Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972),[2] better known by his stage name Eminem and by his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. In addition to his solo career, Eminem is a member of his group D12, as well as one half of the hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, alongside Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the world's best-selling music artists and is the best-selling artist of the 2000s.[3] He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines, including Rolling Stone magazine which ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[4] The same magazine declared him The King of Hip Hop.[5] Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200.His worldwide albums sales stand at more than 100 million, singles 120 million, and the estimated sale of over 220 million records worldwide,.[6][7][8] In the United States, he has sold 49.1 million albums and 42 million tracks.[9]
After releasing his independent debut album Infinite in 1996, Eminem rose to mainstream popularity in 1999 with the release of his major-label debut album The Slim Shady LP. The LP also earned Eminem his first Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. His next two records The Marshall Mathers LP, and The Eminem Show, also won Best Rap Album Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. This was followed by another studio release in 2004 titled Encore. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album in five years titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery. Recovery was an international success and was named the best selling album of 2010 worldwide, joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse andRecovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career, making up it best-selling rap album artist of all-time.[10] Eminem is currently working on his eighth studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 set to be released on November 5, 2013.
Eminem has opened other ventures, including his own record label Shady Records with his manager Paul Rosenberg. He also has his own radio channel, Shade 45 on Sirius XM Radio. In 2002, Eminem starred in the hip hop drama film 8 Mile. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first rap artist ever to win the award.[11] He has also made cameo appearances in The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009) and the television series Entourage.
1972–95: Early life and beginnings
Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri, the only child of Deborah R. (Nelson) Mathers-Briggs (born 1955) and Marshall Bruce Mathers, Jr. (born 1947).[13] He is of Scottish,[14] English, German, Swiss, Polish, andLuxembourgian ancestry.[15] His mother was 15 when she married his father and nearly died less than three years later during Mathers' 73-hour birth.[16] His parents were in a band called Daddy Warbucks, playing Ramada Inns along the Dakota-Montana border before their relationship went sour.[12] Mathers' father abandoned the family shortly thereafter, moving to California.[12] During childhood, he and his mother shuttled between Missouri and Michigan, rarely staying in one house for more than a year or two and mostly living with family members. In Missouri, they lived in various cities and towns, including Saint Joseph, Savannah, and Kansas City,[17] before finally settling in Warren, Michigan when Mathers was eleven.[12][18] As a teen, Mathers wrote letters to his father, all of which, according to his mother, came back "return to sender."[12] Friends and family contend Mathers was a happy kid but also "a bit of a loner" who often was bullied; one such persecutor, De'Angelo Bailey, beat Mathers so significantly that he suffered a severe head injury.[16] In response, Mathers-Briggs filed a lawsuit against the school in 1982, but the case was dismissed the following year.[16]
Mathers spent much of his formative years living in a largely black lower-middle-class Detroit neighborhood.[12] Mathers-Briggs and her son were one of three white households on their block, and Mathers was confronted and beaten up by African-Americans on several occasions.[12] As a child, Mathers developed an interest in storytelling and aspired to become a comic book artist before discovering hip hop.[19] Mathers heard his first rap song at nine—"Reckless" featuring Ice-T on the Breakin' soundtrack—which he received as a gift from his Uncle Ronald "Ronnie" Polkinghorn.[12] Mathers' Uncle Ronnie committed suicide several years later; the loss affected him so greatly he stopped speaking for days and was absent at the funeral.[12] His home life was seldom stable, and Mathers constantly fought with his mother, who was once described by a social worker as having a "very suspicious, almost paranoid personality."[16] Mathers-Briggs bristled at any suggestion that she was less than an ideal mother when her son became famous, contending that she sheltered Mathers and was responsible for his success.[16] In 1987, Mathers-Briggs allowed runaway Kim Scott to stay at their home; several years later, Mathers and Scott would begin an on-and-off relationship.[16] After spending three years in ninth grade due to truancy and poor grades,[20] he dropped out of Lincoln High School at age 17. Although he was highly interested in English, Mathers was never into literature (preferring to read comic books instead) and disliked math and social studies.[21] He worked several jobs to help his mother with bills, later maintaining that he would often be kicked out regardless. When she would leave to play bingo, Mathers would blast the stereo and write lyrics.[12]
