“Eminem’s Lyrical Personae: The Everyman, the Needy Man, the Hegemon”

This article examines the lyrical personae of the gangsta rapper Eminem. Eminem's White/Black persona can be seen as interchanged with two lyrical alters-Marshall Mathers the everyman character and Slim Shady, the psychiatrically unwell and needy young man. Eminem's deployment of lyrical alternation invites a performative view of masculinity, as simultaneously commodified and multiplied around an absent center. The gendered persona is thus precariously instantiated as a function both of gendered and racialized stylistics of musical genre, and of the tensions between identity and artistic impersonation in general. The case of Eminem suggests that a studied alternation of impersonations allows self-parody of the macho rapper but only while capitalizing on misogynist lyrics and securing a White man's success in a Black industry.