19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Title Is Misleading But Good For Rap Historians, December 18, 2005
This review is from: Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem (Paperback)
I was so excited when I received "Whatever You Say I Am" for Christmas last year. Now, almost a year later, I've finally gotten through the final pages.
Why did it take so long you might ask? Well for starters, it was all I could do to keep my interest going. This is NOT an EMINEM BIOGRAPHY. I repeat, this is NOT an EMINEM BIOGRAPHY. The subtitle of this book is called "The Life And Times Of Eminem." While Anthony Bozza does a fine job of creating a book about the history of rap and how Eminem has influenced rap, it's culture and overall society, I soon figured out after reading chapter after chapter thick with rap's roots, that Bozza forgot to include Eminem's life in the book. Each chapter I started, I kept anticipating.....oh maybe this is the part where we get to see Eminem's life, influences, etc. But after reading yet another chapter of rap history such as with historical MC's like Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa, I realized I was wrong again, and had to psych myself up to keep reading. It just got a bit boring after a while.
Also, I am a slow reader in general, but reading this book made me look like a speed demon before. It was truely agonizing at times trying to absorb what I just read. I cannot tell you how many times I had to go back and re-read Bozza's long, flowery-worded sentences laden with so many commas, you had to literally look back to see where the pause was and where the next statement began.
I realize that all the background of rap is influential. Bozza talks of the Blues, Sly & The Family Stone and R&B, The first known rap song, "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang, famous MC's and the underground rap parties they threw, the controversy of Vinalla Ice, The Beastie Boys, and on and on. Bozza talks of how society has both embraced and despised Eminem after hearing the sides of the rapper, from his devotion to his daughter, his hate against women, his family-man traits, and his hate toward his mother. Bozza disects the reasons why society wants to listen to Eminem and why he changed the world of rap in more ways than just because he is white. Heck, Bozza even gives us the history of Detroit and how the rough and tough industrial city, it's racial barriers, rich suburbs and run-down neighborhoods shaped what Eminem became. This is all well and good, but again, where is Eminem's "Life And Times?"
We don't really even get a hint of Eminem's hard times in life on his way to the top until toward the end of the book. There you'll find a couple pages or so of Eminem's ups and downs with wife/ex-wife Kim, the fued with his mother who supposedly had some stability problems, all the moving around from school to school and home to home, his take on his father who abandoned he and his mother, etc. These pages were some of the most interesting parts of the book and were smooth reading for me, contrary to my staggered reading amongst all the history stuff. But this small section at the back of the book must have been what made the book a so-called biography.
The interviews were good; what there was of them. The main interviews basically follows Bozza and his journey with Eminem through the different parts of Detroit and where Eminem used to live, and you'll read about Eminem recalling what happened here and there. Then you'll also follow them into the old restaurant of home-cooked meals where Eminem used to work and listen to their discussions over pizza and booze. These too were some of the best parts of the book, in that Bozza's descriptions of the places and people around it enable the reader to get right into that actual scene and feel like he/she is a part of it.
But to put it bluntly, I wanted this book because I thought it would be a biography. I wanted to hear about how Eminem grew up on rap, how his upbringing influenced him, some history of the rap battles that he had to perform at to get to the top, the predjudices that he experienced along the way and all the other aspects of the "LIFE AND TIMES OF EMINEM." Bozza mearly just touches on these issues and devotes the rest of the book to how America has influenced Eminem, how Eminem has influenced America, how Eminem mirrors society and how he is in many ways the voice of a generation, the significance of racial issues and how this has shaped the outcome of Eminem's success, and on and on and on. So where is the "Life Of Eminem?" If you take a microscope, you can find bits and pieces.
Bozza has not written the perfect book about Eminem, but the perfect book about rap history and how it has shaped America. Bozza basically weaves rap society and American culture around the controversies that Eminem exhibits. To make a long story short, most of this book is about how a blonde, blue-eyed white guy came into the predominantly black rap world and peaked an interest in society not only because he is a white man in the black rap game, but because he is an authentic white rap artist who grew up with a rough childhood and around the rougher parts of society; mainly Detroit. It's about how Eminem used an upbringing and world of Detroit that he despised to create fuel for a lavish, successful career in the long run.
Overall, if you want a book about rap history, racial issues of rap, how society is influenced by rap and vice-versa, grab this book right now. If you want to know about Eminem; his "Life And Times," you might consider looking elsewhere because you won't find much of it here.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written, but it should be called "Rap: 99-2003", June 30, 2005
In the first few chapters, Bozza did an excellent job of putting Eminem in context. It's important to remember what the culture was like in 99 when the Slim Shady LP came out: TLC's No Scrubs was number one, Lauryn Hill and Celine Dion were superstars, as were the Backstreet Boys and Madonna. The culture was different in 2000 for The Marshall Mathers LP, after Columbine and when the presidency was on trial. Then Eminem lived a reality celebrity life until the 2002 release of his movie 8 Mile, which rocketed him into mainstream praise from "older" critics and a huge, diverse, fan base.
I enjoyed the first few chapters of "putting Eminem in context." But then it went on and on and on and on. I have no idea what point each chapter was trying to make. Bozza wasn't telling a linear story of Eminem's career; rather, these are random essays/parts of interviews which could each stand on their own as a magazine piece. There is no benefit to having them gathered as chapters in a book, and reading chapter after chapter about Eminem's place with Dre, DMX, Puffy, rap magazines, Rolling Stone, the VMAs, etc. gets old. This is much less about Enimen than it is about pop culture, rap, and hip-hop from 1999 through 2003. Bozza doesn't even do a very good job making Eminem the unifying theme between all his comments on pop culture.
Bozza did an outstanding job with Tommy Lee on his auto-biography Tommyland. This was his first effort, and it shows that he is a talented magazine writer, but not a biographer. If you want a good read, go pick up Tommyland.
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