“Success is my only motherfuckin’ option – Failure’s not”

Huge article about Eminem in the latest Vanity Fair (which I was unaware is now online … since when did Vanity Fair put their stuff online?)

His CD release date was moved up to November 12 (and I still haven’t gotten the damn thing) to stem piracy.

It’s a very revealing article.

“I had made an [independent] album called Infinite, and on that you can hear the pain and the woes of just growing up and being poor and having a baby on the way. Obviously, I was young and influenced by other artists, and I got feedback that I was influenced by Nas and AZ, another rapper who was down with Nas at the time, and I got the feedback that I sounded like them. And to me, this is my life, everything that I stand for, and it was crushing. It was the same as losing a battle. If people don’t like your music and this is what you plan-or want to do with your life-you gotta make a change. So, I started taking all the feedback and started throwing it back in my music: “Yeah, I am white trash, I am whatever you’re gonna say about me.” Somehow, started taking the disadvantages and used them to my advantage. I reached a point where I stopped caring what people thought about me. And the second I stopped caring, people started caring about me. So, I figured out how to flip it. As soon as I did that, it became … “He’s selling so many records because he’s white.” And I remember there was a time when I couldn’t get a record deal, or get looked at, because I was white.”

And the second I stopped caring, people started caring about me.

Damn. That’s such a true thing – you can see it in pretty much any star that hits it huge. There’s a part of them that just doesn’t care. They do their thing, they express themselves the way they see fit … because it is THAT that made them a star.

I like this, too – something he says over and over again, in his music and in interviews:

This is adult music, and, yeah, it has that appeal where kids are going to like it, but that’s where parents should step in and be a parent. Watch what your kids are listening to, because I do the same thing with my kids.

The lyrics in one of his songs, dedicated to his daughter Hailie: “I wouldn’t let Hailie listen to me neither…”

I also think it’s very interesting that no matter what happens, no matter how much success he has, he still will always be “the underdog”. There are many who want him to fail, but there are many many more who stand back, in awe, waiting to see what this dude will do next. But because of his skin color, he will always be the underdog.

What also sets him apart from his other hip-hop compatriots is his absolute disinterest in what ya might call “the bling-bling lifestyle”. He could not care less. He’s richer than God, but he doesn’t live his life that way. He lives in Detroit, a couple blocks from where he grew up, in a house he bought just as he started making a bit of money. It’s not lavish. It’s a basic house. He “volunteers” in his neighborhood, he’s on committees to keep the streets safe and clean, he helps out in his daughter’s class, he’s known as “Mr. Mathers”. I think that’s hilarious. But it seems that – what this guy is addicted to is WORK. And maybe working OUT. (See the photo below. Ahem.)

But that’s it. You never see pictures of him out and about town, you never see him out in public, he never goes anywhere. He hangs out at his house, raises his daughter, makes his music.