Eminem -- The Official White Rapper Of The New Millennium?

------------------------------- Nightclub preview

Eminem, Pace Won and the Beatnuts, 9:30 tonight, Showbox, Seattle; $18, 206-628-0888. -------------------------------

Here's one more thing for parents to worry about: Eminem.

He's the hottest new star in popular music, the first white rapper since the Beastie Boys to score massive sales and hardcore rap credibility. His major-label debut album, "The Slim Shady LP," is No. 6 in Billboard (slipping down from No. 2) and has sold more than 2 million copies. His hit single and video, "My Name Is," is - in its cleaned-up but still controversial version - one of the most-requested tunes on rock radio and on MTV.

"It's crazy, feels crazy," he said about his instant fame, in a phone call from a tour stop in Portland. Soft-spoken and reticent, he sounded tired. "I'm constantly doing something - interviews, photo shoots, radio, gigs. Y'know what I'm sayin'?"

But he did like the recent cover story in Rolling Stone.

"It's a little weird seeing your face on the cover," he said. "It was cool. That was probably one of the best articles, one of the realest articles, wrote on me."

As the piece pointed out, lines have been drawn in the sand over Eminem. On the one hand, he's considered a breakthrough rap artist who's blurring the racial lines in hip-hop, and inspiring other unconventional rap and hip-hop artists.

Others see him as a dangerous force, even an aberration. The heaviest element to weigh in against him so far is Billboard, the recording-industry bible. Its editor, Timothy White, wrote a blistering editorial accusing the rapper of "making money by exploiting the world's misery" and condemned "The Slim Shady LP," for being "a debut album whose main themes include drugging, raping and murdering women."

"I thought it was funny," Eminem said of the editorial. "I read bad press and laugh. If I do respond back, it's gonna be funny . . ."

He says his material is for adults. There's a parental-advisory sticker on his album cover, warning of "explicit content." So far, Eminem has been appearing mostly in nightclubs, for over-21s.

"I like playing clubs because I feel I'm more in touch with the people," he said.

But he admitted this will probably be his last club tour.

There's no denying he's popular with kids, who'll be able to see him in concerts. His wicked sense of humor, violent fantasies and endless obscenities are titillating to them - and there's the added allure of his being "forbidden fruit."

Eminem, in the character of his evil alter ego, Slim Shady, opens "My Name Is" with the line, "Hi kids! Do you like violence? . . . Want to copy me and do exactly like I did?" Then he raps about attacking teachers, visiting strip joints, assaulting women, dreaming about killing his parents and various sexual exploits.

If you took the song literally you'd have to consider it unconscionable. But, as the video makes especially clear, it's supposed to be darkly funny. Slim Shady is a pathetic loser, a creep, a jerk, all talk and no action. He, and the other downer characters Eminem plays in various skits on the disc, are not heroes or role models. No one would want to be like them.

Eminem comes on not as a mighty man with the cars, the women, the jewelry, the fame, etc., but rather as a struggling nobody with problems and hang-ups, and anger issues he deals with by concocting elaborate revenge fantasies. On the album, there is running commentary from producer Dr. Dre, playing Slim Shady's "conscience." He advises Shady that his fantasies are foolish and dangerous - but Shady doesn't listen.

Urban roots

Eminem is actually 24-year-old Marshall Mathers (Eminem is phonetic wordplay of his initials) who grew up in a poor, single-parent family in various Midwest cities, primarily Detroit (where he still lives, in a trailer court). Living in mostly African-American neighborhoods, he says he usually got along fine.

At 15, he was shot at and stripped of his running gear. He literally ran out of his sneakers, arriving home bloodied and bruised, in his underwear. An indifferent student, he flunked ninth grade three times before dropping out of high school. Up until late last year, he held a series of low-paying jobs, mostly in restaurants. He is the unmarried father of a young daughter.

He started rapping with black friends while a teen. He entered contests, eventually winning them. He put out an album and an EP on an independent Detroit label. One of his raps was played on a Los Angeles hip-hop station, which Dr. Dre happened to hear while driving. He didn't know he was listening to a white rapper. Dre called his assistant and said "Find him!"

Dre, the most celebrated producer in rap, signed Mathers, then went into the studio with his protege to create "The Slim Shady LP." The first single from it, "Just Don't Give A . . . ," got played on rap stations and was an immediate hit. "My Name Is" took Eminem into the mainstream.

"My main concern is that I hope I'm not opening up a door for a lot of corny . . . white rappers. That's my main concern. I don't want labels to start looking at white rappers to sign just 'cause they're white. I'm afraid it's gonna happen. I don't want that . . . on my name."

Like it or not, he's here to stay. Eminem is poised to become one of the major pop stars of the new millennium. Be warned. ------------------------------- The Beastie Boys are one of Eminem's main influences, but he shows how he feels about his other white rap predecessors in his song, "Just Don't Give a ..." "I'm nicer than Pete/But I'm on a Serch to crush a Milk-bone/I'm Everlasting?I'll melt Vanilla Ice like silicone."