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Thursday February 8 8:29 AM ET

Eminem's Mother May Drop Lawsuit Against Son

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - The mother of controversial white American rapper Eminem (news - web sites) says she may drop her $10 million dollar lawsuit against her son.

Her words of reconciliation, in an interview to be screened Thursday, came on the eve of Eminem's tour of Britain.

Gay rights activists have pledged to protest against the rapper, accusing him of being a homophobe who fuels prejudice with hate-filled lyrics.

Security is tight on his tour and Eminem's entourage said they had switched hotels at his first venue -- the northern city of Manchester -- to avoid clashes with gays.

A member of Eminem's team told reporters that the singer, real name Marshall Mathers, wanted to change hotels. ``He is not coming to this joint... But he's cool and checking out another place.''

Debbie Mathers-Briggs is locked in a $10 million lawsuit with her son who said in one of his controversial songs: ``My mom smokes more dope than I do.''

But she told ITV's ``Tonight with Trevor McDonald'' that they may be ready to make up.

``When I saw the attorney, he was to send Marshall a letter warning him to stop being so demeaning and that if he didn't stop the lawyer would hit him with a lawsuit.

``The next thing I knew, my son was hit with a $10 million lawsuit. I walked up to my attorney and he said 'Well, this was a wake-up call.' I was in shock.''

She said she now regretted taking the legal action and ''wishes that things could be different.''

Asked if she has the power to drop the proceedings, she said: ``That's something we are seriously thinking about. We're working on it.''

Eminem is living proof that shock sells in the pop business.

``All three concerts sold out within an hour of going on sale,'' Sundraj Sreenivasan, Eminem's agent in Britain, said.

Fans say he is an urban poet whose acerbic lyrics make a refreshing change in the world of plastic pop and squeaky-clean boy bands. Critics say the white rapper is ``trailer trash'' who happy to insult gays and women but wary of offending blacks.

Opponents in the United States have already targeted Eminem as being too violent to appear at the Grammy Awards ceremony, even though he has received four nominations.

The San Francisco-based Family Violence Prevention Fund has launched a ``No to Eminem'' campaign to ban him from the awards ceremony on February 21.

But his musical star is still rising.

Eminem won best hip-hop and rap act at one British pop award ceremony Tuesday and he is also expected to attend Britain's biggest music awards show, the Brits, on February 26, when controversy is sure to follow.

-- Living proof (that@shock.sells), February 08, 2001

Answers

This artist-manque is experiencing his 15 minutes of fame. In a few years he will be gone and forgotten, replaced by someone even trashier. In Daniel Patrick Moynihan's words, we are "defining deviancy down".

Alas, more to come.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 08, 2001.