Eminem deserves recognition

Don't do drugs/don't have unprotected sex/don't be violent/Leave that to me." Some think that Eminem is a funny guy when he says stuff like that. Eminem sure does, and why shouldn't he? His latest album, The Marshall Mathers LP, has given him a nod from the Grammys for album of the year. Still, there's a lot of controversy that comes with his name.\nI suppose that's not unexpected. I mean, people panned Lenny Bruce. He was even taken to court over the obscene nature of his comedy. Yet Lenny Bruce is now considered a cultural icon. There's even a reference to him in one of the "Austin Powers" flicks ("There's nothing sadder than an aging hipster."). Bruce is considered a cultural icon for not being afraid to be crass in comedy. And now we criticize, even hate Eminem for doing exactly the same thing.\nI mean, that's all his brand of hip-hop really is. It's parody in the purest sense. With lyrics like Hi, kids. Do you like violence? Would you like to see me stick Nine Inch Nails through each one of my eyelids? Wanna copy me and do exactly like I did? Try 'cid and get fucked up worse than my life is? \nWhere is there any room for misinterpretation?\nAnd on top of that, you're faced with the fact that Eminem is actually a talent in his field. He placed second in the 1997 Rap Olympics in Los Angeles. The guy knows how to rhyme. You can't take that from him, and just because he happens to use a lot of so-called "obscene language" doesn't mean that his work is worthless. He admits that he does things he thinks will shock people, but he doesn't do them to be shocking; he does them to be funny.\nParody ranges everywhere from Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" to "Scary Movie" to "South Park." And if people can't understand that parody is all that Eminem is really doing, I don't know how they figured out how to operate a radio. Love him or hate him (there doesn't seem to be much of an in-between), you have to respect that he has what some would call "skills." Because really, what it all comes down to is it's just music, and no one is expected to like all the music in the world. But you can't knock it because you don't like it; you can't disregard the fact that it has meaning.\nVoltaire put it best when he said, "I don't agree with what you said, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." If Eminem wins album of the year, it's because he is recognized as a talented young rapper, not because hell froze over or because our world is at some moral low. There isn't anything opponents can do but not buy his album. And a Grammy doesn't mean anything anyway. It's just an award.