American actress and model Emily Ratajkowski is impressed with Hilton Als’s essay about Eminem. This is why.
Hilton Als is a columnist, essayist, a cultural critic whose contributions to the most influential US publications became the staples of the intellectual circles on both coasts, whose analysis of art, music and literature never shies away from issues of gender, race and economic inequality. In 2013 he published his second book, the collection of essays titled “White Girls”. One of the essays, “White Noise” is focused on Eminem, his background and how it shaped his lyricism and his position in the discussion about race. Here is one of the paragraphs:
[…T]he slings and arrows of Mathers’s outrageous misfortune in and out of school, in the outside of Detroit’s black world, did not deter him from falling increasingly in love with black music is a testament to his interest in and commitment to exploring difference — his and theirs. Unlike many of the whites he grew up with, Mathers never claimed whiteness and its privileges as his birthright because he didn’t feel white and privileged. Being emotionally beaten up at home, having his ass kicked at school, slinging hash in a number of fast-food joints after he quit school in the ninth grade, all contributed to Mathers’s sense that he was about as welcome in the world as any black man. And rap’s dissonant sound was the soundtrack to all that.
This was not the first time when Hilton Als approached this subject. Back in 2003, he edited “White Noise: The Eminem Collection”, the volume that presented the collection of essays, interviews and photographs of Marshall who was essentially at the beginning of his career.
Emily Ratajkowski, who is known by her role in the video for Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and in Ben Affleck’s “Gone Girl”, is catching up with her reading list in the quarantine and was probably surprised by the deep and respectful analysis provided by Hilton Als. She posted the snap of pages she was reading and even tagged Eminem, suggesting he should read it.
It might not be breaking news for Eminem, the fact that serious thinkers see him as a topic of analysis. But if you were wandering what book to pick up next – you can give it a try.
