Light From the Caves of Detroit

November 16 is the (tentative) release date of Eminem’s new album. The date I have been waiting for for 2 long years.

I enjoy getting all serious and analytical about things like Eminem’s career, so here goes:

— I love that it’s called “Encore”. I love the self-referential nature of his stuff. It’s self-important, egotistical, but it’s also very very goofy. Playground bravado, and the philosophy: “If I say it first, nobody else will beat me to the punch.” That also goes for how he makes fun of himself. Encore is a great title for his long-awaited new album, because in 2002 you literally could not get away from Eminem. He was everywhere: There was 8 Mile, the neverending success of The Eminem Show, the Oscar-winning “Lose Yourself” etc. So of course – what do we all need now? An encore. He’s aware of us waiting. Consider the lyrics of “Sing for the Moment”. He sings right to his fans in it, his hugely broad base. He knows what he means to us, and especially to “the kids”. “Sing for the Moment” is directly to all those kids. There’s something very performance-art-ish about Eminem’s career.

— I also think his disappearing act over the last year and a half (except for a couple of producing jobs, and his work with D12) was very smart. With the current crop of over-exposed celebs who seem to have forgotten the value of keeping a low profile, the vanishing of Eminem could be seen as an interesting and cunning career move. Eminem, since he first hit the scene, has been providing a nonstop onslaught of himself on us. Everywhere you looked, there he was. With every album he topped himself. There were no heights he could not reach. This appeal just kept getting broader and broader, and nobody seemed to get sick of him. I’m sure the folks who can’t stand Eminem were like: “Enough. Enough with that scrawny white boy, please.” But I’m talking about it on another level: a zeitgeist level. Eminem knew when he reached the saturation point with his audience. Sensing when you have hit the saturation point with such a massive worldwide audience must be extremely difficult, since so few people are able to do it. (Madonna, who was masterful at creating a career, and manipulating her persona endlessly, finally failed when she came out with her Sex Book. It was such a disaster for her, that I, a huge Madonna fan, could feel her audience re-coil from her. I don’t think she ever really recovered. Not fully. The audience would only go so far with her, and she didn’t know when to stop, ultimately. That fearlessness/recklessness was part of her success, so it is not surprising that she would keep trying to push back, even risking giant failure. That’s part of being a risk-taker.) Eminem was at the peak: Grammys, hit movie, Oscar-winning song, an album that just would not stop selling … And then – boom. Where did he go? Home to Detroit to raise his daughter, and disappear for a year and a half.

I think the man’s a genius, obviously, but I also think he’s a genius about that career-management stuff.

I listened to The Eminem Show so much in 2002 and 2003 that I had to buy a new copy, I wore out the first one.

But now, I’m ready for more.

And so … here he comes. And not a moment too soon.