Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has once again weighed in on his favourite point of conversation, cancel culture.
Over the past few weeks, there’s been a growing campaign amongst Gen Z TikTok, which has sought to “cancel” Eminem over the lyrics to his 2010 collaboration with Rihanna ‘Love the Way You Lie.’
The movement was sparked by a video from a since-deleted user who called out the line, “If she ever tries to fucking leave again, I’m a tie her to the bed and set this house on fire.” Captioned, “Yesssss lets cancel him.”
The video quickly rose to the highest echelons of virility and sparked the time-honoured debate about the artistic credulity of Eminem’s controversial lyrics.
On Friday, Eminem shared an animated lyric video for his single ‘Tone Deaf’, off his 2020 LP Music to Be Murdered By – Side B. Ever the provacateur, the ‘Tone Deaf’ video saw Eminem address the attempt to cancel him, featuring images of famously-cancelled icons like Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein.
When dropping the video, Eminem quoted the line of the track: “I won’t stop even when my hair turns grey (I’m tone-deaf) / ‘Cause they won’t stop until they cancel me.”
Check out ‘Tone Deaf’ by Eminem
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During a recent interview with Matt Pinfield on Los Angeles’ 95.5 KLOS Radio, Corey Taylor brought up the recent attempted cancellation of Eminem — comparing the mob mentality of cancel culture to the KKK and Salem Witch Trials.
“I was just reading about how Gen Z is trying to cancel Eminem because of one line that was in a Rihanna song that he did with her,” said Taylor.
“And I’m just like, is that where we are right now? I mean, at this point, you’re talking about the Salem witch trials. You’re talking about America in the ’20s where the KKK was like a political force. You’re talking about complete condemnation without context or any rationalization for an action like that.”
Taylor continued, “To me, that’s the most dangerous — when the mob decides that you’re gone. I mean, that is Caesar at the Colosseum, for God’s sakes. That’s when it’s dangerous.
“The level of censorship that we’re starting to see — and I’m not saying that certain things haven’t been said that easily offend people. However, the flip side of that is that you can’t even make a joke anymore, even in the cleanest of situations. I mean, they completely turn on you.
“And there’s not one hint of satire, no hint of irony — it’s just all out rage. … If we can’t understand the difference between metaphor and complete reality, then we’re in real trouble.”
Considering Generation Z have been consistently maligned for being “sensitive”, it is hilarious witnessing ageing out musicians reduced to hysteria over teenagers having fun on the internet. Likening a couple of kids trying to “cancel” a song on TikTok to the supression of free speech is truly pathological.
Taylor went on to reveal that social media and “cancel culture” has served as an inspiration for a potential new book. “It’s starting to really kind of form in my head,” Taylor said. “I may actually write it soon. Because it’s really kind of out of control out there right now.”
