Eminem - We Made You -

In the early months of 2009, the world of celebrity was a glittering, chaotic mess. Pop stars and politicians were the titans of the tabloids, and right in the middle of it all stood Slim Shady , freshly returned from a long, quiet hiatus.

The Hook vs. The Bar: A Retrospective on Eminem’s "We Made You"

Released in April 2009 as the lead single for his comeback album Relapse, "We Made You" arrived at a precarious time in Eminem's career. He had been absent for four years—spending the latter half of the 2000s battling a severe addiction to prescription drugs and mourning the death of his best friend, Proof. eminem - we made you

The song’s central irony is embedded in its title and chorus. “We made you,” Eminem sings, addressing the parade of celebrities he skewers. On one level, it is a boast: the audience and the culture industry manufacture stars, and Eminem—as a master satirist—has the power to unmake them with a punchline. However, the line doubles as a confession of dependency. Eminem needs these vapid, tabloid-friendly celebrities as much as they need the spotlight. By 2009, after a four-year hiatus due to drug addiction and creative burnout, Eminem was no longer the hungry outsider of The Slim Shady LP. He was a global brand. Attacking Britney Spears’s latest meltdown or Kevin Federline’s irrelevance was not rebellious; it was expected. The song’s frantic, name-dropping structure reveals an artist grasping for relevance by feeding on the same pop-culture carrion as the gossip blogs he pretends to disdain. In the early months of 2009, the world

The Music Video: A $2 Million Celebrity Spoof

Directed by Joseph Kahn (who also directed "Without Me" and "Love the Way You Lie"), the music video for "We Made You" is a spectacle of impersonations and low-brow humor. With a reported budget of over $2 million, it features Eminem dressing up as several celebrities: The Bar: A Retrospective on Eminem’s "We Made

The Accent: Like much of Relapse, Eminem uses a thick, controversial Middle Eastern/Southern accent throughout the track, which some find "spectacular" and others find "tolerable" at best.