Product Description

Chart topping-and headline-making-rap artist Eminem shares his private reflections, drawings, handwritten lyrics, and photographs in his New York Times bestseller The Way I Am

Fiercely intelligent, relentlessly provocative, and prodigiously gifted, Eminem is known as much for his enigmatic persona as for being the fastest-selling rap artist and the first rapper to ever win an Oscar. Everyone wants to know what Eminem is really like-after the curtains go down. In The Way I Am, Eminem writes candidly, about how he sees the world. About family and friends; about hip-hop and rap battles and his searing rhymes; about the conflicts and challenges that have made him who he is today.

Illustrated with more than 200 full-color and black-and-white photographs-including family snapshots and personal Polaroids, it is a visual self-portrait that spans the rapper's entire life and career, from his early childhood in Missouri to the basement home studio he records in today, from Detroit's famous Hip Hop Shop to sold-out arenas around the globe. Readers who have wondered at Em's intricate, eye- opening rhyme patterns can also see, first-hand, the way his mind works in dozens of reproductions of his original lyric sheets, written in pen, on hotel stationary, on whatever scrap of paper was at hand. These lyric sheets, published for the first time here, show uncut genius at work. Taking readers deep inside his creative process, Eminem reckons with the way that chaos and controversy have fueled his music and helped to give birth to some of his most famous songs (including "Stan," "Without Me," and "Lose Yourself").

Providing a personal tour of Eminem's creative process, The Way I Am has been hailed as "fascinating," "compelling," and "candid."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21754 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780452296121
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"The biggest rapper in history."-Rolling Stone

"The best rapper alive."-Vibe magazine

"Part autobiography, part photo gallery, part ephemera collection, it's a handsome roundup for an artist who has been notoriously reluctant to discuss his personal life anyplace but in his music."-New York Times

About the Author
EMINEM (aka Marshall Mathers) has produced, performed, and written several multiplatinum albums, including Relapse, The Slim Shady LP and The Eminem Show. He starred in the semiautobiographical movie 8 Mile, winning an Academy Award(r) for Best Song. His first book, Angry Blonde, was an annotated collection of lyrics and a national bestseller.

Customer Reviews

Great read for the fans
This book is really great. Since the book is written mostly by him, you will learn A LOT about him, even the most hardcore fans will find somethings new here. He's very open, honest & pretty funny. Also, there's like 20 pages of his lyric sheets with comments on them by him, this was cool for me cause I like seeing how music artist write their stuff (although his handwritting is hard to read). Also there's personal pics (a bunch), drawings (like 4) but mostly this book is like sitting across him and interviewing him.

Explains a lot, well worth the wait
Even though I'm a huge Eminem fan, I learned a lot from this book. He covers a lot of subjects that he hasn't before and explains a lot of recent events too. I think the book is very well-written, easy to follow, and very interesting. I've been waiting for Eminem to write a biography for a very long time and I think the wait was well worth it. I'm not too big on reading but I finished this book in three days. If you're an Eminem fan, buy this now. You won't regret it because you'll learn a lot from it.

Impressed, but missing critical details
I am one of Eminem's "older" fans that he references in his book -- but it wasn't "8 Mile" that did it, it was his performance of "Stan" with Elton Jon. He has always intrigued me -- never smiles, seems kind of awkward in interviews, but yet is an artistic genius who is obviously the "real deal" and hence his long staying power. I thought the book was wonderfully written -- a conversational style that sounded just like him, yet wasn't so full of rap jargon that I didn't get it. I loved hearing about his relationship with Proof, who I hadn't known much about. It was interesting, and a little sad, to hear how fame has affected his ability to go out in public without a "posse". The book humanizes him and shows that he's matured; he even apologizes for that dumb Triumph the Insult Dog incident. And the photos of the scrawled lyrics, some on hotel paper, were fascinating. However, I felt key details were missing: He glosses over how he first got involved with Dr. Dre; there's barely anything about his relationship with Kim, how he met her, why they remarried then almost immediately split up again; there's nothing about his addiction to painkillers or going through rehab. The book just comes to an end rather abruptly. If he would have gone into more detail about these aspects of his life, the book would've been perfect, to me.