Rapper and music producer Eminem is one of the best-selling musicians of the 21st century and a 15-time Grammy Award winner. His turbulent childhood saw him bounce between Missouri and Detroit, where he dropped out of high school at age 17. Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III, worked odd jobs until finally making it as a rapper upon the release of The Slim Shady LP in early 1999. His next album, The Marshall Mathers LP, was noted as the fastest-selling album in rap history. Eminem has done some acting work, most notably in the 2002 semi-autobiographical movie 8 Mile, for which he wrote and recorded the Academy Award–winning song “Lose Yourself.”
Quick FactsREAL NAME: Marshall Bruce Mathers IIIBORN: October 17, 1972BIRTHPLACE: St. Joseph, MissouriSPOUSE: Kim Scott (1999-2001 and 2006)CHILDREN: Alaina, Hailie, and StevieASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra
Early Life: Eminem’s Real Name, Mom, and DadEminem’s real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III. He was born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri. His famous stage name is taken from his first and last initials.
Eminem never knew his father, Marshall Mathers Jr., who abandoned the family when Eminem was still an infant and rebuffed all of his son’s many attempts to contact him during his childhood.
As a result, Eminem was raised by his mother, Deborah “Debbie” Nelson. His mom never managed to hold down a job for more than several months at a time, so they moved frequently between Missouri and Detroit, spending large chunks of time in public housing projects. “I would change schools two, three times a year,” Eminem later recalled. “That was probably the roughest part about it all.”
This itinerant lifestyle left a large impact on his personality. He had no close friends, kept almost entirely to himself, and was treated like an outcast at each new school. “Beat up in the bathroom, beat up in the hallways, shoved into lockers,” he remembered.
Eminem attended Lincoln High School in Warren, Michigan, where he failed the ninth grade three times and eventually dropped out at the age of 17. Yet despite being a poor student, Eminem always had a deep affinity for language, devouring comic books and even studying the dictionary.
“I found that no matter how bad I was at school, like, and no matter how low my grades might he been at some times, I always was good at English,” he said. “I just felt like I wanna be able to he all of these words at my disposal, in my vocabulary at all times whenever I need to pull ’em out. You know, somewhere, they’ll be stored, like, locked away.”
Eminem has been scathingly critical of the way his mom raised him. Through his song lyrics, he has publicly accused her of being addicted to prescription drugs as well as subjecting him to emotional and physical abuse. Debbie has vehemently denied all such accusations, and in 1999, she filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against her son. They settled the case for $25,000.
In 2008, Debbie published My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem: Setting the Record Straight on My Life As Eminem’s Mother, a memoir recounting her side of the story and their complicated relationship. In the book, she claims to he never exploited her son and that her only concern was for her children.
Ex-Wife Kim Scott and Daughters
Getty ImagesKim Scott and Eminem were married and divorced twice, most recently in 2006.Eminem was just 15 when he met 13-year-old Kim Scott at a house party. Kim, who claimed that she didn’t know her father and had been sexually abused by her stepfather, came to live with Eminem and his mom, Debbie. Eminem and Kim soon began dating, but their relationship was turbulent from the start. Debbie threw the couple out when Eminem dropped out of school.
The couple broke up and got back together many times, finally marrying just before Eminem left on his first major tour in 1999. They divorced in 2001 after a protracted, ugly, and highly public custody dispute over their daughter Hailie. The saga prompted the rapper to write the 2000 song “Kim.”
Kim and Eminem continued to maintain a tumultuous off-and-on relationship until remarrying in January 2006. Their second try at wedded bliss also didn’t last. Within three months, the rapper had filed for divorce, and their separation was finalized that December.
ChildrenWith Kim Scott, Eminem raised three children: Alaina, Hailie Jade, and Stevie.
Dive Deeper
Where Eminem’s 3 Kids Are NowTheir middle daughter, Hailie, has the highest public profile. The couple welcomed Hailie in December 1995. Eminem has rapped about Hailie throughout his career, including on the 2004 song “Mockingbird” and throughout his 2017 album Revival.
Eminem took on more parenting duties in the early 2000s after adopting Alaina, who was born in February 1993 to Kim’s sister, Dawn Scott. Eminem and Kim became Alaina’s parents as Dawn struggled with drug abuse. Alaina’s biological mother died in January 2016 from a suspected heroin overdose.
The rapper also adopted Stevie, Kim’s child with her late ex-boyfriend Eric Hartter. Stevie, who is nonbinary and uses all pronouns, was born in April 2002. Eminem became their father in 2005.
