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 115 million, singles 120 million, and the estimated sale of over 220 million records worldwide.[6][7] In the United States, he has sold 49.1 million albums and 42 million tracks.[8]
After releasing his independent debut album Infinite in August 1996, Eminem rose to mainstream popularity with the release of his February 1999 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 November 2004 titledEncore. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his fifth album Relapse in May 2009. In June 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery. Recovery was an international success and was named the best-selling album of 2010 worldwide, becoming the rapper's second album, after The Eminem Show, to become the internationally best-selling album of its year. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career.[9] His eighth studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 was released in November 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 theAcademy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first rap artist ever to win the award.[10] He has also made cameo appearances in The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009), and the television series Entourage.
Life and career
1972–95: Early life and beginnings
Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri. He is the only child of Marshall Bruce Mathers, Jr. (born c. 1951) and Deborah R. "Debbie" Nelson (born 1955). Eminem is of English, German, Polish, Scottish, and Swiss descent.[11] Debbie was 14 when she first met 18-year-old Bruce[12] and nearly died during Eminem's 73-hour birth.[13] His parents were in a band called Daddy Warbucks, playing Ramada Inns along the Dakota-Montana border before their relationship went sour. Bruce left the family shortly thereafter, moving to California.[14] From later relationships, Bruce has two other children, Michael and Sarah (born c. 1982),[15] while Debbie has a son Nathan Kane "Nate" Samara (known as Nate Kane) (born February 3, 1986). During childhood, Eminem and Debbie 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,[16] before finally settling in Warren, Michigan when Eminem was eleven.[14][17] As a teen, Eminem wrote letters to his father Bruce. According to Debbie, all of these came back "return to sender."[14] Friends and family contend Eminem was a happy child but also "a bit of a loner" who often was bullied; one such persecutor, De'Angelo Bailey, beat Eminem so significantly that he suffered a severe head injury. In response, Debbie Nelson filed a lawsuit against the school in 1982, but the case was dismissed the following year.[13]
Eminem spent much of his formative years living in a largely black lower-middle-class Detroit neighborhood.[14] Debbie and her son were one of three white households on their block, and Eminem was confronted and beaten up by African-Americans on several occasions.[14] As a child, Eminem developed an interest in storytelling and aspired to become a comic book artistbefore discovering hip hop.[18] Eminem heard his first rap song, "Reckless" featuring Ice-T, at age nine on the Breakin' soundtrack, which he received as a gift from Debbie's half-brother Ronald "Ronnie" Polkinghorn.[14] Ronnie committed suicide ten years later; the loss affected Eminem so greatly that he stopped speaking for days and was absent at the funeral.[14] His home life was seldom stable, and Eminem frequently fought with his mother, who was once described by a social worker as having a "very suspicious, almost paranoid personality."[13]Debbie bristled at any suggestion that she was less than an ideal mother when her son became famous, contending that she sheltered Eminem and was responsible for his success.[13] In 1987, Debbie allowed runaway Kim Scott to stay at their home; several years later, Eminem and Scott would begin an on-and-off relationship.[13] After spending three years in ninth grade due to truancy and poor grades,[19] he dropped out of Lincoln High School at age 17. Although he was highly interested in English, he was never into literature (preferring to read comic books instead) and disliked math and social studies.[20] 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, Eminem would blast the stereo and write lyrics.[14]
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][13] Eminem grew ready to test his skills by sneaking into neighboring Osborn High School with friend and fellow rapper Proof for lunchroom freestyle battles.[21] 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.[14] While struggling to succeed in a predominantly black industry, he gained the approval of underground hip hop audiences.[2][22][23] To put together verses, Eminem wanted the most words to rhyme, and would write long words or phrases out on paper and, underneath, proceed to rhyme each syllable.[20] Even though it would often make little sense, the drill helped him practice.[20] Based on his growing profile and reputation, he 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.[14] Eminem 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.[13]
1996–99: Early career, Infinite, and The Slim Shady LP
Eminem 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 Scott Mathers while on limited funds. During this period, Eminem's rhyme style was primarily inspired by rappers Nas and AZ and his work lacked the comedically violent slant he would later gain fame for.[25] Infinite was largely ignored by Detroit disc jockeys, and the feedback Eminem received—"Why don't you go into rock and roll?"—led him to craft angrier, more moody tracks.[14] During this time, he and Kim Scott lived in a high-crime neighborhood, where their house was burglarized numerous times.[14] He 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] Eminem 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.[13] 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."[14] After the release of Infinite, Eminem's personal struggles and abuse of drugs and alcohol culminated in an unsuccessful suicide attempt.[2] By March 1997, he was fired from Gilbert’s Lodge for the last time, and was still living in his mother’s mobile home with his daughter and Scott.[13]
