Eminem - The Best Selling Music Artist

Eminem is a rapper, songwriter, record producer and actor from America. Eminem’s real name or Eminem full name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III. He is professionally known as EMINƎM or Eminem. Eminem is famously known as the most - controversial and best-selling artist of the early 20th century. He has a worldwide sales record of 220 million records (estimated). Eminem was born on the 17th day of October, in the year 1972 in St. Joseph, Missouri, the U.S. He popularized hip hop in Middle America and is one of the greatest rappers of all time. 

In this article, we are going to read Eminem’s biography - about Eminem, Eminem’s real name, who is Eminem, Eminem’s family and Eminem’s story.

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Image: Eminem

About Eminem

Eminem Life Story

Eminem was born not as Eminem but as Marshall Bruce Mathers III to Deborah R. (Nelson) and Marshall Bruce Mathers, Jr. They worked in a band called Daddy Warbucks together. Eminem is of several ancestries - English, Scottish, German, German-Swiss, Polish and Luxembourgian. His father left them and moved to California after having other two children Michael and Sarah. During his whole childhood, Eminem and his mother shuttled between Detroit and Missouri living in several places including St. Joseph, Savannah and Kansas City. As a teenager, he had written many letters to his father but they came back marked as “return to sender” as updated by Debbie, his mother. 

As a child, he was beaten badly by a bully named D'Angelo Bailey which injured his head. He recounted this incident in his song “Brain Damage”. Eminem and Debbie, his mother, had spent most of their life in a working-class, primarily black, Detroit neighbourhood. Eminem and Debbie were one of the three white households and Eminem was beaten several times by the other members of the community for several reasons.

Eminem has been a rap fan for most of his life and he started rapping at the age of 4. Since he had a pathetic childhood, he started finding happiness in rhyming words together and battling schoolmates in the lunchroom. At the age of 14, he started taking his rapping skills seriously. After a lot of struggle and insults, he finally heard his first rap song “Reckless” on the  Breakin' soundtrack which was a gift from his mother’s half brother Ronnie Polkingharn. He has described many of his life incidents through his songs. In his song "Cleanin' Out My Closet", he described how his mother suffered from Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy or MSBP. In another song, “My Mom”, he says that his mother had developed a valium addiction and used to sprinkle valium on his food. When he started rapping at the age of 14 with his friend Mike Ruby, they both adopted the names - “Manix” and “M&M” (which later on became Eminem). 

Eminem Career

In the year 1988, Eminem formed his first group New Jacks and went by his stage name MC Double M. During this time, he made a self-titled demo tape with DJ Butter Fingers. A year later, they joined Bassmint Productions (later renamed Soul Intent in 1992). In 1995, they released a self-titled EP featuring Proof. He also made his first music video appearance in the year 1992 in the song "Do-Da-Dippity" by Brian Harmon (stage name Champtown). Later in the year 1996, Eminem and Proof teamed up with four other rappers to form The Dirty Dozen (D12). The D12 released their first album Devil’s Night in the year 2001. 

He soon signed to Jeff and Mark Bass's F.B.T. Productions and he recorded his debut album “Infinite” for their independent label Web Entertainment. But, this album failed after its release in the year 1996. In “Infinite”, he has described how much he had to suffer to raise his newborn daughter Hailie Jade Scott Mathers because he had little money. It was during this period that his rhyming style, which was inspired by rappers - Nas, Esham and AZ started reflecting the comically violent slant for which he became famous later on. After the failure of “Infinite”, he faced a lot of criticism (which led him towards crafting angrier and moodier tracks). 

After a lot of struggle and abuse, he developed a sadistic and violent alternative self (alter ego) - The Slim Shady which started attracting attention. The character of Slim Shady allowed him to express his anger about the drugs, rape and murder through his lyrics. On December 10, 1997, Eminem released his debut EP - Slim Shady EP by Web Entertainment. The EP explored the serious themes of drugs, sexual use, violence, mental instability, dealing with poverty, marital and family issues, and it revealed his direct and self-deprecating response to criticism. In March 1998, “The Source”, a hip hop magazine, featured Eminem in their “Unsigned Hype”. 

