UN2001

Protest Song – “Mosh”

Junyou Huang

2010/7/24

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America…” This is what

the current Pledge of Allegiance to the United States Flag presents and reads

like. Also it’s the first few lines of the protest song, “Mosh”, I have chosen to

talk about. “Mosh” was produced in 2004 first as a digital downloaded single,

before the 2004 Presidential Election; and its music video was released on

October 26, 2004, debuted just one week prior to the election. Basically, the

song and the video would like to emphasize the atrocities of Bush government

and encourage voters to vote George W. Bush out of office.

The song was written by Marshall Mathers (Eminem), Mark Batson and few

other songwriters, and was produced by Dr. Dre and Mark Batson; they are

both famous record producer and arranger.

Mark Batson was responsible for many hip-hop singers’ tracks such as Jay-Z,

50 Cent, Snoop Dogg from 2002 up to the present. Dr. Dre established his

credibility, or ethos throughout several decades, as a rapper, record producer

and actor. He found fame with the influential rap group N.W.A, which first

popularized the use of lyrics to detail the violence in the street (Kenyatta
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2000). His debut, The Chronic, under Death Row Records, made him to win a

Grammy Award and become the best-selling American artist of 1993 (Ro

2007). He left the record company and found his own label, Aftermath

Entertainment, in 1996, and still he is the current CEO of it.

Eminem himself, as a rapper, actor and singer, established credibility and

gained popularity quickly with his first album, The Slim Shady LP, and won a

Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. His second album The Marshall Mathars

LP and third album The Eminem Show both won Grammy Awards. He was

the first artist to win three consecutive Best Rap Album awards with three

albums. He has won a total of eleven Grammy Awards in his active years so

far, including another one for his album Relapse in 2010 (Ankeny and

Torreano 2006). His ethos was created within his best friends and many other

associated artists, as his work with D12, a Detroit hip-hop group. Eminem has

a large worldwide popularity during the decade (Billboard). He is the best-

selling artist not only in America (Montgomery 2009), and he just had been

named too much on the Billboard or other famous music magazines and

websites (Billboard).

In the song, Eminem also establishes ethos in several parts.

“Come along follow me as I lead through the darkness. As I provide just

enough spark that we need to proceed. Carry on, give me hope, give me

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 strength. Come with me and I won't steer you wrong.” (Mosh)

He said three or four times in the song that he would like and really want to be

the leader to rebel against Bush.

“Let me be the voice in your strength and your choice. Let me simplify the

rhyme just to amplify the noise.” (Mosh)

This sentence, however, establishes more credibility on the fact that he knows

what himself can do and actually understood what his means is to persuade

people to fight.

The song was aimed to all Americans whoever have the right to vote, as the

large words “Vote Tuesday, November 2” fading at the end of the music video.

The hip-hop fans had seen a lot Eminem’s bashing on gay and guns. They

would be interested about what they saw in the new video this time. Our top-

selling singer and the angry crowd behind him file into the voting room. A

whole lot of pathos was established in the video like this.

We can see a soldier who is in uniform just coming home with a little smile,

but only see his wife and kids outside the door, handing out a sheet of paper,

which says “Private Kelly, You have been re-assigned to Iraq.” After the

soldier’s eyes turn to extreme anger and he mouths “Fuck Bush”, he changes

his dress and joins the march outside. A little bit later, we see the wife opening

a letter says “This is your notice of eviction” while Bush having a speech

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about “Tax cuts” on TV.

I would like to emphasize these pictures because I was shocked and felt sad

when I saw it even that I have seen the video again and again. Actually I

cannot keep calm during the entire song, especially when Eminem shouts

extremely loud and angry in the end:

“And as we proceed, to Mosh through this desert storm,

In these closing statements, if they should argue

Let us beg to differ, as we set aside our differences

And assemble our own army, to disarm this Weapon of Mass Destruction

That we call our President, for the present

And Mosh for the future of our next generation

To speak and be heard, Mr. President, Mr. Senator” (Mosh)

That is the loudest shouting I have ever heard for Eminem to perform in a

song, the strong theme and the voice establishes great emotions, and affect

the audiences’ feelings, which is what the whole song try to appeal.

In Eminem’s first few albums before, although he did also point at the

ridiculousness of American government and politics, his words would finally

stop like “I don’t care” or “I don’t give a fuck”. Never before has he supported

political stuff in public like this time. Eminem became really brave enough to

directly spit out and curses at President George Bush in a pop song. He used

“this Monster”, “this Coward” to describe Bush, and said he is destroying the
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national flag:

“Look in his eyes its all lies. The stars and stripes, they've been swiped,

washed out and wiped, and replaced with his own face,” (Mosh)

Eminem also used logos to prove that Bush is not good and cannot be the

President.

“No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil.

No more psychological warfare, to trick us to thinking that we ain't loyal.

If we don't serve our own country, we're patronizing a hero.” (Mosh)

The sentences clearly tells that people thinks the Iraq War was not only for

what Bush said terrorism, and was more aimed towards oil, benefits from

Middle East.

War means mostly danger and death to army, those American soldiers dead

or wounded in another country are loyal. They are loyal to the motherland,

actually to George Bush at this point, and in order to do that, they have to

leave their children, their families. In this case, they become not loyal to the

family. Can you do that, Bush? Eminem shouts:

“Maybe we can reach alqueda through my speech.

Let the president answer a higher anarchy.

Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go, fight his own war.

Let him impress daddy that way.” (Mosh)

Not everyone, actually only very few people, can feel the struggle or

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psychological war occurred in soldiers’ mind. We aren’t able to know how

painful it is. Eminem also wants to seek justice for them.

“Stomp, push, shove, mush, Fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home.”

(Mosh)

Overall, “Mosh” could be one of very few pop songs that overtly talking

politics, and the most directly anti-Bush one. Why don’t we ignore those bad

languages occurred in the hip-hop music, stay with only strong rhythm and

meaning of lyrics, enjoy a beautiful song, even it is protest and disputation.

From this song, we can find that Eminem use his ethos, put a lot of emotions

in both the lyrics and the video, want to vote Bush out. Although the video was

produced relatively late, just one week before the election, it could give impact

on the vote in some certain level because of the superstar.

Work Cited

Kenyatta, Kelly (2000). You Forgot About Dre! : The Unauthorized Biography

of Dr. Dre and Eminem. United States: Amber Books Publishing.

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Ro, Ronin (2007). Dr. Dre: The Biography. United States: Thunder’s Mouth

Press.

Ankeny, Jason, and Torreano, Bradley (2006). Eminem – Biography. Allmusic.

Artists of the decade, Billboard.com.

Montgomery, James (2009). Eminem is the best-selling artist of the decade.

MTV News. Mtv.com.

Billboard 200 albums, Billboard.com.