Things began to pick up when Eminem 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 Eminem's rage and resentment.[13] In the spring of 1997, he recorded his debut EP, the Slim Shady EP, issued later that winter by Web Entertainment.[14] The EP features constant references to drug use, sexual acts, mental instability, and over-the-top violence. Other departures were his exploration of more serious themes—such as dealing with poverty and marital and family difficulties—and his direct and self-deprecating response to criticism.[2] Hip-hop magazine The Source featured Eminem in its "Unsigned Hype" column in March 1998.[27] After being evicted from his home, he traveled to Los Angeles to participate in the 1997 Rap Olympics, an annual nationwide rap battlecompetition. He placed second, and the staff at Interscope Records who attended the event sent a copy of the Slim Shady EP to company CEO Jimmy Iovine.[14] 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.'"[14] 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."[14] Eminem, 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 released The Slim Shady LP in February 1999. It became 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 rapper Cage.[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 by 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 music video for "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.[22] 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] The Marshall Mathers LP 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 theUp 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 theAnger Management Tour with Papa Roach, Ludacris, and Xzibit.
Eminem released The Eminem Show in May 2002. It became another hit for the rapper, reaching number one on the charts and selling well over 1.332 million copies in its first full week of sales.[30] It featured the single "Without Me", in which Eminem makes derogatory comments about boy bands, Limp Bizkit, Dick Cheney and Lynne 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 bouncer he saw kissing his wife in 2000. Stephen Thomas Erlewine ofAllmusic 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 its lyrical content that Bozell perceived to be misogynistic, noted The 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]
2003–07: Encore and musical hiatus
On December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service admitted that it was "looking into" allegations that Eminem had threatened the President of the United States.[50] The lyrics that had led to this were "Fuck money / I don't rap for dead presidents / I'd rather see the president dead / It's never been said, but I set precedents". These lyrics come from the track "We As Americans", which was later released on a bonus CD accompanying deluxe editions of Eminem's fourth major album, Encore.[51]
Encore was released in 2004. The album was another chart-topper. Its sales were driven partly by its first single, "Just Lose It", which features attacks on Michael Jackson. On October 12, 2004, a week after the release of "Just Lose It", Michael Jackson called into the Los Angeles-based Steve Harvey radio show to report his displeasure with the video, which parodies Jackson'schild molestation trial, plastic surgery, and an incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. The lyrics to "Just Lose It" refer to Jackson's legal troubles, although Eminem does state in his song "that's not a stab at Michael / That's just a metaphor / I'm just psycho". Many of Jackson's supporters and friends spoke out about the video, including Stevie Wonder, who called the video "kicking a man while he's down" and "bullshit",[52] and Steve Harvey, who declared, "Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back."[52] In the video, Eminem parodied Pee-wee Herman, MC Hammer, and "Blond Ambition"-era Madonna.[53] Regarding Jackson's protest, "Weird Al" Yankovic, who parodied the Eminem song "Lose Yourself" on a track titled "Couch Potato" on his 2003 album Poodle Hat, told the Chicago Sun-Times, "Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my 'Lose Yourself' parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career. So the irony of this situation with Michael is not lost on me."[54] Black Entertainment Televisionwas the first channel to stop airing the video. MTV, however, announced that it would continue airing the video. The Source, through its CEO Raymond "Benzino" Scott, wanted not only for the video to be pulled, but for the song to be removed from the album and for Eminem to publicly apologize to Jackson.[55] In 2007 Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music LLC from Viacom. This deal gave him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira, and Beck, among others.[56]
Despite the comedic theme of the lead single, Encore had its fair share of serious subject matter, including the anti-war track "Mosh". On October 25, 2004, a week before the 2004 US Presidential election, Eminem released the video for "Mosh" on the Internet.[57] The song was strongly critical of President George W. Bush, with lyrics such as "fuck Bush" and "this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president".[58] The video features Eminem gathering up an army of people, including rapper Lloyd Banks, presented as victims of the Bush administration, and leading them to the White House. However, once the army breaks in, it is revealed that they are there to simply register to vote, and the video ends with the words "VOTE Tuesday November 2" on the screen. After Bush was re-elected, the video's ending was changed to Eminem and the protesters invading while Bush was giving a speech.[59]
In 2005, some industry insiders speculated that Eminem was considering ending his rapping career after six years and several multi-platinum albums. Speculation began in early 2005 about a double-disc album to be released late that year, rumored to be titled The Funeral.[60] The album later manifested itself as a greatest hits album under the name Curtain Call: The Hits in December. In July 2005, the Detroit Free Press broke news of a potential final bow for Eminem as a solo performer, quoting members of his inside circle who said that he would begin to fully embrace the role of producer and label executive. On the same day of the release of the compilation album, Eminem denied that he was retiring on Detroit-based WKQI's "Mojo in the Morning" radio show, but implied that he would at least be taking a break as an artist, saying "I'm at a point in my life right now where I feel like I don't know where my career is going ... This is the reason that we called it 'Curtain Call', because this could be the final thing. We don't know."[61] He released The Re-Up with the members of his record label, Shady Records. It was released in 2006.
