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White Noise: The Eminem Collection
Grammy-winning Eminem (Marshall Mathers) is the first white crossover star of the hip-hop generation and it is a crossover notable for the absence of the resentment (but more of the controversy) that confronted past white performers of "black" music. In fact, black cultural bigwigs from Zadie Smith (who profiled Eminem in a Vibe cover-story lovefest) to rap progenitor and mogul Russell Simmons, not to mention superproducer to the stars Dr. Dre, a host of lesser lights, and hordes of bona fide fans have been crawling out of the woodwork to deflect the very criticism you might expect a white boy to draw when taking up a black form as his own. Meanwhile, self-consciously highbrow journals like the New Republic and the Nation have taken Eminem to task over his confused class antagonism, as portrayed in both his music and his first (it won't be his last) $100 million–grossing feature film, 8 Mile, and his truly scary misogyny and homophobia. This illustrated collection with fifty photographs includes interviews with Eminem along with selections from Toure, Andrew Sarris, Kenneth Turan, Armond White, Richard Kim, Ann Powers, Vic Everett, and many others.
272 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 2003
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About the author
Hilton Als
93 books275 followersHilton Als is an American writer and theater critic who writes for The New Yorker magazine. Previously, he had been a staff writer for The Village Voice and editor-at-large at Vibe magazine.
His 1996 book The Women focuses on his mother, who raised him in Brooklyn, Dorothy Dean, and Owen Dodson, who was a mentor and lover of Als. In the book, Als explores his identification of the confluence of his ethnicity, gender and sexuality, moving from identifying as a "Negress" and then an "Auntie Man", a Barbadian term for homosexuals.
Als's 2013 book 'White Girls' continued to explore race, gender, identity in a series of essays about everything from the AIDS epidemic to Richard Pryor's life and work.
In 2000, Als received a Guggenheim fellowship for creative writing and the 2002–03 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. In 2004 he won the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin, which provided him half a year of free working and studying in Berlin.
Als has taught at Smith College, Wesleyan, and Yale University, and his work has also appeared in The Nation, The Believer, and the New York Review of Books.
His 1996 book The Women focuses on his mother, who raised him in Brooklyn, Dorothy Dean, and Owen Dodson, who was a mentor and lover of Als. In the book, Als explores his identification of the confluence of his ethnicity, gender and sexuality, moving from identifying as a "Negress" and then an "Auntie Man", a Barbadian term for homosexuals.
Als's 2013 book 'White Girls' continued to explore race, gender, identity in a series of essays about everything from the AIDS epidemic to Richard Pryor's life and work.
In 2000, Als received a Guggenheim fellowship for creative writing and the 2002–03 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. In 2004 he won the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin, which provided him half a year of free working and studying in Berlin.
Als has taught at Smith College, Wesleyan, and Yale University, and his work has also appeared in The Nation, The Believer, and the New York Review of Books.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 2, 2007
two extra stars for picking my essay. i can die anthologized.
April 21, 2010
I learned more about Eminem growing up and how hard it must've been to put up with a mother who was a junkie and to help raise a brother who's surrounded by negative influence. The authors of the articles have different points of view but the majority think he's a lyrical genius.I found all the articles well-written and though I disagreed with a few points, overall it was a good book.
November 12, 2010
Research for:
"Hip Hop and the Literary, a special issue of African American Review"
Decent collection of articles, but not enough that delved beyond superficial biography for my purposes.
"Hip Hop and the Literary, a special issue of African American Review"
Decent collection of articles, but not enough that delved beyond superficial biography for my purposes.
November 3, 2010
Not as good as some of the lyrics, but it is very insightful in understanding addiction. Marshall Bruce Mathers III had a pretty bad life but took control.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews