EMINEM 

Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972),^[1] better known by his stage name Eminem (often stylized as EMINƎM) and by his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group, D12, to mainstream recognition. In addition to being a member of D12, Eminem is also one half of the hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s.^[2] He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[3] The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop.^[4] Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200. He has sold more than 42 million tracks and 41.5 million albums in the United States,^[5] and nearly 90 million albums worldwide.^[6]

Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album, The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others as his influences.

Eminem has opened other ventures since the beginning of his success. He founded his own record label, Shady Records with his manager Paul Rosenberg. He also has his own radio channel, Shade 45. Eminem began an acting career in 2002, when he starred in the hip hop drama film 8 Mile. Consequently, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first rap artist ever to win the award.^[7] He is also set to star in the 2013 films Shady Talez and Have Gun, Will Travel. He has made cameo appearances in The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009) and the television series Entourage.

1972–91: Early life and beginnings

Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III on October 17, 1972, in Saint Joseph, Missouri, the only child of Deborah R. (Nelson) Mathers-Briggs and Marshall Bruce Mathers, Jr.^[8] He is of Scottish,^[9] English, German, Swiss, Polish, and Luxembourgian ancestry.^[10] His father abandoned the family when he was 18 months old, and he was raised solely by his mother. By the age of 12, Mathers and his mother had moved between various cities and towns in Missouri (including Saint Joseph, Savannah, and Kansas City)^[11] before they settled in Warren, Michigan, and in Mathers' teenage years, Detroit.^[12]
As a child, Mathers developed an interest in storytelling and aspired to become a comic book artist before discovering hip hop.^[13] When Mathers was around 11 years old, his maternal uncle Ronald "Ronnie" Nelson introduced him to the genre after giving him a copy of Ice-T's single "Reckless".^[13] After obtaining a copy of the Beastie Boys album Licensed to Ill as a teenager, Mathers became interested in music, performing amateur raps at age 14 under the pseudonym "M&M" and joining the group called "Bassmint Productions" and released their second EP, Steppin' Onto The Scene. They later changed their name to "Soul Intent" and around 1995 they released their first single called "Fuckin' Backstabber" under the record label Mashin' Duck Records.^[1] Although he was enrolled at Lincoln High School in Warren, he frequently participated in freestyle battles at the now-defunct Osborn High School on Detroit's east side.^[14] Despite a well-documented struggle succeeding in a predominantly African-American industry, he gained the approval of underground hip hop audiences.^[1][8][15] After repeating the ninth grade twice due to truancy and near-failing grades,^[16] he dropped out of high school at age 17.
In 1991, Mathers was devastated by the suicide of his uncle. He has a tattoo reading "Ronnie R.I.P." on his upper left arm.^[17] Ronnie was mentioned in the songs "Stan", "Cleanin' Out My Closet" and "My Dad's Gone Crazy".

1992–99: Early career, Infinite and The Slim Shady EP

One of Mathers' early mentors as a rapper was local rapper Champtown, who got Mathers his first studio time; Mathers made his first music video appearance in Champtown's 1992 video "Do-Da-Dipity".^[18] Mathers and Champtown later had a falling out.^[18] Mathers was initially signed to FBT Productions in 1992, run by brothers Jeff and Mark Bass. Mathers also held a minimum-wage job of cooking and dishwashing at the restaurant Gilbert's Lodge at St. Clair Shores for some time.^[19] In 1996, his debut album Infinite, which was recorded at the Bassmint, a recording studio owned by the Bass Brothers, was released under their independent label Web Entertainment.^[20] Eminem recalled, "Obviously, I was young and influenced by other artists, and I got a lot of feedback saying that I sounded like Nas and AZ. 'Infinite' was me trying to figure out how I wanted my rap style to be, how I wanted to sound on the mic and present myself. It was a growing stage. I felt like 'Infinite' was like a demo that just got pressed up."^[21] Subjects covered in Infinite included his struggles with raising his newborn daughter Hailie Jade Mathers while on limited funds and his strong desire to get rich.^[22] Early in his career, Eminem collaborated with fellow Detroit MC Royce da 5'9" under the stage name Bad Meets Evil.^[23] After the release of Infinite, Eminem's personal struggles and abuse of drugs and alcohol culminated in an unsuccessful suicide attempt.^[1]
Jimmy Iovine, CEO of Interscope Records, requested a demo tape of Eminem's after he placed second at the 1997 Rap Olympics. Eminem had also won Wake Up Show's "Freestyle Performer of the Year" award, helping him acquire a record deal.^[24] Iovine played the tape for record producer Dr. Dre, founder of Aftermath Entertainment. The two began recording tracks for Eminem's upcoming major-label debut The Slim Shady LP, and Eminem made a guest performance on the album Devil Without a Cause by Kid Rock.^{[1][not in citation given]} Hip-hop magazine The Source featured Eminem in its "Unsigned Hype" column in March 1998.^[25]
The Slim Shady EP was a debut extended play by Eminem, published by Web Entertainment in 1997. The Slim Shady EP was released on cassette, vinyl, and CD. The vinyl and CD versions were released in 1998. Eminem first introduced his "Slim Shady" persona on this EP, and his lyrics are a marked departure from those found on Infinite, featuring 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. His flow is also noticeably different than on Infinite; whereas critics claimed he sounded too much like Nas and AZ on that album. Eminem also began utilizing story telling on this EP. The production value of the music on the tracks — from previous collaborators DJ Head, The Bass Brothers, and Mr. Porter — was also noticeably higher than on prior album efforts. According to Billboard, at this point in his life Eminem had "realized his musical ambitions were the only way to escape his unhappy life".
After being signed to Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records in 1998, Eminem released his first major studio album, The Slim Shady LP, heavily based on the production by Dr. Dre, one year later in 1999. Billboard praised the album as "light years ahead of the material he had been writing beforehand".^[26] It went on to be one of the most popular albums of 1999, going triple platinum by the end of the year.^[27] 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.^[28] 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.^[29][30]

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.^[31][32] 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.^[33] 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. They performed a remix of the song "The Way I Am" together in concert.^[34] 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.^[8] 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,^[35] and the song came tenth in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com.^[36] The song has since become highly acclaimed and was ranked 290th in Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.^[37] In July 2000, Eminem became the first white person to be featured on the cover of The Source magazine.^[25] This album has been certified 10× Platinum by the RIAA.
Eminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards ceremony in 2001;^[38] 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.^[39] 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."^[40] On February 21, the day of the ceremony, GLAAD held a protest outside the Staples Center, the venue where the Grammy ceremony was held.^[41] Music tours that he participated in for 2001 included the Up in Smoke Tour with rappers Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, and Ice Cube^[42] and Family Values Tour with the band Limp Bizkit.^[43]
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.^[27] It featured the single "Without Me", in which he 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 of Allmusic felt that while there was clear anger present on several tracks, this album was considerably less inflammatory than The Marshall Mathers LP.^[44] 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 the nickname "Eminef" for the bowdlerization of motherfucker, an obscenity prevalent in the album.^[45] The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of 2002.^[46]