Eminem, Jose Mourinho, and Being Left Behind

How do you stay relevant in a world that has no place for you? When someone changes how society views an industry, how do you remind people that you were once that person? Do you revert back to what made you successful in the first place? Do you jump on the new and ‘improved’ bandwagon? Or do you try to conjure up a fresh formula like the old you did in the first place? These existential conundrums have found their way into two of the most innovative and triumphant characters in the world of early-noughties music and football: Eminem and Jose Mourinho. Whilst their careers are worlds apart, their stories are one and the same. Once rulers of their respective games, neither can seem to get to the fruitful heights they were once synonymous with. Nowadays, both are still household names across the world and are still working at the highest level, yet every year it seems like the bright sparks that once changed their fields are increasingly being left behind by a modern, pioneering group of peers.

Most of my childhood was spent in the 2000s and most of that decade saw Eminem and Mourinho widely regarded as the best in the business. Both men, however, had particularly anomalous origin stories that led to their greatness. Eminem did not play the character of the glorified gangster with a life of violence, drug-trafficking and a pool of obedient women that was so often seen in rap music. Instead, he worked several jobs to help pay bills in his mother’s house whilst struggling to make a name for himself at rap battles and open mic nights in a predominantly black scene. On top of this, Em’s insane, but iconic, bleached hair look also separated him from the typical ‘gangster’ aesthetic that dominated West coast rap in the 1990s. Mourinho, on the other hand, did not take the conventional route from footballer to manager. Rather, he spent years as a translator and assistant for Sir Bobby Robson, before helping out Louis Van Gaal in the same capacity. While it was known by many that Mourinho was destined for bigger things, he spent the best part of the 1990s as a right-hand man and did not become a first-team coach until 8 years into his career.

Neither of these origin stories are the traditional route for rappers or football managers. Not only were their own environments, Detroit and Portugal, not as respected as the New Yorks and LAs, or the Englands and Italys, there was no pathway for men like them. They had no ‘street cred’. They were unconventional. Yet their peculiarity is what allowed these two to set themselves aside from their competitors. They did not behave in the same way as their peers because they were not cut from the same cloth. As a result, the achievements speak for themselves; Eminem has won Grammys for over half of his albums, as well as numerous singles and performances. Mourinho has won silverware at virtually every club he has managed, picking up a league title in every country he has worked in, including two unlikely Champions League triumphs with Porto and Inter Milan – the latter coming as part of a treble. The countless controversies and shocks that have embroiled the two aided them in the noughties, but as time goes on these methods are seemingly becoming more and more unsustainable and unappreciated in the modern era.

Being controversial may not have been what made this pair successful, but it is certainly what drew the spotlight towards them. Although extremely talented in their own right, they thrived off playing up to the bad guy persona the world attached to them, making constant outlandish statements and starting spats left, right, and centre. If you search for feuds surrounding Eminem and Mourinho, the lists are almost as long as their awards and accolades. Aside from their off-field antics, they split opinion from the fans of the game. Some praised them for revolutionising their respective art forms with something completely new, whilst others lamented them for not doing things the ‘proper’ way. Eminem faced scrutiny for being a white man in an almost exclusively black genre, whilst Jose’s game plan of efficient, low-scoring wins contrasted many people’s view of how the beautiful game should be played. The more people condemned them, the more they hit back. Some of the lyrics from Eminem’s ‘I’m Back’, on his sophomore album The Marshall Mathers LP, are jaw-dropping to say the least, whereas Mourinho’s infamous mind-games with his rivals saw him get inside the heads of the most prestigious managers in football.

The question is: why does this not work anymore? It is fair to say that Eminem’s output over the last 15 years has been more misses than hits, with his albums Relapse, Recovery and Revival all coming under heavy scrutiny. His recent beefs with Machine Gun Kelly and Nick Cannon have garnered a fair bit of attention, but the disses are nowhere near the level of quality that they once were. Meanwhile, Mourinho’s infamous three-year cycle at each of his teams has seen him fall out with everyone at his previous clubs, as well as managers and players at rival sides too. From chairmen to players to physios, Mourinho doesn’t just burn bridges, he blows the whole thing up. Last year he had to remind Chelsea fans that he was their most successful manager in modern history after a spectacular falling out with the club in his final season, and joining arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur has just added fuel to the fire.

When you think back to society 15 to 20 years ago, it all seems quite a bit different. The UK consistently voted in a Labour government, veganism and organic foods were practically unheard of, and social media was only just about finding its feet. Do you still have the same views you had in the early noughties? Of course not. Society changes. Social norms change. Calling someone a ‘faggot’ in a song gets rightly criticised. Publicly throwing a member of your team under the bus during difficult times gets rightly criticised. The bad guy personas that the public were so infatuated with, that rose these two to prominence during the noughties, would probably not do the same for someone starting off now. As a result, the pair are at a crossroads in their careers deciding whether to stick or twist. Yet no matter what they do, nothing seems to land.

When Eminem references the Manchester bombings in 2020, it causes more outrage than when he rhymed about the Columbine shootings in 2000. When Mourinho left Chelsea in ’07 and Inter in ’10, it was viewed with sadness and heartbreak but on good terms, whereas his departures from Real Madrid, Manchester United, and a second spell at Chelsea were more of a relief after an extremely messy break-up. The once animated Mourinho that would run the length of the pitch has been replaced by a scorning elder just waiting for the game to be over. Society has left these approaches in the past, as the modern generation of innovative, forward-thinking rappers and football managers have found new ways of getting their point across without angering anyone still listening. Even when the pair decide to twist, it comes with a hint of transparency. Watching Eminem start viral TikTok challenges for his music is exactly the kind of thing he would have decimated in his early work. Mourinho referring to himself as ‘the humble one’ after joining Tottenham, having introduced himself to the Premier League as ‘the special one’ in 2003, lasted about five minutes as the same old excuses and public disapproval of his own team came rushing back.

What these two don’t understand is that the more they try and finesse their output, the more they tarnish their legacy. Their failure to adapt and overcome bare striking similarities to the TV character Bojack Horseman. For those who haven’t seen the show, there are SPOILERS AHEAD. Bojack is portrayed as a washed up, dated actor on a mission to change and reinvent himself for the better, constantly searching for gratification and approval from those that once loved him. However, the more he tries to do right, the more things end up going wrong. In his final conversation with his close friend Diane, she painfully explains to him: "I think there are people that help you become the person that you end up being, and you can be grateful for them, even if they were never meant to be in your life forever. I'm glad I knew you too", before ending with “life’s a bitch and then you keep living”. Hip-hop and football fans are grateful for the entertainment and drama Eminem and Mourinho once brought, but it doesn’t mean they should be in the game forever. After a while, trying to keep a dying ember going becomes more detrimental than helpful.

So where do we go from here? It’s clear to most that these two will never hit the heights they achieved earlier in their career, but they are in demand from many and are being provided with the tools to work. It seems implausible that Eminem could drop a new album, or Mourinho could do pretty much anything, and somebody wouldn’t care about it. But it’s sad to see the decline of two of the greatest to ever do it, as the negatives exponentially grow and the positives seem a distant memory. Hip-hop and football should be happy they once had a prime Eminem and Jose Mourinho dominating the industries, but the world will not stop spinning when they call it a day. Do Eminem fans want to see him constantly release mediocre albums that pander to what he thinks people want from him? Do football fans want to see Spurs slumber towards 8th placed finishes every season? (Okay maybe, but certainly not me). Good things must eventually come to a conclusion, but that doesn’t mean the greater story finishes too. As Diane so eloquently puts it, “life’s a bitch and then you keep on living”.