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Eminem Pays Homage To His 'Beautiful' City

Posted Fri 3 Jul 2009 9:05AM NZST by Billy Johnson, Jr. in Hip-Hop Media Training

Eminem puts his controversial antics on the back-burner for the fourth single from his "Relapse" album which has already sold more than 1 million copies since its May 19 release.

The video for his new record "Beautiful" spotlights his hometown of Detroit. It opens with a historical statement about the Michigan's national ranking during an economic peak.

"In 1950, Michigan was 1 of 8 states in America that collectively produced 36% of the world's GNP," the text read.

On a second screen the message continued, "Detroit was the greatest manufacturing city in the world."

The 4-minute clip shows Eminem walking through various Michigan landmarks that once thrived but are now impoverished--Beaux-Arts train station (Michigan Central Station), the original Tiger Stadium, and the former Packard Motor Car Company plant. Each of the now dilapidated structures were built prior to 1914.

Ironically, the song lyrics are not about Detroit, but Eminem's battles with depression during his bout with an addiction for which he sought rehabilitation. He raps, "I don't know how or why or when, I ended up in this position I'm in."

In a statement released via his label, Eminem said that after overcoming his trials, he realized that the song could also be used as a metaphor.

"Tiger Stadium is being torn down, and the train station is supposed to be demolished too," Eminem said. "This video is one of the last times anybody outside of Detroit is going to see them."

Eminem added, "['Beautiful'] is a reminder to keep your head up, and to see who you really are despite what you may be going through. Now that I've gotten through the toughest part, I see how the song relates to Detroit, and it feels even more powerful."


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1335 Comments

41. peter -
one of the best songs on his cd

42. WarriorPrince -
Awesome, just awesome.

The last verse was awesome. I'm wondering y it isn't there.

10/10. Awesome

43. Yahoo! Music User -
eminem is the best song writer ever to walk this world. if this his last song i am mad

44. Emmanuel M -
Im from Detroit but was forced to move cause of the economy and I just cried watching this video.

45. MICHELLE -
Beautiful is beyond awesome, no words can express how much Michigan appreciates Marshall's music. Thank you, Eminem!

46. Chad -
Great video, I live in the D and what a great portrail of the city. Man, this CD is a great comback....

47. Criss -
man ive listened to this song maybe 2000 times and i can just relate so harshly to this song

48. Sara -
This song is the bomb! He just keeps getting better with time!

49. Jenn -
like damn ...... this song means so much it just gets me through the tough parts of life .

50. Tammie -
this is a good song!

51. __A_YAHOO_USER__ -
Well, I've listened to this song over 100 times and I got the message in it. Then I watched this video.... O.O This video isn't the best one he's made.
That's a big thing to say considering I am the biggest fan ever!!!

52. larry.riverside -
Great job at censoring any word that could possibly be taken as offense... Geeze, even the words "hell" and "damn" were taken out? I can't believe Em let that happen to the debut of this video.
Nice video though, the old buildings look really eerie. The song is really what makes this great though. Awesome lyrics sang from the heart.

53. michael N -
Sad what's become of many cities in Michigan but it's not just Michigan that's not "beautiful" anymore. Where I live our economy is devestated because of how much we depended on the auto industry.

54. Bubbly Mel -
I LOVE EMINEM!!!

55. Pardeep -
awsome

56. kim -
Amazing video & song

57. ßèè†lèjµî¢è -
It sux that everyone has their demons and dark time; but we wouldn't have beautiful music w/out pain.

58. Yahoo! Music User -
Absolutely.....Beautiful! Well done, young man.

59. Timothy -
great

60. Moneb -
the best his song ever verry cool song
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