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Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, on October 17, 1972, in Kansas City, Missouri. Eminem also has the alter ego Slim Shady, which he says he named himself while going to the bathroom. Slim Shady is supposed to be a darker side of Eminem. Marshall grew up very rough. His father Marshall Mathers II left him and his mother when Marshall was only months old. And Eminem's mother, Debbie, never worked so they were very poor and were on welfare. Because of Eminem being so poor, he kept moving back and forth between Missouri and Detroit. Sometimes he stayed with his relatives, but he was always moving around. The longest he said that he ever stayed in one house was 6 months. Because of this, Eminem has many songs dissing his mother and telling how bad of a life he had. He finally ended up permentally living in Detroit by the very famous road called 8 Mile, which is "the color line of Detroit"(Em also stars in a movie called 8 Mile about Detroit and a guy growing up on the wrong side of things, but still wanting to make it big in rap. The movie is not on Marshall's childhood, but a kid's childhood similar to his). Eminem had an uncle Ronnie (Ronald Polkinghorn), who was his mother's brother. Ronnie was only 2 months older then Em, and who let Em have the chance to listen to LL Cool J's record. From that moment on, Em wanted to rhyme, and he would stand infront of his mirror lip-syncing LL Cool J. But when Ronnie was only 19 in 1991, he commited suicide. Because of his uncle death (Ronnie was Em's only family member that he ever really loved), Em stopped rapping for about a year. Then, he finally started rapping again. He started from the underground by rapping in clubs like St. Andrew's in Detroit and The Hip-Hop Shop. He beat out many rappers and made a demo-tape. That demo-tape got Eminem a place in the 97 Rap Olympics. He secured second place. Dr. Dre heard of Eminem and his skills, and signed him to his record label. He did not even know Eminem was white until he interviewed him, but he knew he had skills.
Eminem also had a girlfriend in highschool named Kim Scott who he later had a daughter with. His daughter is named Hailie Jade, and was born December 25, 1995 (CHRISTMAS). He married his girlfriend in 1999, but their relationship has been going on and off since then. Because of that, in many of his songs like 'Kim' off the Marshall Mathers LP, he talks about killing his wife. But he does have some love in him, for his daughter (Hailie Jade). When asked if he had love in his soul he replied, "I got my love in my pants. Love in my soul? Yeah, of course I do. I got love for my daughter, I got love for my music. And anything else? Nah" He loves his daughter basically more than his own life, and he shows that in most of his songs by saying his daughter's name and saying good things about her. He also thanks her a lot, and he repeats this by saying, "I thank her everyday. Everyday when I wake up I thank her." One of the songs off the Eminem Show called 'Hailie's Song' , is dedicated to his daughter to show her how much he cares about her. Eminem also has a brother Nathan who was born in 1986, and who now lives with Em.
Eminem's debut album Infinite that came out in 1996 did not do so well. But he started to gain respect through out his other albums. His other albums are The Slim Shady EP, The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP (which was one of his greatest), The Eminem Show (he's won best album of the year for on MTV's 2002 VMA's), and his soundtrack for the movie 8 Mile- the 8 Mile Soundtrack. That soundtrack includes one of today's best songs- 'Lose Yourself', which is still one of the nation's greatest.
Eminem has showed the world very well what a white rapper can do with Hip-Hop. He says many times in his music that he doesn't give a f*ck what you think about him, and his lyrics has made him one of today's most controversial rappers. Eminem has taking over entertainment, and he will always remain in Music history as being great. |
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