In 2005, Eminem was a subject of Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America; he ranked No. 58.[62] Goldberg cited a 2001 column by Bob Herbert of The New York Times claiming, "In Eminem's world, all women are whores and he is eager to rape and murder them."[63] Goldberg cited Eminem's song "No One's Iller" from the Slim Shady EP as an example of misogyny in his music.[64] In summer 2005, Eminem embarked on his first US concert run in three years, the Anger Management 3 Tour, featuring 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil Jon, D12,Obie Trice, The Alchemist, and others. In August 2005, Eminem canceled the European leg of the tour and subsequently announced that he had entered drug rehabilitation for treatment for a "dependency on sleep medication".[65] Curtain Call: The Hits was released on December 6, 2005, under Aftermath Entertainment.[66] In its first week it sold nearly 441,000 copies in the US and was Eminem's fourth straight No. 1 album on the Billboard Hot 200.[67] The album has been certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA.[68]
In September 2007, Eminem called into New York radio station Hot 97 during an interview with 50 Cent and said he was "in limbo" and "debating" about when and if he would release another album. He said, "I'm always working – I'm always in the studio. It feels good right now, the energy of the label. For a while, I didn't want to go back to the studio..... I went through some personal things. I'm coming out of those personal things [and] it feels good."[69]
2008–09: Relapse and Refill
Eminem made an appearance on his Sirius channel Shade 45 in September 2008, during which he said, "Right now I'm kinda just concentrating on my own stuff, for right now and just banging out tracks and producing a lot of stuff. You know, the more I keep producing the better it seems like I get 'cause I just start knowing stuff."[70] It was around this time that Interscope finally confirmed the existence of a new Eminem album,[71] with Spring 2009 later being stated as the period in which the album is due.[72] In December 2008, he gave more details on the album, which he recently reported was being titled Relapse. He said, "Me and Dre are back in the lab like the old days, man. Dre will end up producing the majority of the tracks on 'Relapse'. We are up to our old mischievous ways ... let's just leave it at that."[73]
On March 5, 2009, Eminem reported in a press release that he would be releasing two new albums that year. Relapse, the first album, was released on May 19, while the first official single, "We Made You", and its music video were both released on April 7.[74] While Relapse did not manage to sell as well as Eminem's previous efforts, it was still a commercial success that received some critical acclaim, while also re-establishing his presence in the hip hop world. Relapse was named one of the top albums of 2009. Relapse has sold more than five million copies worldwide. During the 2009MTV Movie Awards, Sacha Baron Cohen descended upon the audience wearing an angel's costume and landed on top of Eminem with his buttocks facing toward Eminem's face, resulting in Eminem storming out of the awards ceremony in disgust. Three days later, Eminem stated it was a staged act that they had planned together.[75] On October 30, Eminem performed at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans as a headliner in his first full performance in 2009.[76] The performance included several songs from Relapse, as well as many of Eminem's older hits and an appearance by D12. On November 19, Eminem announced on his website that Relapse: Refill would be released on December 21. The album was a re-release of the Relapse album with seven bonus tracks, including "Forever" and "Taking My Ball". In a statement he described the forthcoming CD:
"I want to deliver more material for the fans this year like I originally planned ... Hopefully these tracks on The Refill will tide the fans over until we put out Relapse 2 next year ... I got back in with Dre and then a few more producers, including Just Blaze, and went in a completely different direction which made me start from scratch. The new tracks started to sound very different than the tracks I originally intended to be on Relapse 2, but I still want the other stuff to be heard."[77]
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