If he didn't exist, would white America dare to invent him? Eminem - aka Marshall Mathers, aka Slim Shady - is a sore, fascinating enigma, indubitably the most contradictory and controversial entertainer around today.
Emerging from a poor, stereotypically white-trash childhood in Detroit, this vengeful hip-hop devotee soon turned his anger into an art form and shot to global notoriety.
Eminem has written two multi-platinum bestselling albums of surreally inventive, vicious, scattergun brilliance and become the world's premier rapper. Along the way, though, he's been accuses of homophobia, endorsing drug abuse and encouraging violence against women, and has flirted with incarceration - a fate many see as inevitable for this modern anti-hero.
So where does Marshall Mathers end and Slim Shady begin? This fantastic illustrated biography is a celebration of the uniquely complex rapper, and attempts to find out how, in short, Eminem really is.
