Everything about Eminem totally explained
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born
October 17 1972), better known by his
stage name Eminem, is an
Academy Award- and multiple
Grammy Award-winning
American rap artist. Eminem is one of the highest-selling musicians of the early 2000s. He has sold over seventy million
albums worldwide, and is one of the
highest-selling rap artists of all time. Eminem was discovered by rapper and producer
Dr. Dre, who later signed Eminem to his record label,
Aftermath Entertainment. He has been married twice to
Kim Mathers (married June 14, 1999; divorced October 11, 2001; remarried January 14, 2006; divorced December 19, 2006).
Eminem signed to
Aftermath Entertainment/
Interscope Records in 1998 and released
The Slim Shady LP, which went
triple platinum by the end of the year. In 2000, he released
The Marshall Mathers LP, and sold 1.65 million copies in its first week, the best first week sales of any rap album in history.
The Eminem Show was released in 2002 and sold one million copies in its first week. Eminem released his fourth album,
Encore, in 2004, which also went on to become another successful album for the rapper.
Biography
1972–1994: Early life
Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born in
St. Joseph,
Missouri, the son of Deborah (née Nelson) and Marshall Bruce Mathers II, and is reportedly of
Scottish,
German,
English, and
Swiss-German descent. Shortly after his birth, his father walked out, leaving Debbie and Marshall alone. Until he was twelve, he and his mother moved to and fro, between St. Joseph and
Warren, Michigan, a
Detroit suburb. As a teenager, he became interested in hip-hop, performing amateur raps at age fourteen under the pseudonym "M&M" and joining the group
Soul Intent around 1995, when his first single was released. Within the community, he frequently participated in
freestyle battles to gain the approval of underground hip-hop audiences.
Eminem had done a notable amount of rapping with fellow Detroit MC
Royce da 5'9" early in his career. They referred to themselves as
Bad Meets Evil, with Royce playing 'The Bad' and Eminem playing 'The Evil', as Eminem and Royce each clearly state in the song
Bad Meets Evil.
1999: The Slim Shady LP
Eminem broke up with his girlfriend, and made an unsuccessful suicide attempt. According to
Billboard Magazine, "he realized his musical ambitions were the only way to escape his unhappy life". After being signed to
Aftermath Entertainment/
Interscope Records, Eminem released
The Slim Shady LP, a collaboration between himself and
Dr. Dre. The album was, according to the same Billboard article, "brutal" and "light years ahead of the material he'd been writing beforehand." It went on to be one of the most popular albums of 1999, going
triple platinum by the end of the year. 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 the body of his wife. Another song, "
Guilty Conscience", ends with his encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover. "Guilty Conscience" marked the beginning of the powerful 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 and "
Encore/Curtains Down" from
Encore.
Dr. Dre has made at least one guest appearance on all of Eminem's mainstream albums.
2000–2001: The Marshall Mathers LP
The Marshall Mathers LP was released in
May 2000, and quickly sold two million copies. It was Eminem's fastest selling album to date. The first single released from the album, "
The Real Slim Shady", was a success and created some buzz by insulting celebrities and making dubious claims about them; he implies, among other things, that
Christina Aguilera performed
oral sex on
Fred Durst (of
Limp Bizkit) and
Carson Daly (of
MTV's
Total Request Live). 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 now on good terms. They have performed a remix of the song "The Way I Am" together in concert. In the third single, "
Stan" (which samples
Dido's "
Thank You"), Eminem attempts to deal with his new-found fame, taking on the perspective of a deranged fan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" on
The Slim Shady LP.
The song "Stan" from the album was named as the third greatest rap song of all time in a list compiled by
Q Magazine, and came 10th in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com. The song has since become highly acclaimed and was ranked 290th in
Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. He had included it on his compilation album. Eminem is known to be featured on a future album release by
Elton John.
Eminem was arrested on
June 3,
2000 during an altercation at a car audio store in
Royal Oak, Michigan, with Douglas Dail, the ICP manager, he pulled out an unloaded gun and kept it pointed at the ground. The following day, in Warren, Michigan, he allegedly saw his then wife,
Kim, kiss the bouncer John Guerrera in the parking lot of the
Hot Rock Café and assaulted him with his gun. The skit
The Kiss on
The Eminem Show is based around the latter incident.
In June 15, 2000 Eminem along with
Dr. Dre,
Snoop Dogg,
Xzibit, and
Ice Cube, toured in the
Up In Smoke Tour.
