EMINEM'S MOSH More fizzle than stealth bomb, Eminem's video Mosh failed to unseat George Bush. How could it? Eminem had already forged an image based on apolitical self-absorption. Mosh fittingly idealizes him as a cartoon character but in a comix (vaguely commie) U.S.A where he rouses school-kid rabble into a mob. He calls this form of dissent "mosh"—a puzzling invocation of anarchy (his first outright political declaration). But his "Mosh now or die" rap makes as little sense as P. Diddy's "Got Milk?"-style ads for that silly "Vote or Die" voters registration campaign. (Threat or folly?)
Vain pop stars who view youth crisis as a cartoon (or a fashion show) ought to be laughed at. But like most everything Eminem does, there's no mirth in Mosh. Its "humor" is forced; just a jumble of newspaper collages and video-game graphics distorting the political dismay that, in fact, most youth experience as either bewilderment or apathy. Although Mosh was directed by Ian Inaba of the Guerrilla News Network website, it shares the same impetus as MTV's disingenuous Choose or Lose campaign—merely a variation on consumerism, another directive aimed at a captive market. But if young people turned out to vote, either their numbers were insignificant, or they voted differently than their pop idols suggested.
Mosh depicts Eminem's black rap protégé Lloyd Banks being racially profiled by a white cartoon cop, followed by a tv broadcast of the Ku Klux Klan in their white hoods, then a rally of fans wearing black hoodies. This isn't a plebiscite; it's a mob. Recalling the parade of blond-haired Eminem clones that stormed MTV's Video Music Awards in 1999, Mosh encrypts the conformity that mass media demands. Before donning hoodies, Eminemers wear camo t-shirts blurring identity and difference—the picture of left media's tyranny. Although Em raps "Let us beg to differ" (attempting dialectic, it's the lamest rap lyric ever), the video presumes all young people think alike, leaving no room for choice in the election or in lifestyle.
Mosh's ugliest segment ships a white GI named Kelly off to Iraq leaving wife and baby stranded. Evoking that Michael Moore scene where recruiters prey on the working class at a shopping mall, Em is as insensitive to enlistees' social conditions as Moore. He argues "Maybe we can reach/Al Qaeda through my speech." It's insipid after his rant refuses common cause with the Bush administration. How far can left arrogance go before it is recognized as sedition? Crying "Put your faith in me," he cops the ultimate pop-star egotism, encouraged by the narcissistic, racist left media that praise him—not any black musician—as the greatest rapper. Compared to Public Enemy's powerhouse political rhetoric, Em's polemic is bush league. o
