Eminem facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Eminem
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Eminem in 2021
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Marshall Bruce Mathers III
October 17, 1972 St. Joseph, Missouri, U.S.
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| Years active | 1988–present |
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Works
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Kimberly Anne Scott
(m. 1999; div. 2001)
(m. 2006; div. 2006) |
| Children | 3 |
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| Musical career | |
| Origin | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Genres | Hip hop |
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Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He became popular in 1999 with the release of the album The Slim Shady LP, which won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album that year. His next work, The Marshall Mathers LP, became the best-selling solo album in U.S. history. This made him known around the world. They helped publicize his record label, Shady Records, and the group D12.
The Marshall Mathers LP and his fourth album, The Eminem Show, also won the Grammy Awards. This made him the first artist to win the Best Rap Album of the Year award three times in a row. In 2003, he won an Oscar for Best Original Song with "Lose Yourself." That song was featured in a movie called 8 Mile. "Lose Yourself" would become the single that for the longest time occupied the top spot of the hip hop charts. In 2004, rumors about the end of his career were announced after the release of Encore. Those rumors were ended with the release of his album Relapse on May 19, 2009. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Eminem was the best selling artist of the 2000s in the United States and was the 30th best selling artist of all time in 2010, according to the ranking of the RIAA, with estimated sales of 220 million records worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling music artists. In 2010, he released Recovery. Recovery was the best-selling album worldwide of 2010. Recovery became the sixth album in-a-row by Eminem to start in the first position of the United States.
Eminem is among the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated worldwide sales of over 220 million records. In 2022, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Contents
Early life
Marshall Mathers was born on October 17, 1972 in St. Joseph, Missouri. He is the only son of Deborah Nelson Mathers-Briggs and Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. His ancestry is diverse, including Scottish, Welsh, English, Cherokee, German, Swiss, Polish, and possibly Luxemburgish ancestors. His father abandoned his family when he was a year and a half old, and Marshall was raised only by his mother in poverty. At age twelve, he and his mother Deborah had moved several times and lived in several towns and cities in Missouri (including Saint Joseph, Savannah, and Kansas City) before settling in Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Eminem had a very troubled and unstable childhood. He frequently had his house robbed and had a tense relationship with his mother. He was often bullied at school for his short height.
After getting a copy of the album Licensed to Ill, from the Beastie Boys group as a teenager, Marshall became interested in hip-hop. He began to make raps at the age of 14 under the pseudonym "M&M". Shortly after that, he joined the Bassmint Productions group, which released an EP titled Steppin' onto the Scene. After the release of the EP, Marshall left the group and changed his stage name to "Soul Intent". He released his first single in 1995 under the independent record label Mashin' Duck Records. Despite being a student at Lincoln High School in Warren, he would sneak out and often participated in freestyle battles at Osborn High School in eastern Detroit. Even though most of the hip-hop members in his state were African-Americans, Marshall ended up being well accepted by the underground hip-hop public. After repeating the ninth grade three times for truancy and low grades, he dropped out of school at age 17. Although he dropped out of school, he eventually got his GED. In 1991, his uncle, Ronnie Polkingharn, died. Mathers was very close to him and was shocked by this fact. He has a tattoo remembering him on his left arm that says "Ronnie RIP".
Career
1992–1996: Early career and Infinite
One of Mathers' early mentors as a rapper was the local rapper Champtown, who gave Mathers his first time in a studio. Mathers also starred in his first song in Champtown's "Do-Da-Dipity" from 1992. Mathers and Champtown later had relationship problems and their friendship ended in 1995. Champtown said Eminem falsely accused him of trying to get with his wife at the time, Kim. Before he began rapping, Mathers also had a few minimum wage jobs. Some of these were at a restaurant called Gilbert's Lodge and at Little Caesars.
Mathers was first signed to FBT Productions in 1992, run by brothers Jeff and Mark Bass. In 1996, his debut album Infinite, which was recorded at Bassmint, a recording studio owned by the Bass Brothers, was released on the independent company Web Entertainment. Eminem recalls "Obviously, I was young and influenced by other artists, and I remember several comments saying that I looked like Nas and AZ. Infinite served me to try to figure out what my rap style was, how my voice would sound on the mic and live. It was a growth phase. I felt ' infinite ' as a demo album that ended up being pressed to become studio." Subjects covered in Infinite included his problems in raising his newborn daughter, Hailie Jade Mathers, in a decent way while he had little money. Early in his career, Eminem formed a hip hop duo with another Detroit rapper, Royce da 5'9", called Bad Meets Evil.
