After two “serious” songs I’m glad for something that I don’t feel compelled to write a few paragraphs about. Not that this isn’t a good song in its own right, but it’s been played to death over the years and has become memetic in many ways. I’m guessing that’s how it ended up in my head this morning; I think I saw a “mom’s spaghetti” meme before bed last night it manifested itself in musically. Most of the Eminem I’ve heard since “Lose Yourself” was released has been in the form of karaoke. I rarely hear this song performed, however. The most common pick is “Stan,” which is sort of odd as most of my friends in Japan would have been about nine years old when that song came out.
All things considered, “Stan” is a decent track for one’s entry into rap music. My first hip-hop song came at the same age when I was in the fourth grade. My friend at school dubbed it onto cassette for me and I listened to it on my Walkman constantly. Then my mom caught wind of it and my tape met the same fate that my Legend of Zelda and Kid Icarus game cartridges met a few years earlier: a hammer. That song was “Do the Bartman”. The lyrics are totally innocuous and the song even featured Michael Jackson, but Bart Simpson “disrespects his parents.” Imagine if she’d heard “Stan.” She relented a bit in the following years as my next three hip-hop acquisitions were the 2 Legit 2 Quit CD (the full video is insane if you haven’t watched it in a while, or ever), the hilarious 12 Inches of Snow cassette, and, shockingly, the forgotten banger “Gold Diggin'” by MC Nas-D & DJ Freaky Fred on cassette single. What a time to be a white, suburban hip-hop fan.
“He’s nervous, but on the surface he looks calm spaghetti to drop bombs, but he keeps on spaghetti.”