Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, (formerly stylized as EMINƎM) is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor. In addition to his solo career, Eminem was a member of the hip hop group D12. He is also known for collaborations with fellow Detroit-based rapper Royce da 5'9"; the two are collectively known as Bad Meets Evil.
He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 220 million records sold worldwide. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time and is credited with popularizing hip hop in Middle America, Eminem's worldwide success and critically acclaimed work are widely regarded as breaking down racial barriers for the acceptance of white rappers in popular music. While much of his transgressive work during the late 1990s and early 2000s made him widely controversial, he came to be a representation of popular angst of the American underclass and has been cited as an influence for many artists of various genres.
Billboard named him the "Artist of the Decade (2000–2009)". He has had ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200—which all consecutively debuted at number one on the chart, making him the first artist to achieve this—and five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show, Curtain Call: The Hits (2005), "Lose Yourself", "Love the Way You Lie" and "Not Afraid" have all been certified Diamond or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Rolling Stone has included him in its lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.
He has won numerous awards, including 15 Grammy Awards, 8 American Music Awards, 17 Billboard Music Awards, an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and an MTV Europe Music Global Icon Award. In November 2022, Eminem was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He has also developed other ventures, including Shady Records, a joint venture with manager Paul Rosenberg, which helped launch the careers of artists such as 50 Cent, D12 and Obie Trice, among others. He has also established his own channel, Shade 45, on Sirius XM Radio.
Eminem made his major film debut as a fictionalized version of himself in the musical drama film 8 Mile (2002), and his song "Lose Yourself" from the soundtrack won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, making him the first hip hop artist to do so.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri, the only child of Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. and Deborah Rae "Debbie" (née Nelson). He is of English, Scottish, German, German Swiss, Polish and Luxembourgish ancestry.
Eminem's parents were in a band called Daddy Warbucks, playing in Ramada Inns along the Dakotas-Montana border before they separated. Eminem's father, Bruce Jr., left the family, moving to California after having two other children: Michael and Sarah. His mother, Debbie, later had a son named Nathan "Nate" Kane Samara. As a teenager, Eminem wrote letters to his father. Debbie said that they all came back marked "return to sender".
During his childhood, Eminem and his mother shuttled between Detroit, Michigan and Missouri, rarely staying in one house for more than a year or two and living primarily with family members. In Missouri, they lived in several places, including St. Joseph, Savannah and Kansas City.
In Detroit Eminem and his mother lived for much of his youth in a working-class, primarily black, neighborhood. He and Debbie were one of three white households on their block, and Eminem was beaten several times by black youths. When he was a child, a bully named D'Angelo Bailey severely injured Eminem's head in an assault, an incident which Eminem later recounted (with comic exaggeration) on the song "Brain Damage". Debbie filed a lawsuit against the public school for this in 1982. The suit was dismissed the following year by a Macomb County judge, who said the schools were immune from lawsuits. Eminem's home life was seldom stable; he frequently fought with his mother, whom a social worker described as having a "very suspicious, almost paranoid personality". When her son became famous, Debbie dismissed criticism, saying that she had sheltered him and was responsible for his success.
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 Over) on the Breakin soundtrack, a gift from Debbie's half-brother Ronnie Polkingharn. His uncle was close to the boy and later became a musical mentor to him. When Ronnie committed suicide in 1991, Eminem stopped speaking publicly for days and did not attend his funeral.
At age 14, Eminem began rapping with high-school friend Mike Ruby; he adopted the names "M&M", the latter evolving into "Eminem". Eminem meet on steps neighboring Osborn High School fellow rapper Proof, who latter become his best friend and later he sneaked into it with him for lunchroom freestyle rap battles. On Saturdays, they attended open mic contests at the Hip-Hop Shop on West 7 Mile Road, considered "ground zero" for the Detroit rap scene. Struggling to succeed in a predominantly black industry, Eminem was appreciated by underground hip hop audiences. When he wrote verses, he wanted most of the words to rhyme; he wrote long words or phrases on paper and, underneath, worked on rhymes for each syllable. Although the words often made little sense, the drill helped Eminem practice sounds and rhymes.
After spending three years in ninth grade due to truancy and poor grades, he dropped out of Lincoln High School at age 17. Although interested in English, Eminem never explored literature (preferring comic books) and he disliked math and social studies. Eminem worked at several jobs to help his mother pay the bills. One of the jobs he had was with Little Caesar's Pizzall in Warren, Michigan.[1] He later said his mother often threw him out of the house anyway, often after taking most of his paycheck. When she left to play bingo, he would blast the stereo and write songs.
In 1987, Debbie allowed runaway Kimberly Anne "Kim" Scott to stay at their home. Several years later, Eminem began an on-and-off relationship with Scott.
Eminem's Career Through out the Years[]
1988 to 1999[]
In 1988, he performed as "MC Double M", formed his first group "New Jacks", and released a self-titled demo tape with DJ Butter Fingers. He later joined Bassmint Productions in 1989, which later changed its name to "Soul Intent" in 1992.
Eminem's first run-in with the law occurred when he was 20 years old.
Eminem's first album, Infinite, was a commercial failure upon its release in 1996. The lyrics of the album were inspired by his struggle to raise his newborn daughter on little money. Eminem cooked and washed dishes for minimum wage at Gilbert's Lodge, a family-style restaurant at St. Clair Shores, Michigan. By March 1997 he was fired from the restaurant and lived in his mother's mobile home with Kim and Hailie. He tried to commit suicide after the release of Infinite, Eminem's debut EP, the Slim Shady EP, was released in 1997 by Web Entertainment. The character allowed him to express his anger with lyrics about drugs, rape, and murder.
