Anthony bozza rapper biography movies

Looking at itself through the Hollywood mirror, America in the early Nineties gazed at a repellent image. Everything seemed dumb or dumber. Music was, for white Americans at least, little better. When Kurt Cobain's death robbed grunge of its most earnest spokesman, the industry had only rap on offer, which even in its gangsta form had a vibrancy and wit that tired mainstream rock could not match. Rap was dominated by African Americans; a few whites were hyped, and failed.

Enter Eminem. A wised-up white rapper in a dumbed-down world, Eminem is everything America needs him to be, as even would-be censors will see after reading Anthony Bozza's book. Persevere: this is a slow starter. One breathless account of the star-struck author in a limo with Eminem dissing everyone would be enough. We get too many. The important thing about Eminem is that he turns this unpleasant normality into beats and rhymes which appeal to millions.

We also don't need the American Dream narrative in which the boy genius emerges from trailer-trash origins. The movie 8 Mile, and Eminem's lyrics, tell that tale, however mythologised. Bozza soon begins to work at the why and how of the story, discussing the origins and development of hip-hop culture, examining Detroit's place in American music history, and looking at race and ethnicity in the US before getting back to the nitty-gritty of those lyrics and what Eminem "means".

Always shifting but never approaching equality, race relations in the US are key to Eminem's success. Eminem has achieved a level of performed blackness indicating a shift away from skin and to culture as the centre of identity.

His first two albums found success among black followers as well as white teenagers looking beyond punk rock for doses of anger management. Many reviewers, and an odd coalition of family-values and gay pressure groups, were hostile, although the controversy proved again that i

Anthony Bozza

Boswell to the Stars

Anthony Bozza has always read the fine print. He was a nerd in childhood, or so he says. An only child, he spent much time in his room reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy and poring over its Elvish language glossary at the back. When he became enamored of music in fourth grade—Debbie Harry and Pat Benatar at first—he read the backs of their albums for the credits—who played what, where they recorded—and wondered what a music studio could be like.

At Northwestern, he dove into the study of history with a similar passion when Ivor Wilks, the famed British Africanist, fascinated him with firsthand accounts of the Ashanti in Ghana. His first big career break came when Rolling Stone magazine hired him as an unpaid intern. “I loved writing history papers,” he told us. “Essentially what I started doing at Rolling Stone was writing history papers, just about music.”

Now it is the public that reads his print, fine or otherwise, in the four best-sellers he has had published since 2002. Nerd no more, the easy-going, engaging author counts as friends the subjects of his books—rapper Eminem, rock stars Tommy Lee and Slash, and comedian Artie Lange. In an interview over brunch near his Greenwich Village home, it was easy to see how the 38-year-old author has won their trust. Bozza is empathetic and comfortable in his own skin. He laughs a lot, often at himself. He’s not afraid to show you his “warts” if you’ll show him yours. Here, in his own words, is a story about the storyteller.

Where did your love of music come from? Are you a musician yourself?

I used to play piano and guitar really badly. It’s pathetic for me to say that I play anything. I understand how they work. I play the radio pretty well.

My love of music started early. When he was younger, my dad sang the high notes in a Doo Wop gro

Anthony Bozza has been giv­en unpre­ced­en­ted access to Eminem to write a second bio­graphy, Not Afraid: The Evol­u­tion of Eminem, cov­er­ing the last 15 years of his life.

Fol­low­ing his inter­na­tion­al best­seller, Whatever You Say I Am, Anthony’s second book on Eminem will cov­er the most fas­cin­at­ing part of the rapper’s career — the time he spent out of the pub­lic eye, his battle with addic­tion, his re-emer­gence onto the music scene, his per­son­al life, his polit­ic­al views and his tri­umphant return to the top. With unpre­ced­en­ted access and build­ing on dec­ades of research, Anthony’s book will be an intim­ate por­trait of an incred­ibly private man and an essen­tial gift for mil­lions of Eminem fans worldwide.

Anthony Bozza said, “My book gives a unique per­spect­ive on Eminem’s life and career, fea­tur­ing exclus­ive inter­views from Eminem’s closest friends and col­lab­or­at­ors includ­ing his man­ager, Paul Rosen­berg, his pro­du­cer, Mr. Port­er, Royce Da 5’9 and LL Cool J. Not Afraid is a can­did account of the man who became argu­ably the greatest and most influ­en­tial rap­per of all time.”

About Anthony Bozza

Anthony Bozza is a New York City-based author, journ­al­ist and host of the Winyl pod­cast. He’s a former Rolling Stone seni­or staff writer and has writ­ten for oth­er pub­lic­a­tions includ­ing The New York Times, Spin and Play­boy. He is also the author of many best­selling books includ­ing Whatever You Say I Am: The Life & Times of   Eminem (2003), Slash(2007) and Tommy­Land with Tommy Lee(2004)

American rapper (1973–2006)

Not to be confused with Prof (rapper).

Musical artist

DeShaun Dupree Holton (October 2, 1973 – April 11, 2006), known professionally as Proof, was an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. During his career, he was a member of the groups 5 Elementz, Funky Cowboys, Promatic, Goon Sqwad, and D12. He was a close childhood friend of rapper Eminem, who also lived in Detroit. Proof was often a hype man rapper at Eminem's concerts.

Early life

Holton was born to Sharallene "Pepper" Holton, a single mother. His father, McKinley Jackson, was a music producer who left to pursue his career prior to Holton's birth. Holton was close friends with Eminem from a young age.

Career

Originally known as Maximum, under the moniker "Proof", Holton first rose to national prominence when he formed D12, "The Dirty Dozen", in 1996 with his friends Eminem, Bizarre, Mr. Porter, and a high school friend Eye-Kyu. Shortly after that, Proof recruited two friends, B-Flat & Dirty Ratt, to the group. This created the first lineup of Proof's supergroup D12. Eventually this first incarnation of the group ended back in early 1996 because the original members of D12, Eye-Kyu, B-Flat, and Dirty Ratt, were more focused on recording music with their other groups. Bizarre, Denaun, and Eminem, could not make it to the studio sessions because they were also working with their other groups. Proof decided to break up this version of the group in 1996.

Proof later reformed the group in mid-1996.