The Dark Story of Eminem (45 page)

Recovery
‘s second single, ‘Love The Way You Lie’, was another US number one. It returned to the theme of a mutually violent, passionate relationship, as explored on
Encore
‘s ‘Crazy In Love’. It gained a frisson from guest star Rihanna, recently in the news for being battered by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown, prettily singing she loved the pain. Her status as the year’s top R&B star equally helped the song’s crossover success, perhaps in spite of its theme.

Relapse
‘s most surprising disappointment had been its avoidance of Proof’s death. “I tried to write a song for you but nothing was good enough,” Eminem admitted in its sleeve notes. “It took me so long to get out of that place where I couldn’t even speak about it without crying,” he confessed to
Vibe
.
Recovery
put this right. ‘Going Through Changes’ followed his depression right onto the operating table after his overdose, where Hailie’s voice reaches him and pulls him back from death. ‘You’re Never Over’ imagined Proof as the guardian angel who made him think of his daughter in time. This song was a cry of love from Eminem, feeling old, alone and “insane” without his friend, but determined to “rise from these ashes” in his honour. He didn’t rap its choruses, but sang with naked feeling, as if with grieving friends at Proof’s wake. As fuzzed guitars and synths pounded the song home, a hard heart might think, not for the first time on
Recovery
, of some old Eighties Foreigner ballad. But the bombast was built around the most exposed vocals of Eminem’s life.

Recovery
was a startling success. It was a sustained transatlantic number one, selling 714,000 in its first week in the US. By October 2010, global sales already touched five million. Gavin Martin in the
Mirror
summed up the critical temperature: “
Relapse
offered gory imagery aplenty, but
Recovery
packs real emotional weight … he would be the first to admit that his
Recovery
is by no means complete. But at least it often connects with the rude health that helped make him great in the first place.”

Eminem no longer really toured, preferring to put his family first. “It’s hard on the body,” he observed to the
New York Times
. “It used to be a big trigger for me with drinking and drugging.” He was content with four high-profile US gigs with Jay-Z, starting at Detroit’s Comerica Park on September 2. A three-night trip to Europe was caught by the
NME
when he headlined Scotland’s T in the Park festival. They saw him “bound” on stage, “his rapping tongue … sharp – every syllable arrowing through the chilly Scottish sky,” as T’s biggest crowd in years moshed before him.

D12 shuffled on with him for a while. But the Shady empire they had been foot-soldiers for, once meant to rival Motown, had fallen in his absence. D12’s four other survivors had been equally distraught from Proof’s death. Their follow-up to 2004’s
D12 World
also had to wait in Shady parent Interscope’s corporate line for Eminem to surface. Kuniva spoke to the
Detroit Free Press
on their future in 2008. “I’ve read the blogs where people are so fucking cruel: ‘Why do they call it the Dozen when two members are dead?’” Bizarre put out three solo albums independently, telling
XXL
, “I’m trying to get away from the whole Eminem thing.” He added to
Complex
of their erstwhile star’s D12 involvement now: “He’s at the point in his career where he needs us to stand on our own, and he’ll come for the finishing touches … We can’t be on my man’s left nut sack.”

Cashis’s Eminem-produced
The County Hound EP
sold only 6,700 copies its first week; his
The Art of Dying
LP was shelved. Obie Trice quit Shady in 2008, tired of waiting on a label finally dependent on one distracted man. His last album for them,
Second Round’s On Me
, showed an X-ray of the bullet still lodged in his head, where stray lead sloshed and froze when he moved. He mixed armed defiance to his enemies with soulful, socially informed regret. ‘Obie Story’ described a clever little boy with a loving mother, damned to drug-dealing and violence by the gunshots which echoed down his street and America’s slave legacy of black people not “born equal”. Eminem’s production was careful, Obie’s rapping strong. This fine bulletin from a hurt man refusing to leave Detroit’s streets showed what Shady Records could have been.