At the age of 14, he began rapping with high-school friend Mike Ruby, the two adopting the names "Manix" and "M&M," which soon morphed into Eminem.[2][16] Mathers grew ready to test his skills by sneaking into neighboring Osborn High School with friend and fellow rapper Proof for lunchroom freestyle battles.[22] On Saturdays, the two friends attended open-mic contests at the Hip-Hop Shop, located on West 7 Mile. The spot was considered the "ground zero" for the Detroit rap scene.[12] Despite a well-documented struggle succeeding in a predominantly black industry, he gained the approval of underground hip hop audiences.[2][13][23] To put together verses, Mathers wanted the most words to rhyme, and would write long words or phrases out on paper and, underneath, proceed to rhyme each syllable.[21] Even though it would often make little sense, the drill helped Mathers practice.[21] Based on his growing profile and reputation, Mathers was recruited to join several rap groups. The first of these was the New Jacks, and after they disbanded, he joined Soul Intent, who released a single in 1995.[2] This single also featured Proof and the two rappers broke off on their own to form D12, a six-member crew that functioned more as a Wu-Tang-styled collective than a regularly performing group.[12] Mathers had his first run-in with the law at age 20, when he was arrested for involvement with a drive-by shooting with a paintball.[16]
1996–99: Early career, Infinite, and The Slim Shady LP
Mathers was soon signed to FBT Productions, run by brothers Jeff and Mark Bass, and recorded his debut album, Infinite under their independent label Web Entertainment.[24]Subjects covered in Infinite included his struggles with raising his newborn daughter Hailie Jade Mathers while on limited funds. Mathers' rhyme style was primarily inspired by rappers Nas and AZ during this period, and lack the comedically violent slant he would gain fame for.[25] Infinite was largely ignored by Detroit disc jockeys, and the feedback Mathers received—"Why don't you go into rock and roll?"—led him to craft angrier, more moody tracks.[12] During this time, Mathers and Scott lived in a high-crime neighborhood, where their house was burglarized numerous times.[12] Mathers held a minimum-wage job of cooking and dishwashing at the rustic, family-style restaurant Gilbert's Lodge at St. Clair Shores for some time.[26] Mathers was described by his former boss as a model employee, once working 60 hours a week in a six-month period shortly after Hailie’s birth.[16]Shortly before Christmas, he was fired from his job at Gilbert's Lodge. "It was, like, five days before Christmas, which is Hailie's birthday. I had, like, forty dollars to get her something."[12] After the release of Infinite, Mathers' personal struggles and abuse of drugs and alcohol culminated in an unsuccessful suicide attempt.[2] By March 1997, Eminem was fired from Gilbert’s for the last time, and was still living in his mother’s mobile home with Scott and his daughter.[16]
Things began to pick up when Mathers developed his sadistic, ultra-violent alter ego Slim Shady. The character, "a drug-dealing, bloodthirsty thug who spits furious rhymes about murder, rape, drugs and living by the law of the urban jungle," tapped into Mathers' rage and resentment.[16] In the spring of 1997, he recorded his debut EP, The Slim Shady EP, issued later that winter by Web Entertainment.[12] The EP features constant references to drug use, sexual acts, mental instability, and over-the-top violence. Another departure was his exploration of more serious themes of dealing with poverty, his direct and self-deprecating response to criticism, and of marital and family difficulties.[2] Hip-hop magazineThe Source featured Eminem in its "Unsigned Hype" column in March 1998.[27] After being evicted from his home, Eminem traveled to Los Angeles to participate in the Rap Olympics, an annual nationwide rap battle competition. He placed second, and the staff at Interscope Records who attended the Rap Olympics sent a copy of The Slim Shady EPto company CEO Jimmy Iovine.[12] Iovine played the tape for record producer Dr. Dre, founder of Aftermath Entertainment. Dr. Dre recalled, "In my entire career in the music industry, I have never found anything from a demo tape or a CD. When Jimmy played this, I said, 'Find him. Now.'"[12] Dr. Dre faced criticism from associates for hiring a white rapper, but maintained confidence in his decision: "I don't give a fuck if you're purple: If you can kick it, I'm working with you."[12] Mathers, who had idolized Dr. Dre since listening to his group N.W.A as a teenager, was nervous to work with him on the album: "I didn't want to be starstruck or kiss his ass too much ... I'm just a little white boy from Detroit. I had never seen stars, let alone Dr. Dre."[28] However, he became more comfortable working with Dr. Dre after a series of highly productive recording sessions.[29]
Eminem's major-label debut — The Slim Shady LP — was released in February 1999 and went on to become one of the most popular albums of the year, going triple platinum by the end of the year.[30] With the album's popularity came controversy surrounding many of the album's lyrics. In "'97 Bonnie and Clyde", he describes a trip with his infant daughter, disposing of his wife's body. Another song, "Guilty Conscience", ends with his encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover. "Guilty Conscience" marked the beginning of the friendship and musical bond that Dr. Dre and Eminem would share. The two label-mates would later collaborate on a line of hit songs, including "Forgot About Dre" and "What's the Difference" from Dr. Dre's album 2001, "Bitch Please II" from The Marshall Mathers LP, "Say What You Say" from The Eminem Show, "Encore/Curtains Down" from Encore and "Old Time's Sake" and "Crack a Bottle" from Relapse. Dr. Dre would go on to make at least one guest appearance on all of Eminem's studio albums under the label Aftermath.[31]The album has now been certified 4× platinum by the RIAA. With the release of it, Eminem was accused of imitating the style and subject matter of underground rapperCage.[32][33]
