Eminem

Biography of Eminem

Eminem (real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III) is an American rapper, music producer, and composer. One of the best-selling music artists in the world, the winner of fifteen Grammy Awards and an Oscar for the best soundtrack (the movie "8 Mile" in which he played the main role).

Eminem, the legend of world rap

Childhood

Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born on October 17, 1972, in the small town of St. Joseph, Missouri, USA. His parents, Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. (born 1947) and Deborah Rae Nelson Mathers-Briggs (born 1955) were musicians and played in the restaurants of the Ramada hotel chain. They got married when Deborah was 15, and she gave birth to Eminem very soon.

Eminem's photo as a child

The labor was hard and long – it lasted 73 hours and nearly killed the mother. Six months later, Marshall's parents divorced, his father moved to California, got a new family, and two other kids, Michael and Sarah, and forgot about his eldest son. Later, as a teenager, Marshall tried to get in touch with his father and wrote him a few letters, but the latter did not even open and sent them back.

Eminem and his mother Deborah

In attempts to arrange her personal life, the mother left her son just as his father did. 1973 through 1977, the boy was raised by his great-aunt Edna. Then Deborah came back but in the time of her absence, she got addicted to alcohol. Plus, she brought home several stepfathers none of which stayed for a long time.

Eminem's childhood cannot be called easy

Marshall and Deborah lived mostly with relatives but rarely stayed in the same house for longer than a year. A few years later, his mother gave birth to another son Nathan. Finally, when Marshall was 12, the family settled in a suburb of Detroit.

House in Detroit where Eminem's childhood was spent

Life in a new place was twisted by the fact that local children, mostly black guys from working families, did not accept Eminem. The boy was bullied, attacked, and beaten almost every day. Subsequently, these sad moments were reflected in Eminem's lyrics – in particular, in the song "Brain Damage."

Eminem as a child and now

The first steps to success

Marshall was introduced to rap by his uncle Ronnie Polkinghorn who was only a few months older. He has become Emine's first mentor in music.

Marshall Mathers and his uncle Ronnie (1983)

Ronnie recorded a few disks for his nephew. "And I thought: damn, that's what I can do!" - the artist recalled. Apart from rap, the boy liked to write stories and draw comics. At the age of 14, Eminem made his first duet with his friend Mike Ruby and created a pseudonym "M & M" (by the first letters of his name and surname). Later it was transformed into "Eminem".

The teenagers regularly took part in local informal freestyle competitions. As they were gradually winning a place in the area that was considered to fully belong to black people, they were acquiring more and more fans.

Youth

Marshall did not study well at school, especially in high school - not because he lacked the potential but because he was completely not interested in the studies. All he needed was rap. He never finished the 9th grade – after staying in it for 3 years at the Lincoln School, he left school forever at the age of 17.

Very young Eminem

In 1991, Uncle Ronnie shot himself because of unhappy love. For Eminem, it was such a shock that he lost his speech for several days.

His mother Deborah constantly had conflicts with him. Although from an early age Marshall worked part-time to support the family, she drove him out of the house very often. She had a difficult character described by a social worker as "excessive suspiciousness close to paranoia." Nevertheless, in 1987, she sheltered Eminem's girlfriend Kimberly Scott who later became his wife.

Eminem met his future wife at the age of 15. She was 12

Later, the singer announced that above all Deborah suffered Munchausen's syndrome. With this mental disorder, a person invents or purposely causes serious illness in someone close to himself to enjoy the increased attention, sympathy, and help from others. For this reason, his perfectly healthy 9-year-old brother Nathan spent a year in the hospital. Eventually, in order to stop this situation and provide the mother with qualified help, Marshall had to testify against her in court. After that, he could raise his brother himself.

New Jacks' album

Musical career

In 1995, Eminem debuted as a professional musician in the New Jacks band, and after it fell apart, in the band Soul Intent featuring his friends Proof and DJ Butterfingers. Nevertheless, he was more interested in individual career. As early as in 1996, he recorded his first solo album "Infinite." The disc did not attract much attention of listeners because, at that point, Detroit was overloaded with hip-hop.

The film "8 Mile" starring Eminem is autobiographical to a great extent

Eminem was very upset with the failure of his debut album but later he himself admitted that his own style had not formed by that time and that record was just a test of the pen. The main lyric theme of this work was the singer's thoughts on how to raise his newborn daughter with very little money. He got a response: "Maybe you'd better go to rock'n'roll?" This is when Eminem realized that his lyrics should become sharper, get a note of anger.

Eminem's first album was unsuccessful

The new mood of the singer led to the creation of a new stage image, a sort of alter-ego under the pseudonym Slim Shady. This guy literally praised violence, drugs, and even murders with sadistic pleasure. However, under this outer shell, he touched on social injustice, poverty, love, and family problems.

