The Voice Of America

Eminem is on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone, though he isn’t interviewed, only analyzed by Kelefa Sanneh. “For years now, Eminem has been predicting not just his own downfall but his own obsolescence, a byproduct of popularity,” Sanneh writes. “On ‘Without Me,’ he imitated an imagination-deprived record executive: ‘Hey! Here’s a concept that works/Twenty million other white rappers emerge.’ But the imitators never showed up. Eminem is bigger than Kurt Cobain ever was, so you would think he’d be just as influential, but he has yet to attract an army of sound-alikes, the way Cobain did. (The answer may have something to do with the fact that hip-hop is harder to master than grunge.) There is no movement, no trend; there’s just him, bigger and more isolated than ever.”