Jimmy Iovine, director of Interscope Records, asked for a demo from Eminem after he finished second in the 1997 Rap Olympics. Eminem had also won Wake Up show's Freestyle Performer of The Year, which helped him to land a recording contract. Iovine played the demo for hip hop producer Dr. Dre, the owner of Aftermath Entertainment. The two began recording songs for Eminem's upcoming album, The Slim Shady LP and Eminem had a cameo appearance on the album Devil Without a Cause by Kid Rock. Hip-Hop magazine The Source had Eminem in its "Unsigned Hype" article in March 1998.
1997–1999: The Slim Shady LP
Eminem signed to Aftermath and Interscope in 1998. He released his first major studio album, The Slim Shady LP, a year later in February 1999. Billboard praised the album as "light years ahead of the material he had written before". It went on to be one of the most popular albums of 1999, and it achieved three times platinum in the United States before the end of the year.
2000–2001: The Marshall Mathers LP
The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. The album sold more than 1.78 million copies in the US in its first week, breaking both the record for the best-selling hip hop album, last held by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, and the best-selling album in its first week in the U.S., last held by Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time. The album's third and most successful single, "Stan", was ranked #290 by the Rolling Stone Magazine in their 500 Best Songs of All Time. In July 2000, Eminem became the first white person to come to the front page of The Source Magazine. The album has received 10x platinum status from the RIAA.
Eminem appeared alongside Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 2001. He also participated in the Up In The Smoke Tour with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and Ice Cube. He also participated in the Family Values Tour with the band Limp Bizkit.
2002–2003: The Eminem Show
Eminem's third-major album, The Eminem Show, was released in the summer of 2002 and turned out to be another big hit for the rapper. The album peaked at the Billboard Hot 100, selling well over a million copies in its first week. The album's first single was the song "Without Me", in which Eminem made depressive comments about Limp Bizkit, Moby and Lynne Cheney, among others. Other singles from the album include "Cleanin' Out My Closet" and "Sing for the Moment". The album has been certified eight times platinum by the RIAA. The album speaks on topics such as his way to fame, his relationship with his wife and daughter, and his status in the hip-hop community. The album sold 10,600,000 copies, making it one of Eminem's two diamond-certified studio albums.
2004–2005: Encore
Encore was released in 2004 and became another chart-topping leader, driven by the single "Just Lose It", which disrespects pop singer Michael Jackson. On October 12 of the same year, a week after the release of "Just Lose It", Jackson was invited to a radio show in Los Angeles where he expressed his displeasure with the music. Many of Jackson's supporters and friends commented on the video. Steve Harvey stated, "Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back". He also said he was not pleased with the way he chose to show the black community. The music video also makes fun of Pee-Wee Herman, MC Hammer and Madonna.
In contrast, the comedian "Weird Al" Yankovic made a protest to Eminem in the song "Couch Potato", in which he parodies the international success of "Lose Yourself" of the movie 8 Mile. Yankovic said: "Last year, Eminem forced me to stop the production of the parody video of "Lose Yourself" because he thought it would be detrimental to his image and his career. So the irony of the situation with Michael is not lost to me." Black Entertainment Television was the first channel to ask to stop displaying the video. However, MTV announced that it would continue to display "Just Lose It." President Raymond "Benzino" Scott of the Source magazine, wanted not only the video to be removed, but also the song from the album, and a public apology from Eminem to Jackson, which did not occur. In 2007, Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music LLC from Viacom. The acquisition thus gave them rights to the songs from Shakira, Beck and Eminem among others.
Despite the comic issue of the first single, Encore had along with him serious subject tracks, such as the song "Mosh". On October 25, 2004, a week before the United States presidential election, Eminem released the music video for "Mosh" on the internet. The song highlights a strong anti-Bush message. The video shows Eminem gathering an army of people, including rapper Lloyd Banks, presented as victims of the Bush administration and were taken to the White House. However, at the moment the weapons break, it is revealed that people are there only to vote, and it ends with the words "Vote Tuesday November 2!" on the screen. After Bush was re-elected, Eminem modified the video, with demonstrators invading while the president was giving a lecture. In 2004 he also launched a satellite music channel, Shade 45, on Sirius XM radio, which was described by his manager as "essentially a destination to get and hear things that other people aren't playing."
