Born Marshall Bruce Mathers
III, 17 October 1973, Kansas City, Missouri, USA. This white rapper burst onto
the US charts in 1999 with a controversial take on the horrorcore genre. Mathers
endured an itinerant childhood, living with his mother in various states before
eventually ending up in Detroit at the age of 12. He took up rapping in high
school before dropping out in ninth grade, joining ad hoc groups Basement
Productions, the New Jacks, and
D12
. The newly named Eminem released a raw debut album in 1997 through independent
label FBT. Infinite was poorly received, however, with Eminem earning
unfavourable comparisons to leading rappers such as
Nas
and
AZ
. His determination to succeed was given a boost by a prominent feature in Source's
Unsigned Hype column, and he gained revenge on his former critics when he won
the Wake Up Show's Freestyle Performer Of The Year award, and finished
runner-up in Los Angeles' annual Rap Olympics. The following year's The Slim
Shady EP, named after his sinister alter-ego, featured some vitriolic
attacks on his detractors. The stand-out track, "Just Don't Give A
Fuck", became a highly popular underground hit, and led to guest
appearances on MC Shabaam Sahddeq's "Five Star Generals" single and
Kid Rock
's Devil Without A Cause set. As a result, Eminem was signed to Aftermath
Records by label boss
Dr. Dre
, who adopted the young rapper as his prot?g? and acted as co-producer on
Eminem's full-length debut. Dre's beats featured prominently on
The Slim Shady LP
, a provocative feast of violent, twisted lyrics, with a moral outlook partially
redeemed by Eminem's claim to be only "voicing" the thoughts of the
Slim Shady character. Parody or no parody, lyrics to tracks such as "97
Bonnie & Clyde" (which contained lines about killing the mother of his
child) and frequent verbal outbursts about his mother were held by many, outside
even the usual Christian moral majority, to be deeply irresponsible. The album
was buoyed by the commercial success of the singles "My Name Is" and
"Guilty Conscience" (the former helped by a striking,
MTV
-friendly video), and climbed to number 2 on the US album chart in March 1999.
Eminem subsequently made high profile appearances
on Rawkus Records' Soundbombing Volume 2 compilation and
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott
's Da Real World. He was also in the news when his mother filed a lawsuit
claiming that comments made by the rapper during interviews and on
The Slim Shady LP
had caused, amongst other things, emotional distress, damage to her reputation
and loss of self-esteem. None of which harmed the sales of Eminem's follow-up
album,
The Marshall Mathers LP
, which debuted at number 1 on the US album chart in May 2000 and established
him as the most successful rapper since the mid-90s heyday of
2Pac
and
Snoop Doggy Dogg
. By the end of the year, however, his troubled personal life and a serious
assault charge had removed the gloss from his phenomenal commercial success.
Despite criticism from gay rights groups, the rapper swept up three Grammy
Awards the following February. He also reunited with his D12 colleagues to
record the transatlantic chart-topping Devil's Night.
Eminem's new studio album,
The Eminem Show
, was premiered by single "Without Me". The track, which debuted at UK
number 1 in May 2002, featured a sample from
Malcolm McLaren
's "Buffalo Girls" and was supported by a controversial video which
saw the rapper dressing up as Osama Bin Laden. The album debuted at number 1 on
both sides of the Atlantic. Later in the year, Eminem made his mainstream acting
debut in 8 Mile. The lead single from the soundtrack, "Lose
Yourself", gave the rapper his first US number 1 single in November and
remained at the top of the charts well into 2003.
Taken from www.mtv.com