The Way I Am

This is sort of a biography, but more of a coffee table book. It’s a collection of photos of the life of Marshall Mathers (Eminem), interspersed with recollections of his life.

It’s actually quite good. He starts by talking about the death of Proof in 2006, who is a rapper I had never heard of. His death really hit Mathers hard.

As you read the text, you figure out why. Mathers and Proof came up in Detroit together. They were inseparable. A lot of the book is about him and Proof doing stuff – much of it illegal. At the end of the book, you understand why his death was such a big deal. Proof was the best friend he ever had.

It’s well-written, and I feel guilty for thinking it was ghost written. I don’t know why I think this, because Mathers is known for his lyricism. But the prose is…mature? It was written by an articulate, functioning adult.

Mathers wrote the book in 2008, when he was 36-years-old, so maybe this is what he grew into? Throughout the book, he talks about how he’s becoming a boring adult. He talks quite a bit about how he adopted his brother-in-law’s child (I think that’s the relation, anyway), and along with his own daughter, he’s become this mainstream, suburban dad who sits around and watches TV with his kids in the evening.

I bought the book for the insight into his creative process, and he absolutely delivers on that. There’s picture after picture of the infamous notebook pages where he wrote his lyrics. He talks a lot about how he just writes things down as they come to him, without really knowing how he’ll use them. He shows notebook pages and explains what song came out of them.

I loved that. The entire book was good, but you’d really have to be a fan to appreciate all of it. This is clearly a book for people who already like Eminem

If you want to read about creative process (which was why I bought it), there’s something in there for you, but you’ll need to wade through a lot to get there.