Whatever You Say I Am_ The Life and Times of Eminem - Anthony Bozza [33]
It took less than a year for them to go from marital bliss to the parking-lot brawl that could have cost Eminem jail time. The incident set off a downward spiral in their relationship that ended with Kim Scott’s suicide attempt about a month later. While her husband played a show at Joe Louis Arena and her mother watched a video with Hailie downstairs, Scott slashed her wrists in an upstairs bathroom. She was discovered in time by her mother. After Kim recovered, Eminem filed for divorce, and the legal wranglings over the custody of their daughter began.
Considering the possibilities, Eminem got off easy. In 2002, he settled the lawsuits with his mother and won joint custody of his daughter. A variety of litigation over Eminem’s music was settled favorably or dismissed. The most entertaining suit was filed by Jacques Loussier, a French classical jazz pianist who demanded that all copies of The Marshall Mathers LP be recalled from stores and who requested $10 million as compensation for alleged unauthorized sampling of his piece “Pulsian” in “Kill You.” More important, for his criminal offenses, Eminem was given two years probation. He moved into a home within a gated community that, with his new indoor pool, home studio, and movie theater, eliminated any need he might have to leave.
Eminem escaped the legal pressures through his work. During this time, he produced D12’s debut, Devil’s Night; toured with Dre and Snoop on the Up in Smoke Tour; toured with Limp Bizkit on the Family Values Tour; filmed 8 Mile; recorded The Eminem Show; and produced beats for Jay-Z, Nas, and most of his own album. It was a relentless schedule that kept him focused and out of trouble. “I’m on probation now,” Eminem said in the spring of 2002, “so I’m a lot more calm because I don’t have a choice. But I probably would have done it anyways. I’m growing up, and I figure there is a certain level of maturity that comes with that.” He then picked his nose to illustrate his point. “Really, though, perhaps all of that was a blessing in disguise. I’m more focused on my job than I’ve ever been.”
Eminem met fame as a trickster would, by trumping expectations. Slim Shady, the vehicle that announced his arrival in 1999, was sidelined at the height of his fame in 2002, as humor took a backseat to technique. “I do most of my stuff at my home studio,” Eminem says. “I make the beat and, depending on how late it is, I’ll either write the rap there or wait until the next day. I’m taking whole days to write songs now—before I might do them in twenty minutes. Once I lay down the vocals, then I see what the beat can do, where it can drop out, what else can come in—most of that shit I learned from watching Dre. Sometimes, though, I get a couple of lines in my head and find a rhythm for them, then I’ll go downstairs and make the beat to that rhythm. That’s why a lot of my drum patterns are kinda crazy and offbeat, because they were made to follow my rhyme. Now more than ever I try to make my rap go right with the beat. I listen to my older shit, even from just two years ago, from the second record, and I can’t stand it. I think I fell behind the beat too much.” If one song can be a turning point in a musician’s style, for Eminem it was “The Way I Am” on The Marshall Mathers LP. One of the last songs recorded for the album, it was produced by Eminem, a role he has grown into as his career has progressed. But the song marked an evolution toward his surging, anthemic musical style. Eminem’s pugilistic defense of himself in this track is emphasized by a skittering snare drum, ominous bass, and church-bell toll to dramatic effect. Where his voice once ranged high and low in an enticing lilt, on “The Way I Am” it is spit through clenched teeth and tensed vocal cords. “I was out in Detroit