Check out Eminem's interview with Anderson Cooper from 60 minutes. It came out in October 2010 and Eminem explicitly states how salient his racial and class identities are in the making of his music. "There's no getting away from the fact that I'm white" he tells Cooper, and he explains how people often told him "you're not going to succeed because you're this color". Eminem defies the black association with hip hop, but do you think his upbringing in some way "compensates" for his race in his ability to come across as an authentic hip hop artist?
Another interesting element about this interview I noticed was how Cooper points out that the language Eminem uses in his songs often sparks protest and he has even promoted violence against women and gays (8:42). Eminem doesn't deny it, instead he simply pins his choice of lyrics on the language he grew up with and the nature of the music genre.
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