Eminem has probably been one of the most controversial artists of his time. He is the first white rapper to make it mainstream, (besides the one hit- wonder Vanilla - Ice) is a five time Grammy award winner, and has sold millions of records. Ironically enough, Eminem could be considered both the most hated and the most loved rapper of the last 5 years.

The controversy surrounding him stems from the lyrical content of his albums containing songs about killing his wife and his mother, insulting other pop stars, and homophobic rants to name a few.

"Chris Kirkpatrick, you can get your ass kicked

Worse than them little Limp Bizkit bastards,

And Moby, you can get stomped by Obie,

You 36 year old bald headed fag blow me

Let go, it's over, nobody listens to techno"

Eminem's justifications for using these hate lyrics boil down to the fact that he is expressing himself as an artist and that there is a parental advisory sticker on his CDs, as he realizes that young kids shouldn't be listening to them. Parents argue that these stickers,

which don't allow children under the age of thirteen to purchase the cds, are not enforced properly by retailers, if enforced at all. Why is that Eminem's or any other artist's responsibility? Technically speaking, the artist is not responsible for the enforcement of these stickers, but maybe they should be. I believe that artists do have a right to their freedom of speech, but if their music is something that is as controversial as Eminem's is, they should definitely use their platform as an icon to support the initial purpose behind the parental advisory stickers.

Spears' music is surface level "fun" pop, contains no profanity, and little if any references to sex, yet she still manages to incorporate it into every performance and every video. Considering that the majority of her fan base are mainly girls aged 8-15, where does that leave parents? When Spears was asked if she had thought about what kind of message she was sending to these young girls (concerning her provocative outfits and dancing) she replied:

Despite the obviously obscene lyrics that radiate off of Eminem's albums, he actually has written several songs that could be considered inspiring and meaningful. His most recent hit, called "Lose Yourself" has a noticeable decrease in cuss words and no refernces to murder and sex:

Another artist who has been severely criticized for her sexual and provocative nature is Britney Spears. Spears became successful in

Some common words found in the essay are:
Rolling Stone, Limp Bizkit, Alliance Defamation, Magazine Eminem, Lose Yourself, Spears Spears, Ironically Eminem, , Vanilla Ice, Chris Kirkpatrick, parental advisory, controversial artists, artist's responsibility, cuss words, freedom speech, rolling stone,
Approximate Word count = 970
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)