D12's fight for respect and recognition

The D12 crew is composed of 6 talented and hardworking emcees from Detroit. Since the beginning of their carreer, D12 has been targetted by the media and negatively criticized “for making money by exploiting the world’s misery”. D12’s first fight is against censorship and it is all about freedom of speech. It seems like their fight has been facing many difficulties mainly due to to the FCC’s censorship. Being asked in an XXL interview about political censorship, Eminem and Bizarre expressed about the problems they had to face with the “Purple Pills” song:

XXL:But politics have hit you before. Like when you had to change “Purple Pills” to “Purple Hills”—did that bother you?
SLIM: That bothered the fuck out of us.
BIZARRE: It bothered me. But then when I heard lil’ kids rappin’ it, I would rather them rap the clean version than the bad.
So did you fight it until the end?
BIZARRE: We lost.
SLIM: I mean, we could stick to our guns and say, “Look, we’re making it ‘Purple Pills.’” And then guess what? No radio play, no record sales. If you want to eat, this is what you gotta do. You change “pills” to “hills.” It’s the difference between “mills” and “bills.”

If you ask me, one of the most hypocritical censorships is MTV’s censorship of “Without Me” where you will see “a little bit of weed” replaced by “ a little bit of me” while “hard lickor” remains authorized.

Besides their fight for freedom of speech, the D12 are fed up to be confused with some artists of the fake world of pop. The song “My Band”- that has also been misunderstood by some people since its release- is all about that kind of confusion. Many people actually take Eminem for the lead singer of a band. It often angers me when Eminem gets called a “singer”. I do feel the same when D12 gets called a “band”.

Because he’s blond haired and white, many people who have no idea what Eminem is about confuse him with a pop artist.
Eminem and D12 are hip hop and it’s high time people realized it. Eminem never intented to be the “leader” of the D12 group. The D12 group exists since 1990, long before Eminem launched his career. The creation of the group was Proof’s idea. D12 is a story of friendship and loyalty. The first to become famous was supposed to do something for his fellows:

“We made a pact years ago, “which ever one of us gets signed comes back for the rest.” (Eminem)

Eminem never forgot his friends who grew up in the same place as him and a similar background. Their roots are hip hop and it would be a big mistake to call them “singers” instead of “rappers”.

When the “Devil’s Night” album was released, the 6 emcees had to face a lot of negative criticism. “Devil’s Night” is nothing else but a true reflection of life in the Detroit underground. I remember Eminem saying on MTV how much hard he had worked with his fellows on that album. And this time, he wasn’t joking.

The D12 crew has also another important point to prove. I have heard so often:

“Eminem can rap so well, but the other MC’s of the group are worth nothing. Their lyrics suck and they’re bad rappers.”

Which is so untrue.

The 5 other emcees of the group are gifted. A better examination of their solo work will make people realize their individual talent. Eminem is brilliant, for sure, but his fellows are doing excellent work too. If you take a deeper look at their work you will find Bizarre’s ill rhymes funny and amazing. You will certainly enjoy Proof as a solo artist and see a gifted freestyler in him. You will certainly love Swifty’s wicked rhymes and enjoy Kuniva and Kon Artis’ voices and parts inside of a D12 song. “D12 World” is also about that:
Eminem’s friends want to show you their talent if you just agree to have a look.
Won’t you give them a chance?