Customer Reviews

Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

I just finished reading this book and I thought that it was well written from start to finish. Unfortunately, I did not get the content I was looking for. I was looking mainly for what Eminem did in the past and what he intends to do in the future. The book I would say was only 2/5ths that. The rest was focusing on hip-hop history. Chapter after chapter was the same stuff over again, but focusing on a different artist of hip-hop. Sometimes there was long stretches of pages that seemed to have no end, while not even mentioning eminem. If your looking for a book on hip-hop culture, this is a good one. If you want a book that shows the life and times of eminem, this book only counts as 2/5ths.

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.

If you're looking for a light pop culture, tabloid style biography of Eminem-this is not the book for you.

Instead we have a well laid-out mini-biography of Eminem that places him within the context of American society and current popular culture. It also serves to put Eminem in context within hip-hop history and culture, discussing racial themes and how Eminem has managed to succeed in a predominately black arena, both because of and despite his race.

There are a few key drawbacks, though. First, the book is clearly pro-Eminem. I certainly did not want to read a lot of Eminem bashing, being a fan. But the lack of any real criticism is telling-especially given the controversy surrounding him. Second, occasionally I think the author stretches logic a bit with some of the parallels he draws between the rise and success of Eminem within the context of American culture at large. Finally, the author relies a great deal on the commentary of music critics. It would have been nice to see a broader array of views outside the music industry than is offered here.

Nevertheless, this book does succeed as a mini-biography of Eminem and hip-hop history, so for those interested , I would recommend the book.

The book isn't really a bio of Eminem, its more of how Eminem affected hip-hop. Looking at it that way, its quite good and accomplishes what it set out to do. Bozza has met Eminem various times and starts off each chapter with a meeting of Eminem before going on to describing something else (like how hip-hop originated) for a few pages then getting back on how Eminem affected that.

Not a bad book but definitely not a bio.

This book is more focused on the hip-hop culture than Eminem. It does have some history of Eminem, but not enough for hard-core Eminem fans like myself, since most Eminem fans out there already know about Eminem's life thanks to biorythem: the old MTV biography show, and also stories told by Emimem himself.
It does follow Eminem to 8 Mile, and his struggles coming up into the rap world as a white MC, of course it was hard then, and for some it is still hard for some white MC's out there.
Now Bozza explains about the history of hip-hop and the culture throughout the book, and this is a good book to read for anyone older who want to understand hip-hop culture for what it is, and also some stuff about the controversal rapper himself. Nothing really major since most hard-core Eminem fans know about their favorite MC. A somewhat good book, but I just wish Bozza contreated more on Eminem than the hip-hop culture itself.

I recently read this book and I thought that it was a decent look at Eminem about how he got to where he is and what he means to society at large, however I think that the author could have been a little more in depth about some of the controversies that surround Eminem(i.e., being more in depth about what he thinks about a certain incident in Colorado about 5 years ago, about the furor surrounding some of his songs[especially the "Kim" song]) and I don't think that this book would give the hardcore fan a complete sense about Eminem.

Although this is a decent book, I think that it has some weaknesses.

I read the book before looking at the reviews and I was thinking about what I would write. Just before writing my review, I was curious about what others thought of the book and I looked at theirs. The one of Jason C looked very much like I was going to write. I was going to say that the book has not a good title because it is more about hip hop history, black/white influences than about "the life and times of eminem", and only 1/3 of the book or less is about Eminem. Bozza sometimes go as far as talking about the crack issue in New-York city in the late 80's or about the far roots of hip-hop, being the communication by drums used by the Ashanti, a tribe of south africa.....

Like Jason C said, it is a repetetive book. Many things are mentionned or explained more than 2 times.

I loved the last two chapters(6-7) and the conclusion.

This is a tough read. If you wanted an interesting book about Eninem's rise to popularity and behind the scenes dirt on how Dr Dre discovered and nurtured his raw talent, then don't buy this one because this book has NONE OF THAT! Instead, every chapter is a dry account of how Eminem's music affects American society, media and culture. Really dull stuff. He even manages to make the history of rap sound boring. I've read 18 books this year but could not get through this one. The author writes for Rolling Stone and it shows... If you've ever picked up a copy of Rolling Stone and were bored to tears by the over analyzation of music and its social impact, track-by-track, then don't buy this book.

The advance billing for this book made much out of author Bozza's 'unprecedented access' to Eminem, leading one to believe that we would be getting insight into the rapper's personal life and complex past that were previously unseen. Instead we get an extended version of interviews Bozza did with the rapper that have already been published in Rolling Stone. While we get a few more details of the actual interview encounters, there is no additional meat here. Nothing more on his complex history with his mother or his ex-wife, Kim; no insights into Eminem's day-to-day life now. What we do have in abundance is an analysis of Eminem's place in the complex culture of hip hop--particularly as a white man. However, when Bozza makes a comparison between Eminem and fellow causasian star Larry Bird, he misspells the the basketball player's last name as Byrd. Such a careless mistake takes weight away from all of his heavy ruminations. In short, if you're looking for a decent social history of hip hop focusing on Eminem's role, this is the book for you. Just don't expect a biography with 'unprecedented' personal details about the man.