Rap Career
Getty ImagesEminem began his career in Detroit’s underground rap scene and gained fame with his first studio album, The Slim Shady LP, from 1999.As a high school dropout, Eminem found a way to express his passion for language, as well as to release his youthful anger, through the emerging musical genre of hip-hop. He assumed the stage name M&M, a playful reference to his initials, which he later began writing phonetically as “Eminem.” Eminem identified with the nihilistic rage of late-1980s and early-1990s rap music, and he was especially taken with N.W.A., the popular and highly controversial gangster rap crew from Los Angeles.
Although at the time rap music was almost exclusively produced by Black people, Eminem, who has pale white skin and bright blue eyes, nevertheless entered into the Detroit rap scene as a frequent competitor in rap battles. Eminem proved highly skilled at such improvised verbal sparring and, despite his race, quickly became one of the most respected figures in Detroit’s underground rap scene.
“I finally found something that yeah, this kid over here, you know, he may he more chicks, and he may, you know, he better clothes, or whatever, but he can’t do this like me. You know what I mean?” Eminem recalled. “He can’t write what I’m writing right now. And it started to feel like, you know, maybe Marshall’s gettin’ a little respect.”
This period in Eminem’s life—working odd jobs to make ends meet while participating in rap battles and desperately attempting to land a record contract—was later dramatized in 8 Mile. Eminem starred as Jimmy in the semi-autobiographical 2002 movie opposite Brittany Murphy.
Getty ImagesEminem and Dr. Dre attend the 1999 MTV Music Awards Party.Eminem’s breakthrough finally arrived in 1997. He treled to Los Angeles and became runner-up in that year’s Rap Olympics MC Battle. Afterward Dr. Dre, the legendary rapper and former N.W.A. producer, listened to Eminem’s cassette of his independent release The Slim Shady EP in the basement of executive Jimmy Iovine’s home. Dre was so impressed that he signed the young rapper to his Interscope Records label.
Eminem has become one of the most acclaimed rappers in the genre. As much as any other individual artist, he is responsible for rap’s transition into mainstream music.
Albums and SongsEminem has released 12 studio albums of original work, as well as two self-published records from early in his career. His two compilation albums featuring his greatest hits are Curtain Call (2005) and Curtain Call 2 (2022).
His albums, in order, are:
Inspired by the birth of his daughter Hailie to make a living as a rapper, Eminem released his first independent rap album, Infinite, in 1996. Although the album displayed flashes of his verbal prowess, biting wit, and flair for storytelling, the low-budget record failed to turn a profit or attract more than local attention.
His next release, 1997’s The Slim Shady EP, was a much different story. Discovered by Dr. Dre, the record secured Eminem the record deal he had long desired.
In 1999, after two years of working with Dre, Eminem released The Slim Shady LP. The heily hyped record became an instant success, going on to sell over three million copies. Eminem’s first single, “My Name Is,” mixed a childish humor and energy with rampant profanity and flashes of violence—a potent and fascinating combination that felt different from anything else in rap.
Eminem released his second studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP, in May 2000. The album showed off Eminem’s poetic talents as well as his emotional and artistic range. His songs vary from manically funny (“The Real Slim Shady”) to heartbreakingly poignant (“Stan”) to explosively violent (“Kim”) to disarmingly self-critical (“The Way I Am”).
The Marshall Mathers LP sold over 19 million copies worldwide, won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, received a nomination for Album of the Year, and is widely considered among the greatest rap albums of all time.
Nevertheless, The Marshall Mathers LP also came under a firestorm of criticism for its excessive profanity, glorification of drugs and violence, and its apparent homophobia and misogyny.
While Eminem attempted to mitigate such criticism by maintaining that his raps simply use the rough language he has been surrounded by since childhood, and later by performing a duet with Elton John at the 2001 Grammy Awards to demonstrate his openness to the gay community, Eminem nevertheless remains reviled in some quarters for his offensive lyrical content.
In 2002, Eminem released a new solo album, The Eminem Show, another popular and critically acclaimed album highlighted by the tracks “Without Me,” “Cleaning Out My Closet,” and “Sing for the Moment.”
That same year, the artist was all over the airwes with the 8 Mile track “Lose Yourself,” which went on to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Eminem’s next album, 2004’s Encore, was less successful than his previous efforts. Still, it featured popular songs such as “Like Toy Soldiers” and “Mockingbird.
