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.