Do black people who listen to rap listen to Eminem?

For the most part yes. He has legitimate emceeing talent, and he used that talent to hustle his way to the top. 8 Mile is fictional, but Eminem did enter battle tournaments to raise his profile, and you can find some of those old recordings on Youtube or file sharing services. He was good at it, too. On some of those tapes you can hear people in the audience like "WTF is this white kid doing here?" and by the end of the match they're cheering for Eminem. He did it the old-school, "dozens" way, by comedically ripping on his opponents and engaging in clever wordplay.

He's also legitimately a product of urban America, not a white kid from the suburbs trying to be hard or imitating certain emcees. (Asher Roth, Apathy, Sage Francis come to mind, but there are many others.) He was born and raised in Detroit. He played local shows there, battled other emcees there, and sold his first albums out of the trunk of his car. He doesn't try to "sound black" either, he has his own unique style, with a unique cadence that's unmistakably his.

And of course, he has his group, D12, the backing of Dr. Dre, and a good mix of guest emcees on his material. D12 has a big fan base in their own right, and they're also Detroit locals who came up with Eminem. People who might not otherwise listen to Eminem got introduced to his music through appearances on mixtapes, radio shows, and the albums of his crew.

Of course, tons of white kids buy his albums too. But his overall audience is a lot different than, say, the all-white crowds at a Mackelmore show. BTW, Darius Rucker is a black country singer. 😀

His main audience is overwhelmingly white.

He does get a lot of respect from the black community and from black artists, from what I can tell.

The bigger issue is casual rap listeners (both black and white) vs hardcore rap listeners, hip hop heads, (both black and white).

Casual rap listeners seem to really hold him in high regard. I hear over and over again "I don't listen to rap, but I do listen to Eminem", "Eminem is the best rapper", "God, all those rappers are so stupid, except for Eminem," or worst of all "Eminem is the only rapper who *insert ignorant BS here*" No joke, my 60 year old grandmother listens to Eminem.

For this reason, people who have a strong interest in rap music may dislike Eminem. He's definitely not among the most respected rappers. He's still more talked about and respected than a lot of other rappers, like Flo Rida, Iggy Azalea, Pitbull, and those type of pop-rappers.

YES, the man is a true lyricist!