In the summer of 2001, Eminem was given
probation on weapons charges that stemmed with an argument from an employee working for
Insane Clown Posse, giving him a fine around $2,000 as well as several hours of
community service. His band-mate
Proof from
D12 stated that Eminem "sobered up" in 2002. However, he did turn to
Zolpidem sleeping pills for relief of sleeping troubles and eventually went to rehab to recover from the addiction.
2002–2003: The Eminem Show
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 million copies in its first week of release. However,
L. Brent Bozell III, who previously criticized
The Marshall Mathers LP for perceived
misogynistic lyrics in the album, noted
The Eminem Show for its extensive use of
obscene language, giving Eminem a nickname of "Eminef" for the of
motherfucker, an obscenity prevalent in the album. Satirical musician
"Weird Al" Yankovic was in 2003 denied permission to make a video for "
Couch Potato", his parody of Eminem's "
Lose Yourself". "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."
2004: Encore
On
December 8,
2003, the
United States Secret Service admitted it was "looking into" allegations that Eminem had threatened the
President of the United States after the song "
Bin Laden" with
Immortal Technique and
Mos Def was released on mixtape. The lyrics in question: "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...". The song in question, titled "We As Americans", was being recorded possibly for
Encore but wound up on a bonus CD accompanying the album instead.
The year 2004 saw the release of Eminem's fourth major album,
Encore. The album was another chart-topper, as it was driven by the single "
Just Lose It", notable for being disrespectful towards
Michael Jackson. On
October 12,
2004, a week after the release of "
Just Lose It", Eminem's first single off
Encore,
Michael Jackson called into the
Los Angeles-based
Steve Harvey radio show to report his displeasure with the video, which parodies Jackson's
child 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, however he does state in his song "...and 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". and
Steve Harvey who declared, "Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back."
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 isn't lost on me". 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 U.S. Presidential election, Eminem released the video for "Mosh" on the Internet. The song featured a very strong anti-
Bush message, with lyrics such as "fuck Bush" and "this
weapon of mass destruction that we call our president." 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's revealed that they're there to simply register to vote, and the video ends with the words "VOTE Tuesday November 2" on the screen. After Bush won the election, the video's ending was changed to Eminem and the protesters invading while Bush was giving a speech.
2005–2006: Hiatus
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. The album manifested itself as a
compilation album under the name
, and was released on
December 6 2005 under Aftermath Entertainment. 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'll begin to fully embrace the role of producer and label executive. On
December 6 2005, the day
Curtain Call: The Hits was released, Eminem denied that he was retiring on Detroit-based WKQI's "Mojo in the Mornin'" radio show, but implied that he'd 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."
That year, Eminem was a subject of criticism in conservative
Bernard Goldberg's book
100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, being ranked at #58. Goldberg cited a 2001 column by
Bob Herbert of
The New York Times claiming, "In Eminem's world, all women are
whores and he's eager to
rape and
murder them." The Eminem song "
No One's Iller" was used by Goldberg as an example of
misogyny in his music.
In summer 2005, Eminem embarked on his first U.S. concert run in three years, the Anger Management 3 Tour, featuring
Lil' Jon,
50 Cent and G-Unit, D12,
Obie Trice,
The Alchemist, and others. In August 2005, Eminem canceled the European leg of the tour and subsequently announced that he'd entered
drug rehabilitation for treatment for a "dependency on sleep medication".
On
December 5 2006, Eminem released an album compilation entitled
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 new
Shady Records artists
Stat Quo,
Cashis, and
Bobby Creekwater.
2007-2008: Fifth studio album
Eminem called into New York radio station
Hot 97 during a
50 Cent interview and confirmed he's hard at work on his first studio album in three years. 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." And though he jokingly said he'd release the new CD "tomorrow", there's no official release date, according to
Interscope.
Dr. Dre said in September 2007 that he'll devote two months to work on Eminem's new highly-anticipated album, saying "We'll be trying to get his thing done and work on a few things on my own project".
Eminem has been added to the line-up for the former South Africa President Nelson Mandela’s milestone celebrations at London’s
Hyde Park after
Queen rocker
Brian May persuaded him to come out of retirement. A source said: “Brian contacted Eminem’s management but never expected him to agree. It’s going to be explosive stuff and it’s certainly a big stage to make his comeback.”
Children
Eminem married and divorced twice his highschool sweetheart
Kim Mathers. They have one daughter together, Hailie Jade Scott, born on December 25, 1995. They also have guardianship of Kim's twin sister's daughter, Alaina Marie Scott, born in 1993. Kim had a second daughter, Whitney Laine Scott, born on April 16, 2002, while Mathers and she were divorced.
