Paul Rosenblog: Steve Stoute's The Tanning of America

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Steve Stoute's The Tanning of America

Tonight I attended Steve Stoute's cocktail party for his new book The Tanning of America. The book is being published by Gotham Books and is available in-stores and online now (it was released on September 8th). Steve is an old friend of mine. We first met when he was the head of Urban Music at Interscope around 2000. I remember my first conversation with Steve- he called me to tell me how big of a fan he had become of Eminem and how he wanted to help us break D12 on Shady. Over the course of the next few years we developed a close friendship as he lived in my neighborhood and we had many mutual friends. Yeah, we fell out for a few years but the problems we had became water-under-the-bridge and we reconnected last year and picked up where we left off- smoking cigars and talking about hip-hop and the landscape of the music world. During those conversations Steve told me about the book he was writing and explained its premise: that hip-hop culture had so greatly affected american culture that it became part of the marketing language and attitude of the mainstream which eventually forced Corporate America to embrace it and ultimately utilize it. Eventually that obviously led to the topic of Eminem and his part in the process. Steve asked to interview Eminem about the subject, and the conversation appears in the book's epilogue. If you get the opportunity pick the book up. There's a very intelligent discussion and explanation of the theory of "tanning" as an american phenomenon that is sure to spark conversation. Below are some photos I took on my Droid from the party. Ok, so Nas, Jigga, Diddy, Fab 5 Freddy, Run, Russel Simmons and Brett Ratner were in the building amongst others- along with the lovely Allison Rosenberg. The Otis Maybach