Sonic Spirituality: Meditations on Eminem’s “Beautiful” and “My Darling”

Guest writer Marcia Alesan Dawkins’s new book on rapper Eminem, Eminem: The Real Slim Shadyis now available. We here at Sounding Out! are thrilled, so for this week’s post we asked Dr. Dawkins to give us a glimpse into a side of the notorious rapper that few may have heard: the intersection between artist and spirituality. This comes just in time too, considering Kanye West’s latest release, Yeezus, not to mention Touré’s recent biography of Prince, I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon (2013), which examines the confluence of celebrity and spirituality for a generation of Prince fans. Without further ado, give it up for Dr. Dawkins! Pump it up pump it up pump it up!   —Liana M Silva-Ford, Managing Editor

Eminem caught my ear a year before The Slim Shady LP hit record stores in 1999, when I…