Reclusive rapper Eminem returns with book, new album

Washington, Oct 20 (DPA) Missing in action for close to two years, rapper Eminem, 36, is making a comeback with a new album and a memoir.

'I had no idea I was going to be so famous,' he writes in his memoir titled 'The Way I Am', which is to be released in the US Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press reported Sunday.

'Rap forced me to deal with people socially,' the Oscar and Grammy winner writes in the book that traces his life from a difficult childhood to celebrity status.

'The Way I Am' begins with the fatal shooting in 2006 of his best friend and rapper Proof. 'I can't even bring myself back to the place I was when I heard what happened to Proof. I have never felt so much pain in my life ... It's a pain that has become a part of who I am.'

'There's a lot of raw stuff in here,' the newspaper quoted Brian Tart, president of Dutton Books, as saying.

'I was very impressed with the level of insight he has into fame and what it means, and trying to be a father, and trying to stay successful without selling out or losing focus on what's important to him,' Tart said.

Another book, this one by his estranged mother Debbie Nelson, is to be released in the US by the end of October and is titled 'My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem'. The book was published in Europe last year, the report said.

The rapper was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in Missouri Oct 17, 1972. His mother was just 15 at the time and his father left home when we was six months old.

A new album, 'Relapse', is also on the way - it will be his first album in four years - and is likely to be released by Christmas. One song, 'I'm Having a Relapse', is already playing on the internet, with hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube. It begins, quite appropriately: 'Guess who's back?'