October 27, 2000
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Concert Review: Eminem

SkyDome, Toronto - Oct. 26, 2000
Rapper in high spirits for show at Dome
By JANE STEVENSON -- Toronto Sun


TORONTO -- Valerie Smith got her own personal song dedication at Eminem's concert last night at SkyDome. And I doubt she liked it very much. The anti-violence advocate, who wrote the Toronto police hate-crimes unit with concerns about the rapper's "anti-women" lyrics, was mentioned by name -- actually as "that bitch" -- by the Detroit artist last night before he dedicated The Way I Am to her toward the end of his hour-long set. "How many people here tonight are sick of the motherf---ers talking s--t about me?" said Eminem. His concert had been protested, all the way up to the office of the Ontario Attorney General, who tried to get immigration officials to shut the Canadian border to the controversial musician. Needless to say, Eminem's "horror" show went ahead with Limp Bikzit, Papa Roach and Xhibit also on the bill. "I'm so motherf---ing sick of every mother-journalist talking shit about my music and they aren't even the motherf---ers buying my music. Y'all are!" the rapper told the audience of just over 20,000 fans. "So listen they told me if I performed Kill You tonight they were going to lock me up! Guess what! I already performed it." In the song Kill You, Eminem sings: "Slut, you think I won't choke no whore, till the vocal cords don't work in her throat no more?" Later, he raps: "I invented violence, you vile, venomous, volatile bitches." True to his rebellious form, Eminem launched into the song, from his latest multi-platinum, The Marshall Mathers LP, which has sold 700,000 copies in Canada and 12 million worldwide since its May release, shortly after rising out of his stage dressed in overalls. Chainsaw Fittingly, he was wearing a goalie mask and wielding a chainsaw -- a la Friday The 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The rapper's set, performed on a stage decorated by a spooky-looking house, trees and the backdrop of a sky, was preceded by a Blair Witch-like black-and-white video showing a group of guys, possibly former rapper Mark Wahlberg, breaking into what was supposed to be Eminem's house in the middle of the night. The "killer" theme would continue later when the rapper -- backed up by as many as five other MCs and a deejay on stage -- appeared in orange prison overalls, getting fried in an electric chair. Certainly the political brouhaha did little to dampen his spirits or antics, juvenile though they were at times. His stage entertainment included a South Park animated skit that was screened between two songs, stage props which included a giant male member, and the drinking of rum and "taking" of ecstasy on stage. "Thank you for making me feel right at home Toronto!" Eminem yelled after the fans joined in to help him sing the new song Stan. July show Interestingly, the Detroit rapper came and went last July. He was in Toronto and played to some 16,000 fans at the Molson Amphitheatre, without so much as a "boo." My question is: Where were these outraged people back then? What? Did Eminem suddenly become more controversial in the last four months? My guess is the rapper's admittedly charged yet satirical lyrics just didn't suit their political agendas back then.


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