2005–2008
In 2005, many musical experts predicted that Eminem was thinking of ending his career after six years and albums with several certifications. This began in 2005, when a double album was about to be released under the name of The Funeral. Subsequently, it was revealed that the album was a compilation of greatest hits, and was sold under the name Curtain Call: The Hits. The album was released by Aftermath Entertainment in December 2005, and sold almost 441,000 copies in the first week in the U.S. It was Eminem's fourth consecutive album to be number one on the Billboard Hot 100. He was certified as platinum twice by the RIAA.
In July 2005, the Detroit Free Press published that this would be the final stage of Eminem's career, and that he would be more interested in becoming a producer or executive of a record label. On the same day of the release of his compilation, Eminem denied that he would be retiring through the radio Mojo in the Morning of Detroit, but stated that he would give a break in his career:
- "I'm at a point in my life right now where I feel like I don't know where my career is going. This is the reason that we called the new CD Curtain Call, because this could be the final thing. We don't know."
In 2006, Eminem released a new compilation called Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, to help the growth of the newly created Shady Records label. In the summer of 2005, Eminem announced a tour called Anger Management Tour, featuring artists 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil Jon, D12, Obie Trice and The Alchemist. In August, the European part of the tour was cancelled.
2008–2010: Relapse and Recovery
In September 2007, Eminem spoke with 50 Cent at the Hot 97 radio station in New York City about his rumored retirement, and if he was going to release more content. In response he said, "I'm always working. I'm always in the studio. It feels good right now, the energy of the label. For a while, I didn't want to go back to the studio... I went through some personal things. Now I'm coming out of those personal things and it feels good."
Eminem made his first appearance in a year in September 2008 at his radio station, the Shade 45, where he said: "I'm concentrating on my own stuff right now—just bangin' out tracks. The more I keep producing, the better it seems I get. I start knowing stuff, learning the boards like the back of my hands." In an interview with Billboard in December 2008, he revealed that the album would be released in the spring on 2009, be called Relapse, and most of the tracks would be produced by Dr. Dre.
In a statement on March 5, 2009, Eminem stated that he would release two albums that year. The first single, "We Made You", was released in April. Relapse, the first of the announced Records, was officially released on May 19, but did not achieve the sale success as in the previous four albums. However, Eminem still received positive reviews for his return to hip hop. On November 19, he announced the release of Relapse: Refill on December 21. It was a relaunch of Relapse with the addition of seven bonus tracks, including "Forever" and "Taking My Ball".
On April 14, 2010, Eminem said there was no Relapse 2. Although his followers thought he was not releasing an album, he had changed its title to Recovery. “I had originally planned for Relapse 2 to come out last year, but as I kept recording and working with new producers, the idea of a sequel to Relapse started to make less and less sense to me, and I wanted to make a completely new album. The music on Recovery came out very different from Relapse, and I think it deserves its own title."
Recovery was released on June 18, 2010. It sold 741,000 copies during its first week in the US, topping the Billboard 200 chart. The album was also at the top of the charts in several other countries. Recovery remained atop the Billboard 200 chart for five weeks out of seven total.
Its first single, "Not Afraid", was released on April 29, and its music video was released on June 4. "Not Afraid" was followed by "Love the Way You Lie". Recovery was the best-selling album worldwide in 2010, with over 3.4 million copies sold.
2012–2014: The Marshall Mathers LP 2
On May 24, 2012, Eminem announced that he was working on his eighth studio album, scheduled for release the following year. Some magazines such as XXL and Complex placed this album among the most anticipated of 2013 despite no name or release date being given. During the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, it was announced that the album would be named The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (following The Marshall Mathers LP) and was going to be released on November 5. The album was released with 16 tracks. On November 3, Eminem was named the first YouTube Music Awards Artist of the Year. Eminem was the first artist to receive two digital diamond certifications for sales and streams of 10 million and above by the RIAA for "Not Afraid" and "Love the Way You Lie". At the 2015 Grammy Awards, he received Best Rap Album award for The Marshall Mathers LP 2 and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (with Rihanna) for "The Monster".
2017-Present
In February 2017, Eminem appeared on "No Favors", a track from Big Sean's album I Decided.
Since then Eminem has released "Revival", "Kamikaze" and "Music to be Murdered By".
During an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on March 19, 2024, Dr. Dre stated that Eminem intended to release a new album that year. On April 25, Eminem appeared alongside Roger Goodell at the opening ceremony of the 2024 NFL draft in Detroit. At the same time, Eminem announced a twelfth studio album entitled The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), with a planned release later in the year.
