Eminem Releases Autobiography: “The Way I Am”

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After four years of near-silence, Eminem is putting out not only a new studio album, but an autobiography. And not in that order.

Autobiographical “The Way I Am” delves deep into the difficult childhood, rise to fame, and recent difficulty of Marshall Bruce Mathers III, or Slim Shady, as the case may be.

200-plus pages, the book features text, behind-the scenes photos and reproductions of the hotel stationary and other scraps that his first hit songs were partially written on. You’ll see everything from “My Name Is” and “Stan” to “Lose Yourself” and “Without Me.”

Anyone who knows Eminem’s reluctance to share his personal life might be surprised. Brian Tart, president of publisher Dutton Books, says that it’s his love of music that’s drawn him.

“He doesn’t like being famous, but he sure likes being an artist”

“I think he doesn’t like being famous, but he sure likes being an artist,” Tart said. “Getting away from the trappings of fame was something he needed to do. But in his bones and his blood, he’s an artist.”

The prologue of the book explains the difficulty that has kept the rapper off the radar for so long. The 2006 death of his best friend, fellow rapper Proof, who was shot to death at a club in Detroit.

“After he passed, it was a year before I could really do anything normally again,” Eminem writes. “It was tough for me to even get out of bed, and I had days when I couldn’t walk, let alone write a rhyme…

“I have never felt so much pain in my life. It’s a pain that is with me to this day. A pain that has become a part of who I am.”

Proof got him into the business

Proof had been the one who got him into the business, encouraging him and serving as a “ghetto pass” that allowed the white Eminem into the predominantly-black Detroit hip-hop scene.

“If Proof hadn’t gotten me … into the rap game, I don’t know where I’d be,” he writes. “I certainly wouldn’t be someone you’ve heard of.”

The book goes on to cover some of his career’s controversies, including his 2000 arrest for pistol-whipping a man who’d kissed his wife (”Guns are bad, I tell you”); his issues with substance-abuse (he went through rehab 2 years ago for dependency on sleep-aids); and his ethnicity (”Honestly, I’d love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I’m doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I’m doing.”)

Childhood abandoned by father

He talks about his childhood, abandoned by his father. He had a strained relationship with his mother, and his uncles both committed suicide.

He had trouble supporting his wife, Kim, and daughter, Hailie, until he started rap-battling in Detroit, and was eventually picked up by an assistant at Interscope Records. Dr Dre, helped him to create  his 1999 record “The Slim Shady LP.”

He describes the creation of his image, when on an Ecstasy-fueled whim, he picked up a bottle of peroxide and bleached his soon-to-be signature hair.

“I wasn’t thinking that the peroxide thing was going to be my look,” he writes. “I was just being stupid on drugs.”

Nine Grammys and an Oscar

He’s since created two major records, The Marshall Mathers LP, and The Eminem Show. He’s won nine Grammys, and one Oscar, for his partially biographical movie 8 Mile.

He’s got all the hallmarks of fame-high-end relationships (Mariah Carey) collaborations with other greats (he performed with Elton John at the Grammys), and a rehabbed drug problem.

But what’s really important to him is the fathering of his three girls-daughter Hailie, niece Alaina and another girl, Whitney, who isn’t biologically his.

“All three of my girls call me Daddy,” he writes. “They’re all loved the same and they all get the same treatment. Because of my success, I’ve been able to provide for them in ways my family never could for me. That’s what it’s all about.”