The folk devil who had capered through the UK in 2001 had also disappeared. Eminem was a beloved old entertainer now. One reaction to
Recovery
‘s success was simply that people were pleased to have him back. “For right-wing Americans, his name is still enough to conjure up this visceral fear of everything he stands for,” the
Independent
‘s LA correspondent, Guy Adams, considers. “They still believe the old George Bush line that he’s more dangerous than polio. He’s very well respected and widely liked, but he’s not modish. He’s not a real celebrity at the moment in the sense that Kanye West is. He was in the major newspapers every single day for five or six years, and now he’s not. I think if he stuck a baseball cap on, he could quite happily walk down Rodeo Drive in Hollywood and not be recognised by paparazzi. He doesn’t exist in that world.”

Eminem finished the decade as its biggest-selling artist,
Billboard
declared. But the man who, at his peak in 2002, had seemed ready to take on the mantle of a great American like Allen Ginsberg, writing about and wrestling with his country when he wrote about himself, had been reduced by American fame. He no longer raged at presidents, or even seemed interested in how the racial schisms he once picked at had been bridged by Obama. He no longer felt able to see America at all. “I stay at home a lot because I can’t go anywhere without a huge entourage,” he believed in
The Way I Am
. “Sometimes I’ll go out just to prove I can do it. I’ll leave my neighbourhood and go to where a lot of people are …” Sometimes, he cruised back to the streets where he once lived in Detroit, a ghost now, unable to walk freely there ever again. “I’ll go back and remember … how life was back then,” he explained to
Spin
. “How much of a struggle it was. As time goes by, you might get content and forget things.” He tried to explain these roots to his daughters too. “Why
should
we live like that?” they sniffed, even Hailie too young to remember when he couldn’t buy her clothes. They were a millionaire’s children, living behind his mansion’s gates. His old compadre Royce Da 5–9 didn’t see much difference. “He’s always been a homebody,” he told
Vibe
.

Eminem at 38, isolated by fame, mourning his best friend and, he told
Vibe
, often laying awake since his overdose fearing his own death, could seem a tragic figure. But he and his teenage sweetheart Kim shared their children seamlessly, and loved each other (“We’re a good team now,” he wrote in
The Way I Am
), and he was the world’s most successful rapper.
Recovery
showed this American life could still be mined for music. His competitive urge to stay on top had become its own, self-generating subject. “Realistically, if I don’t rap, what the fuck am I going to do?” he asked
Vibe
, knowing the answer. “It’s too late to just be unfamous at this point.” All Marshall Mathers’ dreams had come true. He was learning to live with them.

The Origins Of The Urban Crisis: Race And Inequality In Postwar Detroit
by Thomas J. Sugrue (Princeton, 1996) was particularly helpful on the history of Detroit;
Have Gun Will Travel
by Ronin Ro (Quartet, 1998),
A Change Is Gonna Come
by Craig Werner (Payback, 2000) and
Westsiders
by William Shaw (Bloomsbury, 2000) were all useful in thinking about hip-hop and Eminem.

Thanks also to Anthony LeQuerica for Detroit hospitality, and Sebastian Krop for Detroit driving, both beyond the call of duty.

And to Sarah Jezzard and Andrea Nettleton, for making my life better.

Infinite
(Web Entertainment, 1996)

The Slim Shady
LP (Aftermath/Interscope, 1999)

The Marshall Mathers
LP (Aftermath/Interscope, 2000)

The Eminem Show
(Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2002)

Encore
(Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2004)

Encore Collector’s Edition –
includes extra tracks ‘We As Americans’, ‘Love You More’ and ‘Ricky Ticky Toc’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2004)

Curtain Call: The Hits
(Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2005)

Relapse
(Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2009)

Relapse: Deluxe Edition
– includes extra tracks ‘My Darling’ and ‘Careful What You Wish For’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2009)

Relapse: Refill
– includes extra tracks ‘Forever’, ‘Hell Breaks Loose’, ‘Buffalo Bill’, ‘Elevator’, ‘Taking My Ball’, ‘Music Box’, ‘Drop The Bomb On Em’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2009)

