"Don't Shoot the Messenger", puiblished in TV Hits (Sydney), September 2001.
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Eminem has a message he wants to share directly with you, the readers of TV HITS. It�s so squeaky clean and heart warming, we reckon you can read it aloud around the dinner table tonight, let the whole family know just what sort of a nice bloke Eminem really is. (Okay _ there�s a couple of swear words you�ll have to skip if you actually go through with this.) �If there�s something that you want to do and you work hard enough at it, you�ll do it,� says Eminem, aka Marshall Mathers III, sitting back in his eight-room, million-dollar home in Clinton Township, just outside Detroit. �But you have to know that�s what you want to do, whatever it is. �If it�s riding bikes, if it�s painting cars, whatever it is, if you want to do it bad enough and you have your heart set on it and that�s your dream, don�t give up your fucking dream. �So many people told me to just quit. �Why don�t you quit, why don�t you get a different job, go into rock and roll.� People told me all kinds of shit coming up to try to discourage me. �But I just knew inside my head that this is what I wanted to do. And if I don�t do this, I don�t exist, because I�m going to have no purpose here, I�m not going to be able to feed my little girl [five-year-old Halie Jade Mathers]. �That was my mind frame and if you work hard enough, you can do it. You really can, if it�s feasible. I never knew it was going to get to this level. All I wanted to do was make a living off doing what I do. But now that it is, it�s crazy, it�s a blessing.� So, there you have it, Marshall Mathers� mantra _ words on how to succeed in life from one of the most famous men in the world today. And has Eminem given any thought to how he wants his fans to remember him once he�s gone? What does he hope will one day be written on his tombstone under Marshall Mathers III? �I don�t know what I want on my tombstone yet,� says the 27-year-old rapper, �but I just want to be remembered as somebody who stood up for what they believed in. �I believe that I have a voice and as right or as wrong as people think my opinions are, I have a voice and I reach a lot of people. �And I want to be remembered as somebody who was respected, who stood up for what they believed in. And ultimately, a dope MC, a talented MC.� Most people in the world have never heard Eminem talk like this. They only know him through the _ how shall we say? _ more colourful language used by his foul-mouthed alter-ego, Slim Shady. Put Slim Shady�s words together with stories of Eminem appearing in court for carrying a gun, other stories about his own mother suing him for the bad things he�s said about her, and it�s obvious where all of Eminem�s bad publicity comes from. It�s also the reason why for every person in the world that loves Eminem, there�s probably at least another ten who hate his guts. These people think he�s evil, think his music should be banned, think he shouldn�t even be allowed into Australia to perform a couple of concerts. Of course, most of these people are parents. So Em has a message for all the parents in Australia too. �Accept me into your home,� he says. �To see me is to love me.� Life wasn�t always this cozy and self-assured for Eminem. Everyone now knows the story of how Marshall Mathers III had to survive a hard-luck childhood on his way to becoming the biggest rap star on the planet. Marshall and his mother Debbie, who was only 16 when she gave birth to her son in Kansas City, roamed from city to city, moving house ten times by the time Em was ten, before settling in a black neighborhood on the outskirts of Detroit. By 14, Eminem knew what he wanted to do with his life _ rap. Constantly bashed up by bullies, he�d left school after failing year nine for a second time and got a factory job before starting work as a cook in a local family restaurant called Gilbert�s Lodge in Detroit. All the time he was making tapes of his raps, entering competitions, trying to make a name for himself. By the age of 21, Em had his own child [with longtime girlfriend, and later wife, Kimberly] and only ended up leaving his cooking job just before the release of 1998�s The Slim Shady EP [as opposed to 1999�s Slim Shady LP]. But it wasn�t until rap legend Dr Dre heard Em freestyling on a Los Angeles radio station late in 1998 that his career kicked into gear. �I know that, speaking for myself, I busted my balls to get where I am today,� says Em. �And I�m proud of it. �I mean, picture all your life going through turmoil, just bullshit and just always being dissed for trying to fill in a place for who you are. And to come up in a game that�s mostly black, 99 per cent black, and trying to get respect in that game. You�re always going to feel backed into a corner and you�re always going to feel defensive.� Eminem admits he�s made some bad mistakes on his way to the top, but he says he�s also learned his lessons and grown up a lot over the last couple of years. �Yeah, definitely, I think I�ve matured, not only in age but in my attitude,� he says. �I was always _ still can be at times, but especially a couple of years ago when I first got into this game _ really hotheaded and quick to jump. �My feelings were like, if someone was staring at me, they wanted to fight me. If somebody said something under their breath, they were dissing me. So I was just constantly paranoid. �There would be times on tour where I would damn-near break down and be like, �Yo, I don�t want to fucking do this. I want to go home. I miss my little girl. All this fucking shit that I�m going through, all the work.� �I had to actually come home, see some old friends, go back to old surroundings because, for a minute, it just started to get artificial. It was all just like animated. Everything around me was, like, just not real.� So he�s learned his lessons, thinks he�s a better person, but Eminem still makes no apologies to anyone who finds his art offensive. Em says the constant bickering about his bad language just makes him laugh these days. �I�m just used to it. It�s like if someone was constantly tapping you _ after a while, you�d just get used to it. I�m so used to it now that it doesn�t even faze me.� He doesn�t have a problem with lots of people hating him, because he knows he�s got the love and respect of over 15 million kids around the world who own a copy of either The Slim Shady LP or The Marshall Mathers LP. �It feels good,� says Em. �It feels like the people who I need to respect me, respect me. And the people that I don�t really give a shit about, they don�t give a shit about me either. �Well, actually, they do give a shit about me _ they have an opinion about me and they hate me. So if they�re expending that much energy against me, that�s fine by me. As long as I�m on their mind.� Last month saw the start of the latest chapter in Eminem�s career. But rather than being all about the future, the release of D12�s Devil�s Night represented Eminem acknowledging his past, remembering his mates who stood by him back in the dark days when things weren�t so good. D12 _ The Dirty Dozen _ is Eminem�s old clique from The Hip Hop Shop days back in Detroit. While the young rapper was getting booed off virtually every stage around town just for being white, he found a home and immediate respect at the Shop�s weekly open mic sessions. �The Hip Hop Shop was in the heart of Detroit and it was definitely a place to come show your skills,� remembers Em. �But it was MCs who were like, �Fuck the bullshit, we don�t care what colour you are, just rap. If you can rap, you�ve got a place with us.� �So basically that�s where I felt at home. The first time I rapped there I got a warm reception, then it became like an addiction, every week just going there and freestyling and there were battles. And I had never lost a battle in Detroit so that was a big thing too.� The six dopest MCs decided to form a clique, The Dirty Dozen, and made a pact with each other that the first one to hit the big time would come back for the rest. And Marshall Mathers III stayed true to his word. �Aside from everything, aside from all the bullshit,� says Em, �I know I�ve got a good heart, I know where my loyalty is. Pretty much all the guys in the group have told me that they never doubted me [coming back for them]. Because that was our pact from way back, from when we first started the group five years ago. �Our pact with each other was whoever makes it first, if one of us out of the group makes it, we come back and get the other ones. So I just happened to be the one to get a deal.� So what does D12 sound like? Well, just imagine six Slim Shadys _ some of them with slightly deeper voices _ all going for it at the same time. It�s funny, sick, fast and exhausting to listen to. And it�s probably going to offend six times as many parents too.
