At a recent concert in Detroit, Justin Bieber rapped the opening lines of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” his hit song from the 8 Mile soundtrack. Video after the jump. Now, I’m not saying that this is the first time a musician has covered (or even written) a song to which he or she had no directly relatable experience, but this is pretty egregious. The movie 8 Mile, which was based on Eminem’s actual life in Detroit, is about a struggling would-be rapper who spends his days working at a car parts factory, and spends his nights picking his pill-addicted mother up off of the trailer house floor. His is a world of abject poverty, desperate violence, dead end employment and grueling survival. Justin Bieber has been famous since he was 9! Him rapping this song is a lot like when you see clips from foreign talk shows where people who clearly don’t speak any English are singing Johnny Cash songs that they learned how to reproduce phonetically. “I feel ehn toe ah borning rang uf fahr.” Obviously, Justin Bieber is a beloved performer who can rap whatever the hell he wants at his concerts filled with thousands upon thousands of shrieking fans. It is just my pet peeve when famous CHILDREN present themselves as people who have “worked hard” or “struggled” to get where they are. No, you didn’t. It’s OK! Some people luck out and don’t have to, which is not their fault, and they shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for embracing the opportunity that life gave them from a very early age, but one of those people is def you bro. It might also just be that I can’t stand what he is doing with his hands:

This guy’s a gangster? His real name’s Clarence! Almost feel bad for him, actually. The way in which he is forced by his circumstances to play dress up, a child’s natural inclination, in front of the entire world is too bad. And anyone can have empathy to see this little boy struggle as he tries so desperately to find the one thing that his incredible wealth can’t buy him: credibility. JK he’s fine. He’s #bieber!