Recovery
(Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2010)

With D12:

Devil’s Night
(Shady/Interscope, 2001)

D12 World
(Shady/Interscope, 2004)

With various artists:

8 Mile
(Shady/Interscope, 2002)

Eminem Presents: The Re-Up
(Shady/Interscope, 2006)

As Soul Intent:

‘Fucking Backstabber’/’Biterphobia’ (Mashin’ Duck, cassette only, 1996)

As Bad Meets Evil (with Royce Da 5–9)

‘Nuttin’ To Do’/’Scary Movies’ (Beyond Real, 1998)

As Eminem:

The Slim Shady EP (Web Entertainment, 1998)

‘Just Don’t Give A Fuck’/ ‘Brain Damage’ (Aftermath/Interscope, 1998)

‘My Name Is’ (Aftermath/Interscope, 1999)

‘Any Man’ (Rawkus, 1999)

‘Guilty Conscience’ (Aftermath/Interscope, 1999)

‘The Real Slim Shady’ (Aftermath/Interscope, 2000)

‘The Way I Am’/’Bad Influence’ (Aftermath/Interscope, 2000)

‘Stan’ (Aftermath/Interscope, 2000)

‘Without Me’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2002)

‘Cleanin’ Out My Closet’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2002)

‘Lose Yourself’ (Shady/Interscope, 2002)

‘Sing For The Moment’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2003)

‘Business’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2003)

‘Just Lose It’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2004)

‘Like Toy Soldiers’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2005)

‘When I’m Gone’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2005)

‘Crack A Bottle’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2009)

‘We Made You’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2009)

‘3 a.m.’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2009)

‘Beautiful’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2009)

‘Not Afraid’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2010)

‘Love The Way You Lie’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2010)

‘No Love’ (Aftermath/Shady/Interscope, 2010)

With D12:

‘Shit On You’ (Shady/Interscope, 2001)

‘Purple Pills’ (Shady/Interscope, 2001)

‘Fight Music’ (Shady/Interscope, 2001)

‘My Band’ (Shady/Interscope, 2004)

‘How Come’ (Shady/Interscope, 2004)

‘5 Star Generals’ single – Shabaam Sahdeeq (Rawkus, 1998)

‘Green And Gold’ on
Green And Gold
EP —The Anonymous (Goodvibe, 1998)

‘Trife Thieves’ on
Attack Of The Weirdos
EP – Bizarre (Federation, 1998)

‘We Shine’ on
Episode 1
EP – Da Ruckus (Federation, 1998)

‘Fuck Off’ on
Devil Without A Cause
LP – Kid Rock (Atlantic, 1998)

‘ThreeSixtyFive’ single – OldWorlDisorder (Beyond Real, 1998)

‘The Anthem’ single – Sway & Tech (Interscope, 1999)

‘Hustlers And Hardcore’ on
Behind The Doors Of The 13th Floor
LP – Domingo (Roadrunner, 1999)

‘Get You Mad’ on
This Or That
LP – Sway & Tech (Interscope, 1999)

‘Busa Rhyme’ on
Da Real World
LP – Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott (EastWest, 1999)

‘The Last Hit’ on
Home Field Advantage
LP – The High & Mighty (Rawkus, 1999)

‘Watch Dees’ on
Heavy Beats Vol. One
EP – DJ Spinna (Rawkus, 1999)

‘Macosa’ single – The Outsidaz (Ruffnation, 1999)

‘Forgot About Dre’ (also single) and ‘What’s The Difference’ on
2001
LP – Dr. Dre (Aftermath, 1999)

‘If I Get Locked Up Tonight’ – Funkmaster Flex & Big Kap, with Dr. Dre (Def Jam, 1999)

‘Dead Wrong’ (also single) on
Born Again
LP – Notorious B.I.G. (Bad Boy, 1999)

‘Rush Ya Clique’ on
Night Life
EP – Outsidaz (Ruff Life, 2000)