Eminem Biography / Pictures

Mathers was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, and spent most of his childhood moving back and forth between St. Joseph and Detroit, Michigan.

Marshall did pretty well in school considering the circumstances until he got to year 9. He failed for the third year in a row and decided that he had had enough. School just wasn’t for him, so he left to work on what he was most passionate about: rapping. He had been lip-synching to hip hop songs ever since he was 4 and if he wasn’t a comic book shop owner he had this dream to be a rapper. He started getting a name for himself when he was 17, even though he got into the rap game when he was 14.

Interested in rap from a young age, Mathers began performing as early as age 14, later gaining some popularity with a group, Soul Intent. In 1995, he released his first independent album, named Infinite.  That same year, his high school sweet heart, now wife, Kim, gave birth to his only child, a little girl named Hailie Jade Scott.  He followed up with The Slim Shady EP in 1997. He became famous in the hip-hop underground because of his distinctive, cartoonish style and the fact that he's white (a rarity in all rap, especially mainstream gangsta rap). Some people called him rap's "great white hope".  

He was using the initials from his first and last names to form his rap name “M & M” which later became “Eminem” because of his race, he got rejected by people all the time, even though he was a really talented rapper. Determined to prove everyone wrong, he forced himself to go on radio shows and participate in freestyle battles.

It is said that Dr. Dre found Eminem's demo on the garage floor of Jimmy Iovine, the Interscope label chief. Though this did not directly lead to a recording contract, once Eminem won second place vs. Otherwize at the 1997 Rap Olympics MC battle, Dr. Dre agreed to sign him.

Once he joined Interscope, Eminem released The Slim Shady LP, which went on to be one of the most popular records of the year, going triple platinum. With the album's enormous popularity came controversy surrounding many of the album's lyrics. In "97 Bonnie and Clyde", Eminem describes a trip with his infant daughter, disposing of the bodies of his wife, her lover and his son. Another song, "Guilty Conscience" ends with Eminem and Dr. Dre encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover.

The Marshall Mathers LP was released in the summer of 2000, quickly selling 2 million copies. The album's first single, "The Real Slim Shady", created some buzz by trash-talking celebrities and spilling dubious gossip about them. In the song, Eminem claims, among other things, that Christina Aguilera gave "head" (oral s--) to Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit) and Carson Daly (of MTV's Total Request Live). In the second single, "Stan," Eminem attempts to deal with his new fame status, telling the story of a fan so obsessed with him that he winds up killing himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring one of the songs on The Slim Shady LP.

With the enormous popularity of Eminem's second album, the controversy surrounding Eminem grew even larger, especially when The Marshall Mathers LP was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year. Though Mathers had always claimed that his lyrics were not meant to be taken seriously, and that he had nothing against homos--uals or women, the gay rights group GLAAD organized a boycott of the Grammys against Eminem. Mathers responded to this by singing "Stan" on-stage with gay singer Elton John, ending the performance by hugging John to show that he didn't in fact have anything against homos--uals. Though shocking a lot of people, this gesture failed to appease all of his critics.

Marshals’ album sales were skyrocketing but things weren’t going well with his wife Kim. A month after the Marshall Mathers LP was released, Em was involved in a brawl outside a Detroit club, where he allegedly pistol-whipped a man for kissing Kim. In august that same year, Em filed for divorce. In April 2001, Marsh was sentenced to 2 years probation, stemming from the weapons charge. This same year, he reconciled with Kim for his daughter, Hailies’, sake, but it only lasted for a few months, this time it was Kim who filed for divorce, in August.

As one of six members of the rap group D12, Eminem appeared on the album Devil's Night, released in 2001. The album was certified multi-platinum. The album contained the single "Purple Pills". Another song, "Blow My Buzz", was on the soundtrack for the film The Wash (2001).

Eminem's third major album, The Eminem Show was released in summer of 2002. It featured the single "Without Me", an apparent sequel to "The Real Slim Shady" in which he makes derogatory comments about boy bands, Moby, and Lynne Cheney, among others.

2002 was a big year for Marshall.  Eminem made his Hollywood acting debut with the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile. He recorded several new songs for the soundtrack, including "Lose Yourself," which won Eminem his first Oscar for Best Original Song.

On November 19, 2003 new controversy surrounded Eminem when a cassette tape was played during a press conference. The 1988 cassette featured a younger Mathers performing a freestyle rap in which he made disparaging remarks about black women, calling them "stupid" in comparison to white women. The press conference was held by The Source Magazine. Mathers reportedly made the recording after breaking up with his black girlfriend.

On December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service admitted it was "looking into" allegations that Mathers had threatened the President of the United States after the unreleased song We as Americans leaked onto the Internet. The lyrics in question: F*** 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 Eminem Show (2002)
• The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
• The Slim Shady LP (1999)
• The Slim Shady EP (1997)
• Infinite (1995)