“Rap God” just debuted in its music video form, with Eminem portraying 80’s icon Max Headroom, the British TV character turned New Coke pitchman.
And Slim Shady’s latest LP is not hurting for singles: at one point the bleached-blond Detroit resident had four songs in the Top 20, a feat not replicated since The Beatles in 1964. One of those tracks was “Rap God,” a long tune with a lackluster hook that demonstrates the emcee’s variety of flows. Kelly’s ‘Do What U Want’ Extras to Debut First Vice-BitTorrent BundleĪs for Eminem, his “MMLP2” album moved enough units in its first two weeks to earn platinum status. 1, where he was two weeks ago, and drops Gaga all the way to No. Comparatively, Lady Gaga moved just 46,000 units in its second week. But the real problem with “ARTPOP,” according to some critics, is a lack of marketable singles.Įminem sold 120,000 copies of his “Marshall Mathers LP II” this week, which marked its third on the charts, according to Billboard. It also featured Eminem’s rapid-fire delivery, eventually entering the Guinness World Records. That earlier success was partially bolstered by an Amazon promotion. Directed by Rich Lee, the video for ‘Rap God’ was equal parts Max Headroom and retro video game. While not the worst second week drop ever ( Madonna‘s “MDNA” fell historically by 87 percent in 2012), it’s not good - even a “Saturday Night Live” hosting stint and buzzed-about performance at the American Music Awards could not generate strong sales for the app-accompanied album.ĭuring its debut week, Gaga’s prior album, “Born This Way,” sold more than three-and-a-half times “ARTPOP’s” first two weeks combined.
“ARTFLOP”) took an 82 percent dive, after selling just 258,000 units during its debut. This begs the question.in assuming the role of Max Headroom, was the artist just making an obscure reference to his "return to roots" style reflected in his most recent album which samples and pays tribute to 80's Music culture and Old School Hip-Hop or given the context of the song in both its title and lyrics, was a greater metaphor at work in terms of him being a symbol of future things to come, hijacking the signal and taking over the airwaves to get his message across.Following a steep Week 2 sales decline for Lady Gaga, Eminem is once again the No. It was the 26th anniversary of the pirate broadcast. This is evidenced by the fact that the official teaser for the Rap God video featuring Eminem dressed as the Max Headroom character was released on November 22, 2013. To this day, the person(s) responsible for this broadcast are still at large.Ĭonsidering the artist Eminem has lived in that area almost his entire life, he would have no doubt understood and appreciated the reference he was making not only to the character, but the pirating incident as well. The broadcast lasted a little under 2 minutes before engineers regained control. On two separate occasions, an unknown individual wearing a Max Headroom Mask illegally gained control of the video feed and broadcasted a strange and garbled monologue referencing both the character's catchphrases and random pieces of 80's popular culture. What makes this choice of reference so strange is that the use of this character also ties into a famous incident of pirate signal hacking known as "The Max Headroom Incident." It took place in November of 1987 in the city of Chicago, affecting affiliate WGN as well as a large portion of the surrounding broadcast area by way of Public Broadcasting System station WTTW. Among other things, would help to plug the ill-fated "new" formula for coke which was being released as a competitor to Pepsi during that same decade, coining the phrase "Ride the Wave." While his time on television as "The World's first computer-generated TV host" was short lived, the character would become iconic. This look as well as his eccentric and frenzied body language suggests an incarnation of the infamous individual Max Headroom.įor those who don't know, Headroom was an artificially intelligent cyber space dwelling fictional character that was first introduced in 1984. When you do the mathematics, Eminem actually rapped 6.14 words within a second. For example, at some point in the song’s third verse, he raps precisely 101 words in just 16.45 seconds. Eminem’s insane rapping speed is arguably the biggest highlight of this song.
A good portion of the music video for "Rap God" shows the rapper Eminem dressed in a black suit with black Ray-Ban wayfarer shades and sporting a slicked back and almost rubberized looking hairstyle while being imposed over a strange undulating and pulsing background. In the video Eminem parodies Max Headroom, a 1980’s computer-based celebrity.
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