When Eminem was fired from his job and was evicted from home, he went to Los Angeles with the intention of competing in the 1997 Rap Olympics which is a nationwide battle rap competition and was placed second there. An attendee of the competition, Dean Geistlinger, who was an intern in Interscope Records, an American record label owned by Universal Music Group, asked Eminem for a copy of Slim Shady EP for sharing it with the company’s CEO Jimmy Lovine. Lovine further shared the record with  Dr. Dre, the founder of an American record label, Aftermath Entertainment who loved it.

Finally, in February 1999, he released The Slim Shady EP. Then, on May 23, 2000, he released The Marshall Mathers LP, which was recorded from 1999 to 2000. Soon after its release, in the first week itself, The Marshall Mathers LP broke the US Records held by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle for fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time for a fastest-selling solo album by selling 1.76 million copies. In Spite of the controversies, his first single from the album "The Real Slim Shady" was a hit. After that, he released a few more songs describing his pains and struggles. 

In 2001, he performed at the 43rd Grammy Awards ceremony with Elton John, where the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, an American non-governmental media monitoring organisation, condemned John for performing with Eminem. In May 2002, The Eminem Show was released which was also a great hit selling over 1.332 million copies in its first week. In 2004, he released another hit, Encore. He began his first US concert in the summer of 2005 along with the Anger Management 3 Tour, featuring 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil Jon, D12, Obie Trice and The Alchemist. In the year 2006, April, Eminem’s childhood friend Proof was murdered. After eight months, he released a compilation album which he called Eminem Presents: The Re-Up featuring Proof and other artists of Shady Records. 

In 2010, Eminem released Recovery - an autobiography through his lyrics defining his struggles with addiction and experience with rehabilitation. This brought Grammy to him. Other releases that brought him success include The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013), Revival (2017), Kamikaze (2018) and Music to Be Murdered By (2020). 

About Eminem: Artistry

Eminem’s Style and Rapping Technique,

Eminem’s rapping style was influenced by many such as Esham, Kool G Rap, Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, Ice-T, Mantronix, Melle Mel, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Run - D.M.C, Rakim and Boogie Down Productions. The Master of Ceremonies (MCs) praised Eminem’s rapping technique by describing it as, “varied, humorous subject matter, connecting with his audience, carrying a concept over a series of albums, complex rhyme schemes, bending words so they rhyme, multisyllabic rhymes, many rhymes to a bar, complex rhythms, clear enunciation, and the use of melody and syncopation.” Eminem’s music style includes rap-rock, horrorcore, comedy hip hop, and hardcore hip hop. 

Alter Egos

Eminem uses alter egos for different rapping styles and different subject matters. The best known alter ego of Eminem is Slim Shady which appeared in Slim Shady EP, The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show, Encore, Relapse, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 and Kamikaze. With this character, his songs depict violent and dark themes with some comic twists. Another alter ego is Ken Kaniff. This is a homosexual character who pokes fun at Eminem's songs, which was originally created by Aristotle, a fellow Detroit rapper. 

Eminem Story: Other Ventures

Shady Records

After the successful release of The Slim Shady LP, Eminem and his manager, Paul Rosenberg founded Shady Records in 1999. He has signed 12 acts from the time it was formed which includes Eminem, Bad Meets Evil, Conway the Machine, Westside Boogie and Grip, while former acts include D12, Obie Trice, 50 Cent, Stat Quo, Bobby Creekwater, Cashis, Slaughterhouse, Yelawolf, Griselda and Westside Gunn. 

Acting Career

Eminem did many small roles and made his Hollywood debut in his semi-autobiographical film 8 Mile in the year 2002. Eminem has also given his voice to a character in the video game 50 Cent: Bulletproof. He also guested the Comedy Central television show Crank Yankers and a Web cartoon, The Slim Shady Show. Eminem was signed to star in Have Gun – Will Travel but the film was unmade. He was also considered to play the character of David Rice in the film Jumper in 2008. He did a cameo appearance in the film Funny People in 2009 and also played himself in the Entourage season-seven finale "Lose Yourself". In 2014, he made a cameo appearance as himself in “The Interview”. 

Books

In the year 2000, on November 21, Eminem published his non-fiction book Angry Blonde. It is a commentary of his own songs and a few unpublished photographs. On 2008, October 21, he published his autobiography The Way I Am. Through this book, he has tried to tell the world about his struggles with poverty, drugs, fame, heartbreak and depression. The book also includes the stories of his fame, past controversies and original lyric sheets from "Stan" and "The Real Slim Shady".