By Roman Wolfe
Rapper Eminem will host an exclusive release party in New York on October 21 in celebration of his second book, The Way I Am.
The Way I Am is a collection of Eminem’s personal stories, photographs, artwork, never before seen lyrics and reflections.
The book, which also comes with a DVD featuring unreleased interviews and personal footage of Eminem, lands in the stores the same days is the rapper’s event, which is being held at a secret location.
Fans will be able to listen in to the event via Eminem’s Shade 45 Sirius satellite radio station, which will broadcast from the venue with hosts Angela Yee, Drama King DJ Kay Slay, while producer The Alchemist will man the turntables.
According to Eminem’s longtime friend and manager Paul Rosenberg, the book has several unique features that will be attractive to the rapper’s fan base.
"A couple of my favorite things about the book are the cover and the detachable lyric sheets," Rosenberg said. "The cover is a red acetate film that slides over the traditional book print. The red jacket masks the collage of Em's handwritten lyrics on top of the underlying photo... you kind of have to see it to really get the effect. Also inside the book in the back are several perforated pages which one can pull out of the book. On these pages are reproductions of Em's actual lyric sheets for songs like 'Stan' and 'Lose Yourself.'"
According to Rosenberg, despite Eminem’s superstar status and proven sales record, seeing the rapper’s vision through was not an easy feat.
"I fought hard for the book to have the pages detachable because there is something special about being able to hold the actual page in your hand and turn it around and around to decipher what Em's semi-legible writing is saying," Rosenberg continued. "You have to really see the lyric sheets to fully understand what I'm describing."
Eminem’s 208-page book The Way I Am hits stores October 21 on Dutton Adult, a division of The Penguin Group.