For the next several years, Eminem recorded very little music and was largely consumed by personal problems. Following his second divorce from Kim in 2006, Eminem slipped further into alcoholism and addiction to sleeping pills and prescription painkillers. In December 2007, he overdosed and nearly died. “If I would he got to the hospital two hours later, that would he been it,” he said.
By early 2008, Eminem had managed to kick his addictions to drugs and alcohol and returned to recording music. He released his first album of new music in five years, Relapse, in 2009, featuring the singles “Crack a Bottle” and “Beautiful.”
In 2010, Eminem released another album, Recovery, a highly autobiographical attempt to come to terms with his struggles with addiction and experience with rehabilitation. His most acclaimed album in years, Recovery struck a somewhat gentler and more inspirational tone than his previous music, with the popular song “Love the Way You Lie.”
“I don’t want to go overboard with it, but I do feel like that if I can help people that he been through a similar situation, then, you know, why not?” Eminem said of the revealing album.
Recovery won Eminem a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.
After 10 years and seven albums, the rapper who shocked, appalled, and fascinated the music world with the unbridled rage of his youthful music is reinventing himself as a mature artist. “I started learning how to not be so angry about things, learning how to count my f––ing blessings instead. By doing that, I’ve become a happier person, instead of all this self-loathing I was doing for a while,” Eminem said. “The music, I wouldn’t say it’s gotten happier, but it’s definitely more upbeat. I feel like myself again.”
Eminem released his eighth album, The Marshall Mathers LP2, on November 5, 2013. The announcement for the future Grammy-winning album, for short MMLP2, was made during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.
On the awards show, Eminem leaked a snippet of the first single from the album, entitled “Berzerk.” He went to reach of the top of charts with “The Monster,” a track that also featured Rihanna and earned a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.
In 2014, Eminem celebrated the 15th anniversary of his Shady Records label with a special two-CD set called ShadyXV. The collection features the label’s most popular songs as well as some new material. The single “Guts Over Fear” quickly rose up the charts after its late October debut.
At the end of 2017, Eminem released his ninth studio album, Revival. Its first two singles, “Walk on Water” and “River,” featured collaborations with pop superstars Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran.
The album as a whole divided critics and failed to garner the accolades notched by his previous efforts. None of the songs reached the Top 10 on the Billboard 100, while each of his three previous albums resulted in at least one No. 1 hit.
While nearly four years passed between Eminem’s eighth and ninth albums, fans only had to wait a few months before he dropped his next studio effort, Kamikaze, on August 31, 2018.
The surprise album kicked off with “Ringer,” which featured the rapper diving right back into his disdain for President Donald Trump. In October 2017, Eminem had made headlines for a freestyle segment taped for the BET Hip Hop Awards, in which he ripped into Trump.
The single “Not Alike” attacked rapper Machine Gun Kelly, known as MGK, for lewd comments he had made several years before about Eminem’s then-underage daughter, Hailie. After MGK replied with the track “Rap Devil,” Eminem followed up with the single “Killshot,” a barrage of insults about MGK’s talents and lack of success, which shot to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The album helped Eminem rebound from Revival. However, beyond the album’s successes, Eminem was criticized for homophobic insults on the tracks “Killshot” and “Fall.”
As with Kamikaze, Eminem dropped Music to Be Murdered By with no advance warning in January 2020. The 20-track album was accompanied by the release of a video for “Darkness,” which recalled the deadly mass shooting at the 2017 Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas and urged viewers to vote to change gun laws.
The following month, the rapper made a surprise appearance at the Academy Awards to perform his winner from the 2003 ceremony, “Lose Yourself.”
In December 2020, the rapper released the follow-up album, Side B.
Although primarily a solo artist, Eminem is also a member of mostly dormant group D12. The rapper and several of his friends from the Detroit underground rap scene formed D12 in 2001. They subsequently recorded the album Devil’s Night that featured the popular single “Purple Pills.” D12’s mixtape from 2015, Devil’s Night: Reloaded, featured Eminem on only one track.
QuotesThere’s obviously a limit to what people want to know, but I’ve pretty much put most of it out there.The emotions in a song, the anger, the aggression, he got to be legitimate.I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit.My father? Never knew him. Never even seen a picture of him.I’m not afraid to take a stand.Opportunity comes once in a lifetime.Anything I’ve ever said I certainly meant at the time. But I think I’ve calmed down a bit.Whoever likes my stuff, likes my stuff. But just know that “Slim Shady” is hip-hop. I grew up on hip-hop. It’s the music that I love and the music I respect.A lot of my rhymes are just to get chuckles out of people. Anybody with half a brain is going to be able to tell when I’m joking and when I’m serious.
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