Eminem:Did he sell out or not

[nellyismyname]

Recently I have surfing the web to get people's opinions about different thing I have found out a lot of people are saying Eminem has sold out. They say he has sold out to sell more records and get more recongtion.Well I have to call BS on this theory. Eminem is one of the popular music stars in the history of music he has 86 Million records and he is the best selling artist in rap history surpassing 2pac.So people say he went pop by working with Rihanna, Lil Wayne, Bruno Mars , Pink and other pop artists. Well newsflash to those people Eminem has been pop since he released his first single " My Name Is" back in 1999.People are acting as if Eminem was just some unknown struggling rapper and all of a sudden he did a song with Rihanna and oh gosh he's popular now. Eminem has been popular since his first commercial album hit the stores and he has won a Grammy award for almost every one of his albums. So what to you guys think, do you buy the theory that Eminem has sold out or not.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

I don't think Eminem is a "sell out", I just think that he tried some new things. In his previous albums, he usually raps alone, but in Recovery, a lot of the songs are collaborations with other singers, Pop singers to be precise which is where a brunt of the resentment from older fans came from, because here you have a guy who would once burn on these type of singers now working with them

In "Love the Way You Lie", he raps with Rihanna, "Won't Back Down", he got P!nk on it and "Almost Famous" has backing vocals from Katy Perry. But it was "Love the Way You Lie" which some fans see as the song where he sold-out, because it was too commercial and a lot of Eminem fans think their bad ass and shit.

Sell out is not in terms of selling tickets, it's a term for an artist that gave up his passion/interest in the music he originally had, all for money. Like a singer who originally raps hardcore, unique Hip-Hop, now raps about parties, sex, girls, and everything nowadays mainstream rappers rap about (eg. Sean Kingston, Pitbull etc) All this because of the money. Rapping mainstream means exposing one to more audience, which in-turn equals money.

Eminem clearly did not sell out based on that, all he did was try to broaden his style of music, two or three singles on an album where he has others such as "Spacebound" and "Cold Wind Blows" does not make Eminem a sell-out in my opinion. However it is a matter of opinion, and in the eyes of his hardcore fanbase, he is a sell-out.

 

[GI Cake]

People often mis-understand the term sell-out. A sell-out is an artist or a group that wasn't well known but change to a more generic and common look in order to become successful. Eminem has always been successful before Recovery. Hell, he could have strapped on a Guitar and joined a band like Nickelback he still wouldn't be a sell-out. Because he is already that famous. Eminem is not a sell-out. He is simply trying a new song and dance. (Pun intended) If you don't like his new music, don't listen to it. Plain and simple. But to call him a sell-out is simply non-sense.