Direct Eminem

A Short Biography of Eminem

Born in October 17, 1974 in Missouri, USA, as Marshall Bruce Mathers III, rapper Eminem emerged as one of the most controversial rappers to date. Eminem has spent most of his childhood shuttling between his various relatives’ houses and finally settled down in Detroit at the age of 12. His interest in rapping took flight when he dropped out from high school in ninth grade. He, along with four other MC friends – Kon Artis, Kuniva, Bizzare and Swift, started a group called D12, with the Basement Production, one of the ad hoc groups. Initially he took up the stage name as M&M, which later changed into the present spelling – “Eminem”. At the age of 14, he was competing against the MC’s at the local clubs, in Detroit.

Having lived a troubled childhood, he showed his anguish hiding inside him that “the sarcastic, foul mouthed and the evil side” Slim Shady LP would rap in the albums. Some of the songs penned by him were quite disturbing and alarmed everyone, since; it openly assaulted his mother with the many four letter words and insults. And in songs such as “97 Bonnie and Clyde” he expressed his wish of killing the mother of his daughter.

Eminem got noticed by Jimmy Iovine, Interscope owner at the Rap Olympics held in 1997 where he bagged the second position in the category of freestyle. Iovine introduced his skills to Dr.Dre, the former Death Row Records chief. Dr. Dre, immediately started his contract with Eminem, which gave him his first big solo hit, “My Name is” and his famous debut album, “The Slim Shady LP”, which got released in the February of 1999. After that, “The Marshall Mathers LP”, was released in 2000, which became one of the fastest selling rap albums in history. It sold out about two million copies in the first week of its release itself. And it even got him the best rap album Grammy award. The rapper invited Elton John on the stage to perform a duet along with him at the awards ceremony. The performance silenced his critics. It was followed by his debut acting role in a movie, 8 Mile, directed by Curtis Hanson. The movie gained an Academy Award in the category for the Best Original Song – Lose Yourself by Eminem.

After giving himself a break for some time, he was back in action with the release of his single, ” Without Me”, which again became a scapegoat to controversies, since he makes fun of Moby, Limp Bizkit and others, though, the album which followed, “The Eminem Show” generated very little controversy, which was a surprise to many.

Though Eminem is considered as one of the most controversial and troubled figure, with the shocking and insulting lyrics or his turbulent relationships with his mother and his wife, he has earned fame through his success in music as well. Whether it is the millions of copies of the Slim Shady LP sold or the Marshall Mathers LP being sold out or the nomination of his albums to Grammy, he has earned his star status.