Dick Gephardt Likes Eminem And Nelly

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I'm posting the whole thing because you have to get a free registration, and because I know you are all riveted :D

From NYT.com

QUESTIONS FOR RICHARD A. GEPHARDT
House Proud
Interview by MATT BAI

Published: December 5, 2004

What's different about Washington, as you leave it, than when you arrived?

When I came here, we'd fight hard on the floor, in the old Tip O'Neill phrase, but then we'd go have a beer together and get along as human beings. And that just does not happen as much as it did. When it's my way or the highway every day, which is the way I think the Republicans run the place, I don't think it works very well.

Who was the most talented politician you ever saw?

Bill Clinton. Hands down. You can't just be up there giving numbers and facts. You've got to connect emotionally.

I was at the flea market the other day, and they were selling the edition of The New York Post with the famous headline that said you were the vice-presidential nominee.

I thought I could get enough of them that I could support myself in retirement. I could autograph them and sell them for a little more on eBay, and get $5 rather than $3.

That's as good a retirement plan as I've heard from Congress in a while. What else have you been buying?

I did get an iPod. Oh, I love it. It's the best thing that ever happened to me.

What are you listening to -- political speeches?

The collected speeches of Newt Gingrich. That would be NO. I like Josh Groban. I like Tony Bennett. I like Nelly. He's from St. Louis. He's a very good rapper. I like Eminem. I have his album.

Some of the lyrics are a little hard to take.

Oh, I don't listen to the lyrics. I just like the music. I like the beat.

Is the vice-presidential nomination something you really wanted?

What I told John Kerry was: ''If you really want me to do this, if you think I can help you, I will do it. But I'm 63 years old. I'm never going to be president, and so, you know, I'd just as soon do something else.''

What will you do next?

One thing I'll probably do is set up an institute for public service at Washington University in St. Louis to interest young people in what I got messed up in -- politics, public life, public service.

Do you buy the idea that the Democrats are on the verge of not being a national party?

I don't believe that. I do think we have to do two things to be successful. One, we've got to speak to values and people's faith. Secondly, I think we need to do grass-roots politics better than we've ever done.

I have this enduring image of you standing up there in a union jacket. Where do you keep all those jackets? Do you have an enormous warehouse somewhere?

I have the world's largest union jacket collection. I think I probably had more memberships in more unions, honorary memberships, than any living human being.

Is the situation for workers today better or worse than when you came to Washington?

It's probably a little worse, because when I came here, services were not in the world economy, just the manufacturing and industrial-type jobs. Now everything's part of the global economy.

If you could snap your fingers and amend the Constitution, what would you change?

The Electoral College. Get rid of it. You basically had an election in seven or eight states, not the whole country. And I don't think that's healthy. You did not have the level of activity in, say, California, Georgia, New York or Alabama that you had in Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania. I mean, what's that about? It's their president too.
 
I think Eminem has surprising clarity for a rapper. Try listening to something like Bone Thugs N Harmony... no idea what they're saying. At all. Wyclef also has really nice clarity... I know, this is about Gephardt, not rap. Bye bye.
 
Em's a talented guy, no doubt about it, but I'm not sure I care for his slams.
 
Probably he just said that to be cool.

But I do like Eminem. Anybody read the Rolling Stone interview? I read it on an airplane and I agreed with basically everything he said. I think there is Eminem the character, and then there's Marshall Mathers the man.
 
It is a little surprising that he likes Eminem and Nelly, I don't know that he likes what they rap about. He said he's about the beat. I do think/hope that some of these rappers are slightly different people in real life than in their lyrics, especially Eminem.
 
Macfistowannabe said:
It is a little surprising that he likes Eminem and Nelly, I don't know that he likes what they rap about. He said he's about the beat. I do think/hope that some of these rappers are slightly different people in real life than in their lyrics, especially Eminem.

I read Eminem's interview in Rolling Stone about the new album. He seems to be an extremely different (re: complete opposite) of his persona(e). Very much dedicated to raising his daughter, and he's also taken on raising his nephew (or was it niece?) that was being neglected as well as his little brother to keep him out of trouble. Doesn't seem like a half-bad guy, just a lot of vitriol in his system that he lets out through records rather than real life. I'm not defending him as a rapper (although I enjoy his music), because I can see where many people would be bothered.

But... if you think his new album is all crap like "Just Lose It," that's also untrue. "Toy Soldiers" is an especially intriguiging song, basically jsut talking about how most of the time the beef between rappers winds up getting the little man, the people who work for them on a basic level, killed. The big names are too well-protected to be reached often, and that's why the record labels encourage them to maintain that level of controversy and agitation between each other. It sells records, but often at the cost of the lives of the unknown. Em acknowledging this is pretty impressive in my eyes.
 
UnforgettableLemon said:


I read Eminem's interview in Rolling Stone about the new album. He seems to be an extremely different (re: complete opposite) of his persona(e). Very much dedicated to raising his daughter, and he's also taken on raising his nephew (or was it niece?) that was being neglected as well as his little brother to keep him out of trouble. Doesn't seem like a half-bad guy, just a lot of vitriol in his system that he lets out through records rather than real life.

Yeah, that's what I got out of it. I thought it was a great interview. Given where he's come from, what he's been through, the guy has some pretty progressive views. People assume that an artist is the character in their songs when in fact they may be just that, a character, representing what's out there, or a dark side of themselves that they release through music.
 
UnforgettableLemon said:


I read Eminem's interview in Rolling Stone about the new album. He seems to be an extremely different (re: complete opposite) of his persona(e). Very much dedicated to raising his daughter, and he's also taken on raising his nephew (or was it niece?) that was being neglected as well as his little brother to keep him out of trouble. Doesn't seem like a half-bad guy, just a lot of vitriol in his system that he lets out through records rather than real life. I'm not defending him as a rapper (although I enjoy his music), because I can see where many people would be bothered.

But... if you think his new album is all crap like "Just Lose It," that's also untrue. "Toy Soldiers" is an especially intriguiging song, basically jsut talking about how most of the time the beef between rappers winds up getting the little man, the people who work for them on a basic level, killed. The big names are too well-protected to be reached often, and that's why the record labels encourage them to maintain that level of controversy and agitation between each other. It sells records, but often at the cost of the lives of the unknown. Em acknowledging this is pretty impressive in my eyes.
I've heard Em's first three albums, he's a great rhymer. He has enough talent to entertain someone who doesn't even like rap. I'm sure he's a decent/good father in real life, but his rhymes are intentionally supposed to get on people's nerves. I hate to see such a waste of talent. "Hailie's Song" was a beautiful song, and he's capable of making his music at least that positive. I don't think I'll buy his music until he changes his tone.
 
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