This was the mood of his new album "Slim Shady EP" recorded in the spring of 1997. The disc was complete but stayed without promotion so Eminem went to the Rap-Olympics, the annual national battle rap competition held in Los Angeles. In this biggest battle, the artist placed second drawing attention of the organizers. One of them, Jimmy Iowine listened to the album "Slim Shady EP" and gave it to the famous rapper and rap producer Andre Romell Yang better known under the pseudonym, Dr. Dre. He immediately took Eminem under his wing and in 1999, the album "The Slim Shady LP" was successfully re-released and became a bestseller. It had become platinum three times by the end of the year and brought the artist his first Grammy award.

Eminem – The Real Slim Shady

Eminem was shocked by such a turn of fate for Dr. Dre had been one of his idols for many years. In one of his later interviews, the artist confessed that if it there was no that fateful involvement of Dr. Dre and the sudden rise in popularity, he would despair and leave the music world to build a career in some other industry, a less creative one.

Eminem and Dr. Dre became friends and partners

At the end of 1999, the company "Interscope Records" provided the artist with his own record label under which subsequently not only he himself released works but also his friendly performers.

Eminem in 1998

The next album "The Marshall Mathers LP" was released in 2000, and in the first week, 1,760,000 copies were sold.

Icons of American hip-hop

The video for the song "Stan" was the most ambiguous one. Marshall used the topic of his sudden popularity portraying a crazy fan who killed his pregnant girl and committed suicide. This song got the title of "the third best song in rap style" according to the "Q" magazine, and it took the 296th position in the "500 greatest songs of all times" rate of the "Rolling Stone" magazine. As a result, Eminem and "Stan" won in three categories at a time at the 43rd Grammy ceremony.

Eminem – My Name Is

In 2001, the artist took part in the large-scale tour "Up in Smoke Tour" along with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, rappers Xzibit, and Ice Cube. After that, he focused on the release of the next album "The Eminem Show" which was released in May 2002 and got to the first line of the charts again. And although this CD also was criticized for "malicious mood," for insults to women and for an abundance of dirty vocabulary, more than 30 million copies were sold worldwide. It became the best selling album of 2002.

Eminem in his youth

After that, Eminem released the disc "D12 World" together with the rap group "D12", and the next solo disc "Encore" was released in November 2004. Critics noted the more comic mood of the album and softer lyrics without the usual cruelty.

Eminem and D12

Eminem's intention to get rid of his evil alter-ego Slim Shady is emphasized by the design of the disc cover which depicts his farewell bow. However, the mockery of the stars is still there: for example, the clip for the song "Just Lose It" is an actual satire on Michael Jackson.

Eminem – Just Lose It

As he worked on the album "Encore", Marshall often used drugs, and then got a little confused in his creative plans. After recording this work, he decided to take a break. The silence was broken only by the re-release of old compositions in the CD "Curtain Call: The Hits" and the release of the collection "Eminem Presents: The Re-Up" in which the artist introduced new musicians Boby Creekwater and Cashis.

In 2007, Eminem recorded the song "Peep Show" for the new album "Curtis" of the famous rapper 50 Cent, and then again disappeared from the music world for a year and a half.

The silence was interrupted in February 2009 by the release of the song "Crack a Bottle" with the participation of 50 Cent and Dr. Dre; followed by a few more singles. In May, a new full-length album "Relapse" was finally released. The key theme of this disc and its advertising campaign was Marshall's getting rid of drug addiction. The artist himself described this work as a return to the "good old days".

"Relapse" was met with enthusiasm but "could have been better"

However, the disc got a lot of positive feedback and brought the artist another Grammy award. At the end of the year, the second part "Relapse: Refill" was released. It was shaped by well-known compositions along with completely new tracks, including "Forever" featuring rappers Drake, West, and Lil Wayne.

Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Eminem – Forever

In June 2010, another follow-up "Recovery" was released. It turned out to be much more successful than the previous one, and critics finally recognized the return of the "old" Eminem with his "dark, dramatic beat," "acrobatic rhymes of firm coinage," and "an increasing quality of anger."

The "Recovery" album marked the return of "the old Eminem"

After that, the artist recorded the album "Hell: The Sequel" with a friend of his youth, rapper Royce da 5'9 " – they formed a duet "Bad Meets Evil." With him, they had already worked as early as in 1997.

«Bad Meets Evil»: Eminem and Royce's da 5'9"

The next album "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" was released in August 2013 and became one of the most anticipated CDs in a few years. It is called the most "atmospheric" of Eminem's albums, marked with the spirit of nostalgia for his youth. Many well-known artists were invited for the recording – not only rappers but also singers of other genres including R'n'B-singer Rihanna.

In 2014, the recording company Shady Records founded by the artist released a double collection "Shady XV." The first disc contains fresh tracks by Eminem himself, by bands featuring him and by his friends: "Slaughterhouse," "Yelawolf," "D12," "Bad Meets Evil," etc. The second disc has accumulated all the best hits over the 15 years of the label's history by such artists as Obie Trice, 50 Cent, Bobby Creekwater, Ca $ his and Stat Quo. In 2015–2017, Eminem released several hits: "Campaign Speech," "Kill For You," etc.