2000–02: The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show
The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. It went on to sell 1.76 million copies in its first week, breaking the records set by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle as the fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time as the fastest-selling solo album in United States history.[34][35] The first single released from the album, "The Real Slim Shady", was a success and created some controversy by insulting celebrities and making dubious claims about them; he states, among other things, that Christina Aguilera performed oral sex on Fred Durst and Carson Daly.[36] In his second single, "The Way I Am", he reveals to his fans the pressures from his record company to top "My Name Is" and sell more records. Although Eminem had parodied shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the video "My Name Is", the artists are reportedly on good terms; Manson is name-dropped in "The Way I Am" and also appeared in its music video, as well as performing a remix of the song with Eminem in concert.[37] In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank You"), Eminem attempts to deal with his new-found fame, taking on the persona of a deranged fan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" on The Slim Shady LP.[13] In the music video of "Stan", Eminem was shown writing with his left hand, ending the fan debate over his dominant hand. Q magazine named "Stan" the third-greatest rap song of all time,[38] and the song came tenth in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com.[39] The song has since become highly acclaimed and was ranked 290th in Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.[40] In July 2000, Eminem became the first white person to be featured on the cover of The Source magazine.[27] This album has been certified 10× Platinum by the RIAA.
Eminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards ceremony in 2001;[41] the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), an organization that perceived Eminem's lyrics to be homophobic, condemned the openly gay John's decision to perform with Eminem.[42] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "It was the hug heard 'round the world. Eminem, under fire for homophobic lyrics, shared the stage with a gay icon for a performance of "Stan" that would have been memorable in any context."[43] On February 21, the day of the ceremony, GLAAD held a protest outside the Staples Center, the venue where the Grammy ceremony was held.[44]Music tours that he participated in for 2001 included the Up in Smoke Tour with rappers Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, and Ice Cube,[45] the Family Values Tour with the band Limp Bizkit,[46] and headlining the Anger Management Tour with Papa Roach, Ludacris, and Xzibit.
Eminem's third major album, The Eminem Show, was released in summer 2002 and proved to be another hit for the rapper reaching number one on the charts and selling well over 1.332 million copies in its first full week sales.[30] It featured the single "Without Me", in which he makes derogatory comments about boy bands, Limp Bizkit, Dick Cheney andLynne Cheney, and Moby, among others. The Eminem Show has been certified 10× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album reflected on the impact of his rise to fame, his relationship with his wife and daughter, and his status in the hip-hop community. He also addresses the charges he faced over assaulting a bouncerhe saw kissing his wife in 2000. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic felt that while there was clear anger present on several tracks, this album was considerably less inflammatory than The Marshall Mathers LP.[47] However, L. Brent Bozell III, who previously criticized The Marshall Mathers LP for perceived misogynistic lyrics in the album, notedThe Eminem Show for its extensive use of obscene language, giving Eminem the nickname "Eminef" for the bowdlerization of motherfucker, an obscenity prevalent in the album.[48]The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of 2002.[49]
2012–present: The Marshall Mathers LP 2
On May 24, 2012, Eminem announced he is working on his next studio album.[114] It is set to be released in 2013.[115] Even without a title or release the album was included in multiple "Most Anticipated Albums of 2013" lists; including MTV, Complex Magazine where it was listed in sixth position; and XXL Magazine, where it was listed in fifth.[116]
On June 30, 2012, Eminem talked about the album with DJ Whoo Kid, on his own radio station, Shade 45. He stated that the material is taking shape, and that Dr. Dre will be involved in some way.[117] On August 30, 2012, Slaughterhouse member Royce da 5'9" gave his thoughts on the album, stating "I'm not so sure how the world is going to respond from some of the things that I've heard from him." Close friend and fellow rapper 50 Cent is also confirmed to feature on the album.[118] Eminem also was featured on Pink's albumThe Truth About Love on the track "Here Comes The Weekend".
