Province: Pet Shop targets Eminem (2002)

Pet Shop targets Eminem
Boys new CD, Release, features a single about rap star’s secret gay life

The Province

Pet Shop Boys Chris Lowe (left) and Neil Tennant were in London last week to promote their new album Release. Tennant wrote the Eminem track ‘The Night I Fell in Love.’

Eminem is getting a taste of his own medicine.

The controversial rapper, who likes to mock others in his rhymes, is the subject of a new tune by the Pet Shop Boys.

“The Night I Fell in Love” is a subtle, smart ballad about Eminem’s secret gay life. It’s a hilarious premise, considering Eminem is often criticized for his homophobic raps.

“The Night I Fell In Love,” written by Pet Shop singer Neil Tennant, documents one man’s backstage fling with Eminem: “He said we could be secret lovers/Just him and me/Then he joked/’Hey, man!/Your name isn’t Stan, is it?/We should be together!’/And he was passionate/I guess I would rate/him a nine out of ten.”

Other lyrics include: “Next morning we woke/he couldn’t have been a nicer bloke/Over breakfast made jokes/About Dre and his homies and folks.”

Dre, or Dr. Dre, is Eminem’s producer. “Stan” is the name of Eminem’s smash hit written from the point of view of an obsessive fan. It’s also the tune he performed with Elton John at last year’s Grammy Awards.

Tennant’s Pet Shop partner, Chris Lowe, is ecstatic about “The Night I Fell In Love.”

“It’s absolutely fantastic. Eminem plays with roles, he says, ‘This isn’t me singing these things. It’s my character and I’m representing Middle America.’ So for Neil to take the same method and turn it around on him is really good,” says Lowe. “The song really paints Eminem in a nice light. He comes across as a really nice, loving, caring person, which I’m sure he is.”

Lowe has never met Eminem but says he likes the rapper’s music because it’s an antidote to the plethora of manufactured pop bands.

“Someone like Eminem is so refreshing. He’s got an attitude, he’s got something to say and he’s saying it a fresh and exciting way,” he says. “There’s so much clichéd pop music around with cliched lyrics.”

Lowe says he doesn’t know if Eminem has heard “The Night I Fell In Love” but he’s not worried about the rapper’s reaction — nor does he hope it will lead to a duet à la Elton John. Lowe says he’d rather work with Dr. Dre.

“I think Dr. Dre is an absolute brilliant producer,” says Lowe. “That would be a fantastic dialectic.”

“The Night I Fell In Love” is one of 10 tracks on the new Pet Shop album, Release, in stores today. Eminem’s third disc, The Eminem Show, is tentatively set for release June 4.