{"id":170116,"date":"2025-08-13T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=170116"},"modified":"2025-08-13T09:32:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T13:32:25","slug":"yeah-and-im-buddies-with-alfred-eminem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=170116","title":{"rendered":"“Yeah, and I’m buddies with Alfred.” — Eminem on Alfred Hitchcock"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday.<\/big><\/p>\n

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\n“It got silent, then all these voices said
\n‘Come follow me into the gates of Hell.’
\nI heard ’em yell ‘Welcome to the Norman Bates Motel!’
\nI ring the bell for service and I was greeted by his mother,
\nCovered in dry blood, head still dented from the shovel.
\nI said I need a room so I could try to get some rest.
\nShe gave me the keys to the best suite and a bag of cess
\nAnd told me that’s just for starters, Satan’ll be in to see me later
\nTo see if I’m interested in being partners.”
\n— Eminem, “Demon Inside” (1998)<\/big><\/p>\n

That ^^ is from one of the first songs Eminem recorded with Dr. Dre. It didn’t end up making it onto Eminem’s first (official) album, The Slim Shady LP<\/i>, and it remains unfinished and unreleased but it is the perfect way to start this post for Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday, a post about Eminem’s lifelong obsession with Hitchcock (he calls him “Uncle Alfred”) and Norman Bates, in particular. <\/p>\n

If you listen even casually to Eminem you’ll hear references to Hitchcock everywhere. Even though “Demon Inside” didn’t make it onto the first album, “Role Model” did. <\/p>\n

“I’m ’bout as normal as Norman Bates with deformative traits.
\nA premature birth that was four minutes late.
\n‘Mother, are you there? I love you!
\nI never meant to hit you over the head with that shovel!'”
\n— Eminem, “Role Model”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An isolated weirdo with violent thoughts and Mama issues? A demonic Mama’s boy? Not a stretch to figure out the connections. Norman is the perfect metaphor for him. <\/p>\n

Or how about this. <\/p>\n

“Don’t come close, don’t run, yo (run),
\nyou can’t hide
\nWe’re in the shadows of the room you got sentenced to
\nSo leave the motel or no sperm cells, go into the doorway and get fucked.
\nAnyway, it’s Norman Bates.”
\n— Eminem and 50 Cent, “Norman Bates Motel” (2009)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In 2020, Eminem took the Hitchcock thing next level, using it as the organizing principle for not one, but two albums<\/a>, Music to Be Murdered By<\/i> (dropped in January 2020, just before Covid demolition-derbied into our lives) and Music to Be Murdered By, Side B<\/i> (dropped in December 2020). These two massive albums – one of which was recorded entirely during 2020 lockdown – were inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 spoken-word album Music to be Murdered By<\/i>, which Dr. Dre somehow discovered and passed on to Eminem, knowing MM’s whole Hitchcock thing. At this point, Eminem drops the albums himself – with no advance press and\/or warning. He barely does interviews. But suddenly: here they both were. He is a recluse and a workaholic: the pandemic didn’t halt his work ethic, an engrained habit, but I can’t help but feel he also knew how much everyone out there (his fans anyway) needed it. Needed something from him, if nothing else as a distraction. Entertainers can provide welcome distraction, it can be one of their most important roles, particularly in times of stress\/trouble. 2020 was so bad, and he gave us two albums that year. <\/p>\n

The cover art on the album was an imitation of the cover art of the original. <\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\nI can’t even express how happy this all made me. <\/p>\n

Because Eminem is like Howard Hughes at this point, rarely seen, he basically dropped the first album via Twitter, saying: “Uncle Alfred and I have cooked something up.” <\/p>\n

The album starts with a clip from Hitchcock’s original album, Uncle Alfred crooning in his “let’s all get deliciously scared” voice:<\/p>\n

“How do you do? Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Alfred Hitchcock and this is Music\u2005To\u2005Be Murdered By<\/i>. It\u2005is mood music in a jugular\u2005vein. So why don’t you relax? Lean back and enjoy yourself ….
\nUntil the coroner comes.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is then followed by a horrifying clip of a woman screaming, accompanied by what sounds like a shovel hauling up dirt. Ominous. The first song on the album, “Premonition”, is a bragadocious “I’m the best and fuck the haters” song ending in a perfect cadence: <\/p>\n

“Only way that you’re ahead of me’s alphabetically
\n‘Cause if you diss me I’m coming after you like the letter V.
\nKilling everything, play this tune, it’s your eulogy,
\nIt’s your funeral, prepare to die.
\nThis is music for you to be murdered by.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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