Other projects
D12
In 2001, Eminem brought his rap group,
D12, to the popular music scene. In 2001, D12 released their hit debut album
Devil's Night. 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, "Pills" 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", wasn't as successful, in part due to its timing in relation to the
September 11, 2001 attacks.
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".
During an interview, D12 member
Bizarre said that
Interscope doesn't want D12's third album to be released until after Eminem's next album. He said that Eminem isn't featured on his new album
Blue Cheese & Coney Island because "he's busy doing his thing".
Featurings and productions
Dr. Dre,
50 Cent,
D12),
Eminem has collaborated with many other artists including
Busta Rhymes (I'll Hurt You, Touch It Remix),
Redman (Off The Wall),
Kid Rock (Fuck Off),
DMX (Go To Sleep),
Missy Elliott (Busa Rhyme),
Jay-Z (Renegade),
Method Man (What the Beat),
Notorious B.I.G. (Dead Wrong),
Jadakiss (Welcome To D-Block),
Fat Joe (Lean Back Remix),
Sticky Fingaz (What If I Was White?),
Xzibit (Don't Approach Me, My Name),
T.I. (Touchdown), and others.
Eminem rapped a verse in a live performance of
Busta Rhymes' "
Touch It" remix at the 2006 BET Music Awards on
June 27,
2006. Eminem was featured on
Akon's single "
Smack That" which appeared on
Akon's album
Konvicted. He appears in the video with a new tattoo of his late friend
Proof and a green polo.
50 Cent confirmed that on the new
G-Unit album,
Terminate on Sight, there will be a track with Eminem.
Lil Wayne stated that he's the craziest song for Eminem on his new album,
Tha Carter III, but that he hasn't "sent it over yet". Lil Wayne later said, "I've never done a song with Eminem. I sent him a song and he ain't do it. I didn't like that but it's all good. People be busy and stuff or a.k.a. just scared to get on a song with me."
Eminem is also an active rap
producer. Besides being the executive producer of D12's two albums,
Devil's Night and
D12 World, he's executive produced Obie Trice's
Cheers and
Second Round's on Me as well as 50 Cent's
Get Rich or Die Tryin' and
The Massacre. In addition, Eminem has produced and appeared on several songs by other famous rappers, such as
Jadakiss' "Welcome To D-Block",
Jay-Z's "Renagade" and "Moment of Clarity"
Lloyd Banks' "Warrior Part 2", and "Hands Up",
Tony Yayo's "Drama Setter", Trick Trick's "Welcome 2 Detroit", and Xzibit's "My Name" and "Don't Approach Me". Most of
The Eminem Show was produced by Eminem himself, with co-production from longtime collaborator
Jeff Bass. He split the production with Dr. Dre on
Encore. In 2004, Eminem was the Executive Producer of
2Pac's posthumous album
Loyal to the Game with 2Pac's mother
Afeni Shakur. He produced the UK #1 single "
Ghetto Gospel" which featured
Elton John. He has produced "The Cross" off
Nas's album
God's Son. On
August 15,
2006,
Obie Trice released
Second Round's on Me. Eminem produced 8 tracks on the album. He was featured in the song "There They Go". Eminem has produced some tracks on the new
Trick Trick album,
The Villain; he's featured in "Who Want It".
Shady Records
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 2000. 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 on
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's no longer associated with Eminem.
The Alchemist is now officially Eminem's tour DJ. In 2005, Eminem officially signed another Atlanta rapper known as
Bobby Creekwater to his label along with west coast rapper
Cashis.
Acting career
Although he'd a brief cameo in the
2001 film
The Wash, Eminem made his official
Hollywood acting debut with the semi-autobiographical
8 Mile, released in November 2002. He has said the movie isn't an account of his life, but a representation of growing up in Detroit. He recorded several new songs for the soundtrack, including "
Lose Yourself", which won an
Academy Award for
Best Original Song; it wasn't performed at the ceremony, reportedly because
ABC wanted him to perform an edited version. Among his
voice acting roles include in the video game, where he voices an aging corrupt police officer that speaks in
Ebonics, and guest spots on the
Comedy Central television show
Crank Yankers and a web cartoon called
The Slim Shady Show, which has since been pulled off-line and is instead sold on DVD.
Eminem will star in the upcoming film
Have Gun — Will Travel in which he'll play a bounty hunter called "Paladin". He will be involved in either the soundtrack or scoring. He was also in the running for the part of David Rice in 2008's film
Jumper after Tom Sturridge was dropped just 2 weeks before filming. Concerns over not having a more prominent actor prompted the director,
Doug Liman, to consider other actors for the role.
Hayden Christensen was eventually chosen over Eminem.
Discography
Filmography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Eminem'.
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