In 2017, Eminem was working on a new album "Revival," his first solo disc after "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" released in 2013. Earlier in 2017, he released a video with a rap song harshly criticizing the president of the United States {ab: 89 Donald Trump.

In 2017 Eminem severely criticized Trump

Eminem releases his own fashion line, the items can be purchased through the official website. One of his latest collections "Camp Shady" also contains equipment for hiking and sports tourism.

In August 2018 Eminem released his 10th studio album «Kamikaze» contained new 13 tracks. One of them, «Venom», was in the track-list of the self-titled movie with Tom Hardy. At the same time rapper became a featured guest on new Nicki Minaj’s album «Queen». In their song, «Majesty» Eminem beat his own speed flow record read 123 syllables per 12 seconds.

Eminem – Venom (audio)

Cinema career and other works

Eminem's debut in the cinema was an episodic role in the comedy "The Wash" (2001) starring all his field colleagues including Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. The film was not widely known, and critics considered it "amateur and not funny."

A screenshot from the movie "The Wash"

His most important Eminem's film work was the main role in the drama "8 Mile" (2002) directed by Curtis Henson and co-starring Kim Basinger and Brittany Murphy. The story is about a young Detroit rapper nicknamed Rabbit. For Eminem, it is autobiographical to a great extent.

Eminem – Lose Yourself

The film, and especially the artist's performance, was highly appreciated by the audience. For this film, Eminem also wrote and performed 5 songs including the Oscar-winning main track "Lose Yourself." In addition, he got two "MTV Movie Awards" for his work in this film - in the categories "Male Breakthrough of the Year" and "Best Actor."

Eminem's song from "8 Mile" won an Oscar

After that, the actor starred as a cameo in the film "Funny" (2009) with Adam Sandler and in the seventh season of the series "Handsome", and also voiced the characters in the video game "50 Cent: Bulletproof" and the animated series "Slim Shady Show."

In 2008, the artist published his autobiography "The Way I Am." He also founded his own charitable fund "The Marshall Mathers Foundation" to help children from disadvantaged families.

Eminem's personal life

Marshall and his school friend Kimberly Ann Scott started dating in 1989 and since they broke up and reunited several times. On December 25, 1995, their daughter Haley Jade Scott was born.

In the photo: Eminem and his ex-wife Kim Scott

In the first place, at the time when Eminem's musical career was not successful, the young family was hampered by lack of money and the artist had to work as a dishwasher in a restaurant to make ends meet.

Hayley Jade Scott was born in 1995

The couple officially married in 1999 but in 2001 divorced. In one of the interviews of that time, Eminem swore: "Well, I would rather give birth to a child through the penis than agree to get married again."

Eminem dedicated the song "Kim" to his wife. In it, he promises to kill her

Nevertheless, in January 2006, they married again but in April of the same year they broke up for good and divorced in December. The former spouses agreed to bring up their daughter Hayley together though. Also, Marshall adopted two other children – Alain Scott, Kim's niece (the daughter of her sister), and Whitney Scott (Kim's daughter from another man).

Eminem's daughter has grown up beautiful

In the period between two marriages with Kim, Eminem had short affairs with several girls. Between them, according to tabloids, there is Jerry Halliwell, a former member of the Spice Girls; Brittany Murphy, a colleague from the movie "8 Mile," a pornstar Brittany Andrews, a singer Mariah Carey, and others.

After the final divorce, he repeatedly stated that he no longer wants to have a romantic relationship with anyone because he cannot trust anyone completely. In 2008, he dated Tracy McNew, a member of Shady Records. About his subsequent relationships, nothing is known.

Eminem's stepbrother Nathan Kane who was under Eminem’s custody followed his footsteps and became a famous rapper. With the mother, the artist still has a difficult relationship: she repeatedly sued him and then published a book "My son Marshall, my son Eminem" in which, in particular, she announced that he had a bipolar disorder of psyche for all his life.

Eminem now

In 2020, Eminem told the press that he celebrated the 12th anniversary of a drug-free life.

Eminem at the Oscars 2020

In addition, in 2020, the rapper released a new, eleventh album, Music to Be Murdered By. Other musicians took part in the recording of the new disc, including J uice WRLD and Ed Sheeran. The work received positive reviews from fans and critics.

In February 2020, Eminem also performed at the 92 Oscars with his song Lose Yourself.

Kyle Jordan Bryant

Many time ago I would sell my soul for the Eminem`s CD or a hoodie with the print of him. My room was full of the posters with Eminem.

2021-05-09 22:11:26
Frederick Osborne

When I was a teenager, I was skateboarding and listening Eminem, that time it was the coolest! I heard that he is making something now and writing.

2021-04-22 13:53:20
Carl Wilson

I am a real slim shady! I remember my 17yo like it`s now, Eminem is a legend!

2021-03-10 23:00:59
Alex Ryan Murphy

Em is cool, he didn`t gave up on the creative work and on his label has many talented musicians, respect.

2021-02-23 13:13:35
Roger Hall

Eminem is a legend of hip-hop, it`s hard to argue and he still making a good stuff.

2021-02-17 12:57:16

Photos: Eminem