On February 11, 2013, Shady Records President and Eminem manager Paul Rosenberg announced that Eminem's eighth studio album would be released after Memorial Day, 2013. "We fully expect to be releasing a new Eminem album in 2013. He's been working on it for some time," said Rosenberg. "It's safe to say that it will be post-Memorial Day at some point, but we're not exactly sure when. We've got some dates locked in for him to perform live in Europe in August, so we're trying to see what else lines up." The album remained untitled.[119] On March 22, 2013 Dr. Dre said that Eminem was close to finishing the album and that he worked together with Eminem on it.[120] Producer No I.D. has been confirmed to produce on the album.[121]
On August 14, 2013, a song titled "Survival" featuring Liz Rodrigues, with production by DJ Khalil was premiered in the multiplayer trailer for the video game Call of Duty: Ghosts. A following press release revealed the first single from his eighth studio album would be released soon.[122][123] During the 2013 VMAs, it was revealed that Eminem's next album would be titled The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (a sequel to his previously released album The Marshall Mathers LP), which will be released on November 5, 2013.[124]
Other ventures
Shady Records and D12
Main articles: Shady Records and D12
As Eminem succeeded in multi-platinum record sales, Interscope granted him his own record label. He and his manager Paul Rosenberg created Shady Records in late 1999. He followed this by signing his own Detroit collective D12 and rapper Obie Trice to the label. In 2002, Eminem signed 50 Cent through a joint venture between Shady and Dr. Dre's Aftermath label. In 2003, Eminem and Dr. Dre signed Atlanta rapper Stat Quo to the Shady/Aftermath roster. DJ Green Lantern, the former DJ for Eminem, was signed to Shady Records until a dispute related to the 50 Cent and Jadakiss feud forced him to depart from the label; he is no longer associated with Eminem. The Alchemist is now officially Eminem's tour DJ. In 2005, Eminem signed another Atlanta rapper, Bobby Creekwater, to his label along with West Coast rapper Cashis.[20]
On December 5, 2006, Shady Records released compilation album, Eminem Presents: The Re-Up. It started out as a mixtape but Eminem found that the material was better than expected and released it as a full album. It was meant to help launch the new artists under the roster, like Stat Quo, Cashis and Bobby Creekwater.[125] Around the time of recording Infinite, Eminem and rappers Proof and Kon Artis gathered the group of rappers now collectively in the group D12, short for "Detroit Twelve" or "Dirty Dozen", performing in the manner of the multi-man group Wu-Tang Clan.[126] In 2001, Eminem brought his rap group, D12, to the popular music scene, and the group's debut album Devil's Night came out that year.[127] The first single released off of the album was "Shit on You", followed by "Purple Pills", an ode to recreational drug use. For radio and television, the censored version was heavily rewritten to remove many of the song's references to drugs and sex and was renamed "Purple Hills". While that single was a hit, the album's second single, "Fight Music", was not as successful.[128]
After their debut, D12 took a three-year break from the studio, later regrouping to release their second album, D12 World, in 2004, which featured the popular hit single release "My Band".[127] In April 2006, D12 member (and Eminem's childhood friend) Deshaun "Proof" Holton was killed in a club brawl on 8 Mile Road in Detroit, Michigan, with US military veteran Keith Bender, Jr., who also died in the fray. The eruption is suspected to have been due to an argument over a game of pool. Proof was then allegedly shot by the bouncer Mario Etheridge, Bender's cousin. He was taken by private vehicle to St. John Health's Conner Creek Campus, an outpatient emergency treatment site, but pronounced dead on arrival. Eminem and former Detroit Shady Records artist Obie Trice spoke at the funeral.[129] D12 member Bizarre said that Eminem is not featured on his new album Blue Cheese & Coney Island because "he's busy doing his thing".[130] D12 released a mixtape in 2011 titled Return of the Dozen Volume 2 only featuring Eminem on one song, "Fame" unlike the group's previous mixtape Return of the Dozen where Eminem is not on any tracks.
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