In 1998 he worked with Dr. Dre on his first album, which was later released by Interscope Records.
1999 - 2006[]
In February 1999, Eminem released The Slim Shady LP, which became one of the year's most popular albums. The album's success was accompanied by backlash over its lyrics. Eminem describes a trip with his infant daughter when he disposes of his wife's body in "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" Dr. Dre and Eminem's friendship and musical relationship began with "Guilty Conscience" Later, the labelmates worked together on a number of hit songs, including "Forgot About Dre" and "What's the Difference"
The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. Despite controversies surrounding Eminem's insults and dubious claims about celebrities, the first single, "The Real Slim Shady," was a success (for example, Christina Aguilera had performed oral sex on Fred Durst and Carson Daly) In his second single, he discusses the pressure from his record label to outdo "My Name Is." Despite the fact that Eminem parodied shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the music video for "My name is," the two are reportedly on good terms; Manson is mentioned in "The Way I Am," appears in the music video, and has performed a remix of the song with Eminem. The Eminem Show, which was released in May 2002.
Marshall Mathers LP.
Eminem's video for "Just Lose It" mocks Michael Jackson's child molestation trial, plastic surgery, and the 1984 incident in which Jackson's hair caught fire while filming a commercial. "That's not a stab at Michael / That's just a metaphor / I'm just psycho," Eminem says in the song. In December 2003, the Secret Service stated that it was "looking into" allegations that Eminem had threatened the President of the United States. On October 12, 2004, a week after the release of the video, Jackson phoned Steve Harvey's radio show to report his displeasure with its video. Stevie Wonder, who described it as "kicking a man while he's down," and Steve Harvey (who said, "Weird Al" Yankovic, who parodied the video for his 2003 album Poodle Hat, told the Chicago Sun-Times about Jackson's protest: "The irony of this situation with Michael is not lost on me" Eminem released the anti-war song "Mosh" on October 25, 2004, a week before the 2004 US Presidential election. In it, Eminem gathers an army of Bush-administration victims and leads them to the White House.
2007-2014[]
In September 2007, Eminem stated that he was "in limbo" and "debating" the release of a new album. Eminem released two new albums in March 2009: Relapse and Relapse: Refill. Relapse was released on May 19; its first single and music video, "We Made You," was released on April 7. He headlined the Voodoo Experience in New Orleans on October 30, his first full performance of the year. Several songs from Relapse, as well as many of his older hits, were included in his set, Dr. Dre has released a new album, The Refill, which will be his final before the release of Relapse 2 next year. Dre has stated that he intends to provide more content to his fans this year, as he had previously stated. He claimed that after reuniting with Dre and a few other producers, including Just Blaze, he went in a completely different direction, forcing him to restart from scratch.
Recovery, Eminem's second studio album, was released on June 18, 2010. It was his sixth consecutive number-one album in the United States, and it was the best-selling album in the United States in 2010. The first single, "Not Afraid" debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and was quickly followed by "Love the Way You Lie" which debuted at number two before rising to the top. Despite criticism for its inconsistency, the majority of critics praised Recovery. As of November 21, 2010, the album had sold three million copies in the United States. With Recovery, Eminem broke the record for the most consecutive number one albums in the United States by a solo artist.
2014 - 2018[]
Eminem and Rosenberg started using the hashtag #SHADYXV on social media sites in the summer of 2014. This was later revealed to be the title of a compilation by Shady Records. Shady XV, released on November 24 during Black Friday week, contains one greatest hits disc and one disc of new material from artists such as D12, Slaughterhouse, Bad Meets Evil, and Yelawolf. The album debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 138,000 copies in its first week.
Eminem made an appearance on Tech N9ne's "Speedom (Worldwide Choppers 2)" on April 20, 2015. It was announced in June 2015 that he will serve as executive producer and music supervisor on the TV series Motor City. Eminem released a new song called "Campaign Speech," a political hip hop song, on October 19, 2016, and announced that he was working on a new album.
Kamikaze album.
In February 2017, Eminem appeared on "No Favors" a track from Big Sean's album I Decided. Eminem refers to newly elected President Donald Trump as a "bitch" in the song and raps about rapping conservative social and political commentator Ann Coulter with a variety of foreign objects. Dr. Dre confirmed the album's release date as December 15, 2017 in a video posted on November 28. On November 12, the first single, "Walk on Water," featuring Beyoncé, was released. On November 18, he performed "Love the Way You Lie" with Skylar Grey on Saturday Night Live.
Revival, Eminem's new album, was released on December 15, as planned. On August 31, 2018, he re-released Kamikaze, his tenth studio album and first surprise album. To commemorate its 20th anniversary, the Slim Shady LP will be re-released on February 23, 2019. In addition, he has worked with artists such as Boogie, Logic, Ed Sheeran, 50 Cent, and Conway the Machine.
2019 - Present[]
Music to Be Murdered By, Eminem's third studio album, was released on January 17, 2020. The album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, selling 279,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. Kid Cudi's daughter Vada announced on social media on July 9, 2020, that he was releasing a song with Eminem called "The Adventures of Moon Man & Slim Shady." As of June 12, 2021, the video for the song "Godzilla" had 300+ million views.