Product Details
Eminem: The Stories Behind Every Song

Eminem: The Stories Behind Every Song
By David Stubbs

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Product Description

Emerging from a poor, stereotypically white-trash childhood in Detroit, this vengeful hip-hop devotee soon turned his anger into an art form and shot to global notoriety. Eminem has written two multi-platinum bestselling albums of surreally inventive, vicious, scattergun brilliance and become the world's premier rapper and and icon for disaffected teenagers everywhere. Along the way, though, he's been accused of homophobia, endorsing drug abuse, encouraging violence against women, and flirting with incarceration — a fate many see as inevitable for this psychologically flawed modern antihero. So where does Marshall Mathers end and Slim Shady begin? Who, in short, is Eminem? This fantastic biography is a celebration of the uniquely provocative and complex rapper who advises his young fans, "Don't do drugs, have unprotected sex, or be violent — leave that to me."

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #309253 in Books
  • Published on: 2006-09-28
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 256 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Stubbs has written for Uncut, the Times (London), the Guardian, NME, GQ, Spin, and Arena among others, profiling and interviewing figures including De La Soul, Public Enemy, R.E.M., Morgan Freeman, Tony Bennett, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Steve Coogan, and Tim Robbins. He lives in Blackheath, London.

Customer Reviews

Absolute garbage1
A total time waster. I was expecting it to have interviews with Em where he would hopefully offer insight into his lyrics and describe the process by which he came up the words and messages. At the very least, I would expect accurate and detailed summaries of not only the lyrics, but the production as well.

Instead, what the writer does is paraphrase the songs HORRIBLY, even negatively reviewing classics such as "Sing for the Moment", stating that it "sprials into dizzying realms of guff", or take "My Dad's Gone Crazy", where he claims that 6-year-old Hailie Jade sounds "disturbing, the way she's looped into the mix".

Look, if I wanted to read someone's personal opinion of every Em track, I'd make sure it was someone who actually understood and appreciated the substance of the content. This writer makes it so apparent that he's just trying to collect a check that he even misspells certain tracks, like "Drugs Ballad".

As Em's #1 fan, I can say in all honesty that I could have written a more concise, thoughtful, and respectful account of his songs with more interesting facts and details on things other than just literal paraphrases. What about the production? What about the process? What about the multisyllabic structures?

Speaking of Drug Ballad, there is a snippet quote from Em stating he "turned it out in 20 minutes". If there was ever an interview that took place between these two personas, I hope the writer realizes Em was totally messing with him the whole time.

I read 1/3 of this book and then wiped my a** with page 107 and hung the color photos from the center of the book on my fridge.