airplanes" appears to be a sigh of relief about taking advantage of a possible missed opportunity and a deep longing for this kind of opportunity to occur.  The verses indicate the former, while the latter is indicated by the chorus.  Yet, it is the chorus which is repeated, which everyone now knows the words to, so it must be assumed this was intended to be the most important part; the chorus being as follows:

"Can we pretend that airplanes/ In the night sky/ Are like shooting stars/ I could really use a wish right now..."

This chorus is in response to fame-studded sighs of relief by Eminem and B.O.B.  If it hadn't been for their initiative, B.O.B would still be eating out of a Styrofoam tray and Eminem would have missed the Rap Olympics.  B.O.B talks of selling out "big ass arenas" and Eminem uses the subjunctive mood to indicate that he, in fact, does have "motivation" and did make it to "the Rap Olympics" (I hear they were in Munich). 

So, who is this person singing?  Not Hayley Williams.  She certainly has no reason to feel despondent over missed opportunities.  She's doing quite while on Contemporary Christian radio.

Let us look at the chorus itself, then.  We will return to the verses in a moment.

The chorus asks us to replace "stars" with "airplanes" in order to obtain a wish, a desire.  Wishing on a star is a remnant of younger times in humanity when a certain cosmology allowed that the stars were gods who could answer prayers or provide guidance (the constellations are a remnant of this belief).  The speaker is asking us to replace the "gods" or celestial beings (thousands upon thousands of years older than ourselves) with a man-made object (perhaps no older than a couple of years...unless it's a Boeing, then it's about forty years).

Yet, the speaker isn't asking us to completely warp our thinking, but to "pretend."  The speaker knows the planes will not actually obtain the same properties as the stars (cosmologically and ideologically) because the word "pretend" is used.  "Pretend" when used by an adult capable of abstract thought could indicate a hopelessness in the irony of making a wish one knows cannot be granted.

OR, perhaps there is a different scenario here.  Perhaps the speaker is making this request with a double irony: the acknowledgement of the irony of the speaker's request while refusing to acknowledge the irony and continuing as if there was none.  The speaker is deceiving itself; it is willfully choosing a manmade object over an entity of cosmological origin.  It is supplanting the natural world to the world of human beings.

Both ways indicate a playfulness that acts out of a subtle spitefulness toward the heavens and both ways indicate a basic layer of disbelief in the power of the cosmos to grant wishes.  YET, out of this hopelessness, the speaker is willfully disillusioning itself to believe an object it knows was made by beings like itself.  It is similar to the Babylo-Chaldean era when human beings made their gods out of the substances available to them and then worshipped the very gods they made.

Except this modern version has the adorable post-modern teddy bear named irony.

So, using this interpretation of the chorus, how can the verses be intepreted?

Two ways:

The first way is they are also ironic.  Marshall Mathers and B.O.B are speaking about the relief of having obtained their fame sarcastically because they are disenchanted with their fame in some way.

The second way is they are polemic.  Mathers and B.O.B are disputing the forlorn singer of the chorus with their own success stories.

[earwormwax]

Eminem Freestyle Battles @Rap Olympics 1997