The First Book Eminem Read Cover to Cover Was Written By LL Cool J

Grammy-winning rapper Eminem has been a looming figure in hip-hop for two decades. The Detroit-bred emcee performed at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show alongside other hip-hop greats and has solidified his spot among the genre’s most prolific artists. Needless to say the rapper has come a long way since he first burst onto the scene in the 1990s.

Eminem read LL Cool J’s book in the 1990s

In the late 1990s, Eminem was an independent rapper looking to make his big break into the industry. He looked up to several hip-hop icons, including rapper LL Cool J. In 1997, LL Cool J released his memoir, I Make My Own Rules.

At the time, Eminem was an avid reader of comic books, and had been a fan of reading comics since he was a child. But up until that point, he’d never read a book consisting of just text from cover to cover before. The Things reports that Eminem himself has revealed that I Make My Own Rules was the first book Eminem read in full.

Eventually, Eminem would go on to release his own memoir, The Way I Am, in 2008.

Eminem has looked up to LL Cool J for years

LL Cool J has played a big role throughout Eminem’s life. Em was a fan of the “Mama Said Knock You Out” rapper back when he was in high school, and even met his future wife, Kim Scott, when he was rapping LL’s song “I’m Bad.”

Eminem met LL Cool J in 1998 on the set of his own music video “Just Don’t Give a F***.” He recounted the experience of meeting the rapper he’d looked up to for so many years in an interview on LL’s own SiriusXM radio show Rock the Bells in 2018.

“I’m like, ‘Yo, he’s in here by himself.’ I was buggin’ the f*** out,” Eminem recalled. “You quoted a lyric back to me. You said, ‘Yo, how can I be white / I don’t even exist.’ You quoting that lyric back to me, was like, I think I s*** myself.”

Eminem fulfilled his childhood dreams

Earning the respect and admiration of LL Cool J was a fulfilling moment in Eminem’s life and career. On his 2009 album Relapse, Eminem spoke openly about some of his darkest struggles in one of his most personal albums.

For Em, getting the approval from LL Cool J on the project was a full-circle moment. In an interview with KXNG Crooked, the “Lose Yourself” rapper recounted when he drove around with LL Cool J playing the Relapse album for him, and knowing that LL loved it.

“I was sitting there thinking ‘I don’t even know what to say.’ Before we got into the track I was ‘I just wanna say what you mean to me, man. I’m a stan of you,’” Eminem said. “Just for 15, 16 years old Marshall to think that that can actually happen one day, LL Cool J is sitting in the car with me listening to my album.”

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