 Eminem spent much of his youth in a lower-middle-class, primarily black Detroit neighborhood. He and Debbie were one of three white households on their block, and Eminem was beaten by black youths several times. As a child he was interested in storytelling, aspiring to be a comic-book artist before discovering hip hop. Eminem heard his first rap song ("Reckless", featuring Ice-T) on the Breakin'soundtrack, a gift from Debbie's half-brother Ronnie Polkinghorn, who later became a music mentor to him. When Polkinghorn committed suicide in 1991, Eminem stopped speaking for days and did not attend his funeral.
