Keeping Score

Controversial My Ass

I finally got around to watching the original airing of the Mtv MVA ceremony on tape. The one that didn't have the footage of Eminem edited out.

For those of you who didn't see it, It all started when Moby was in the process of being interviewed by that annoying yet sometimes funny dog-puppet from Conan O'Brian's show. The dog was asking questions like "Hey, Moby, why did Eminem call you a 36 year old bald white faggot? Eh?"

Moby started looking around in a bit of a sheepish, nervous way, as if he noticed someone was just off camera who would exascerbate this situation. After a couple of different questions, the dog-puppet noticed Eminem was standing right behind him the entire time. So the dog went over to ask Eminem why he called Moby a faggot, presumably, and Eminem pushed the puppet off camera and while waving the camera away, declaring something to the effect of "Naw, naw, I already had my TV time." Whatever that's supposed to mean.

Eminem then won the award for whatever he was nominated for at that time (I think he took home four), and after taking the stage, mentioned that "That Moby-girl threw me out of my zone for a minute" when he missed a step in reading his list and thanking people in his acceptance speech. The "Moby-girl" line got about half the crowd booing, and from Eminem's next statement, we can only presume that Moby was also booing. "That's right, keep booing. Keep booing! I'll hit a man with glasses, you know," or something to that effect. More booing from the audience. The other half of the audience decided that they were going to attempt to cheer over the booing, and tried to give Eminem a standing ovation.

I could really care less about what was said, or who stood up or who booed.

What I think is telling is that the rumor has it that Eminem's management asked Mtv to remove the statements (and the whole dog-puppet-pushing thing), which is why you won't see them in any re-broadcast.

For reference, here's the lyrics from "Without Me," the song which contains the lyrics which started this whole thing:

So the FCC won't let me be
Or let me be me so let me see
They tried to shut me down on MTV
But it feels so empty without me...

I said this looks like a job for me
So everybody just follow me
Cuz we need a little controversy,
Cuz it feels so empty without me ...

And Moby, you can get stomped by Obie,
You 36 year old bald headed fag blow me
You don't know me, you're too old
Let go, it's over, nobody listens to techno
Now lets go, just give me the signal
I will be there with a whole list full of new insults

So his management requested those live anti-Moby comments be taken out of the rebroadcasts? And what about that whole list full of new insults? "Moby-girl?!?" Is that the best you could freaking do?

Look, if you're going to claim to be the most outrageous, controversial rapper on the market, and how Mtv keeps you down, then don't fucking cave when someone puts the pressure on, you twit. Don't censor yourself on the same network you claimed was keeping you down. It tends to make you look like a spineless moron to the rest of us. And speaking of spineless, I thought you showed a complete lack of vertebrae when you waited until you were behind the podium to take jabs at a "thirty-six year old faggot" when you had him dead-to-rights two minutes earlier. If you can't back up your claims on your albums, don't bother making them. You're only proving what a talentless hack you are when you're called on them.

As far as "most controversial" goes, I have to give that award to the dog-puppet for having the set of balls to even bring the subject up in the first place.

I don't know about you, but when a rubber dog is more controversial and has more integrity than you, I think it's time to stop bragging about it on your albums.

I'm just sayin'.