Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem

By Anthony Bozza
Crown Publishers, $23


Even his sternest critics would admit that Marshall Mathers has a way with words. The truly definitive Eminem biography will surely be written by Eminem himself. Instead, here he has ceded the task to a journalist who has interviewed him throughout his career.

Bozza’s writing is frequently sharp — he smartly links Eminem’s success to reality TV and gross-out comedy movies — but his proximity to his subject is a mixed blessing. He has been in some fascinating scenarios: conducting his first interview with Eminem after the rapper has taken four Ecstasy tablets and visiting him, pre-superstardom, in his trailer-park home. But the fact that he has been allowed unique insight into Eminem’s life seems to have left Bozza with an inflated sense of his own importance.

The charmless introduction finds the author sneering at fans lining up to see 8 Mile. Describing that first interview, he solemnly suggests that his “empathy and enthusiasm” mean Eminem can “relate” to him, neglecting to mention that four caps of Ecstasy could make you relate to Osama bin Laden. He spends an entire chapter upbraiding not just Eminem’s critics, but virtually every writer who has dared to express any opinion whatsoever about him. It eventually becomes apparent that Bozza is censuring them not for their views but for the unspeakable crime of not being Anthony Bozza.

If Bozza had eased up on the blustery self-importance, Whatever You Say I Am might well have been a fantastic book — a brilliantly incisive section on race certainly suggests so. As it is, it’s a missed opportunity.
—James Slaughter