Eminem - Without Me : Intertextuality

The music video for 'Without Me' by Eminem is an extremely controversial yet addictively bold video, its use of multiple scenarios built around one context allows for lots of different types of contextuality, the most obvious being the main theme of the video, the comic book style, this runs throughout but follows the main storyline of a young boy who buys a copy of Eminem's album which has an advisory sticker on it, Eminem, playing the character of Robin and his faithful partner, Dr.Dre playing Blade (unconventional as Robin's partner is meant to be Batman, also unconventional as most superhero's were white, this gives off a realistic slant on it) have to rush to the rescue, once they are at the boy house they snatch the CD off him and point to the sticker, showing that his CD has bad language on it.

 

The video links strongly with the lyrics, which means it mocks a lot of Eminem's critics, including the vice-president Dick Chaney (mocking his heart problem, so he electrocutes him) and his wide Lynne, he also mocks the FCC and MTV, saying that the show would be lonely without him (giving across the sense that he is one of a kind), he then carries on to mock Chris Kirkpatrick and the band Limp Bizkit.

A strong link within the music video is his specific link between him and Elvis Presley as a white man who has managed to succeed commercially within a largely black art form, he however is very controversial with what he shows about Elvis, being too fat for his outfit, showing his excrement’s as being a burger and also shown him to die in the toilet, this is ultimately mocking his life and also the American stereotype.

 

He also goes on to attack his own mother as it shows them two on a talk show, this was linked with the lawsuit she filled out against him for the lyrics of his single ‘My Name Is’.

 

Towards the end of the video he also uses Bin Laden as a character in his video, this is of him talking to the camera and then gets chased, he then goes on to dance with the other characters, this mocks the seriousness of Bin Laden, and also mocks the extremely popular tv station ‘CNN’, but puts it as the ‘ENN’.