Speaking of hangin’ with the homies, in his review of “The Eminem Show,” the Weekly Standard’s David Skinner busts a coupla’ critical caps in The Real Slim Shady’s milky white ass:

In ‘Soldier,’ Eminem strives to christen anew the gangster urge as a military code. But this soldier vows simply to kill anyone who messes with him. On one hand the song seems to be a tribute to September 11: Rap music’s would-be felons wanting to be thought of as soldiers, good guys, the heroes of the day. On the other hand, it’s a symptom of the rapper’s megalomania that Eminem finds the difference between self and country so confusing. Perhaps in his mind, he is the greater cause for which people would go to war. But as this unlistenable song attests, Eminem has failed to harness the power of martial rhetoric for his own ends.

Unfortunately for Eminem, no amount of borrowing will save his sagging rage. Not that he doesn’t do his best to keep it up, even bundling several objects of hatred together in one song. The incoherent soliloquy of ‘Cleaning Out My Closet’ has the rapper yelling about his mother, then his father, then his wife, then his critics. ‘Have you ever been hated or discriminated against? I have, I’ve been protested and demonstrated against / Picket signs for my wicked rhymes.’ The chorus of the song is: ‘I’m sorry Mama, I never meant to hurt you / I never meant to make you cry, but tonight I’m cleanin’ out my closet.’ By which Eminem means he’s leaving home. Only it sounds like he’s finally getting around to hanging up his clothes and throwing away those old sneakers that keep piling up.

Without the rage, Eminem is still interesting — as pure vulgarity. And here the limitations of good taste must stop me from quoting at any length this album’s preposterously funny insults to sexual anatomy, female virtue, chivalry, and anything that might resemble gentility when it comes to delicate questions of interpersonal discourse.

There is, of course, more to the album, past the rage and beyond the vulgarity, but that more is crap.

I have to admit, I really don’t get all this Eminem fuss. Myself, I voted for the aqua — despite finding myself really tempted by the purple. Now, had they called it “plum,” they’d have had me…

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