Personal life
Eminem has one biological daughter named Hailie Jade Scott Mathers. She was born on Christmas Day 1995 in Detroit, Michigan from ex-wife Kimberly Anne Scott. Eminem married her in 1999 and they separated in 2001. He remarried Kim in January 2006 but divorced just three months later in April. He is the legal guardian of Alaina, the daughter of Kim's twin sister, and Whitney, Kim's daughter from another relationship. He has rapped about his daughters in many of his songs.
In July 2012, he became the first artist to reach 60 million likes on Facebook. Eminem is also an NFL fan, and supports the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys.
Interests
Eminem is a fan of the Detroit Lions and Detroit Pistons. He is also an avid comic book collector. His collection includes Amazing Fantasy #15, which is the comic book that introduces Spider-Man. The comic is worth over $1 million. A former Shady Records executive referred to his collection as "otherworldly".
Achievements and honors
With global sales of over 220 million records, Eminem is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has had thirteen number-one albums on the Billboard 200: nine solo, two with D12 and one with Bad Meets Evil. He was the bestselling music artist from 2000 to 2009 in the US according to Nielsen SoundScan. He was also the bestselling male music artist in the United States of the 2010s. He has sold 47.4 million albums in the country and 107.5 million singles in the US. The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show, Curtain Call: The Hits, "Lose Yourself", "Love the Way You Lie" and "Not Afraid" have all been certified Diamond or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Eminem has over ten billion views of his music videos on his YouTube Vevo page, and in 2014 Spotify named him the most-streamed music artist of all time.
Among Eminem's awards is 15 Grammy Awards, eight American Music Awards and 17 Billboard Music Awards, Billboard named him the "Artist of the Decade (2000–2009)". In 2013, he received the Global Icon Award at that year's MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony. His success in 8 Mile saw him win the 2002 Academy Award for Best Original Song for his song "Lose Yourself", co-written with Jeff Bass and Luis Resto, making him the first rapper to receive the award. He also won the MTV Movie & TV Awards for Best Actor in a Movie and Best Breakthrough Performance and the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Song for "Lose Yourself".
Eminem has also been included and ranked in several publications' lists. Rolling Stone included him in its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. He was ranked 9th on MTV's Greatest MCs of All Time list. He was ranked 13th on MTV's 22 Greatest Voices in Music list and 79th on the VH1 100 Greatest Artists of All Time lists. He was ranked 82nd on Rolling Stone's "The Immortals" list. In 2010, MTV Portugal ranked Eminem the 7th biggest icon in popular music history. In 2012, The Source ranked him 6th on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time, while About.com ranked him 7th on its list of the 50 Greatest MCs of Our Time (1987–2007). In 2015, Eminem was placed third on "The 10 Best Rappers of All Time" list by Billboard. In 2008, Vibe readers named Eminem the Best Rapper Alive. In 2011, Eminem was labeled the "King of Hip-Hop" by Rolling Stone based on an analysis of album sales, chart positions, YouTube views, social media following, concert grosses, industry awards and critical ratings of solo rappers who released music from 2009 to the first half of 2011. Eminem was also inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2022, alongside Duran Duran and Dolly Parton.
Discography
Studio albums
- Infinite (1996)
- The Slim Shady LP (1999)
- The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
- The Eminem Show (2002)
- Encore (2004)
- Relapse (2009)
- Recovery (2010)
- The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)
- Revival (2017)
- Kamikaze (2018)
- Music to Be Murdered By (2020)
- The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) (2024)
Collaborative albums
- Devil's Night (with D12) (2001)
- D12 World (with D12) (2004)
- Hell: The Sequel (with Bad Meets Evil) (2011)
Concert tours
As a headliner
- The Slim Shady LP Tour (1999)
- The Recovery Tour (2010–2013)
- Rapture Tour (2014)
- Revival Tour (2018)
- Rapture 2019 (2019)
As a co-headliner
- Up in Smoke Tour (with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and others) (2000)
- Anger Management Tour (with Limp Bizkit and Papa Roach) (2002–2005)
- The Home & Home Tour (with Jay-Z) (2010)
- The Monster Tour (with Rihanna) (2014)
Written works
| Title | Year | Pages |
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| Angry Blonde | 2000 | 148 |
| The Way I Am | 2008 | 208 |
Images for kids
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Eminem lived near 8 Mile Road in Detroit.
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Eminem and Proof performing in 1999
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Eminem on the Anger Management Tour in 2003
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Proof's (left) death in 2006 was one of the factors that caused Eminem to fall into depression during his five-year hiatus.
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Eminem performing with D12 in May 2009
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Eminem performing at Lollapalooza 2011
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Eminem performing at the Concert for Valor in Washington, D.C. in 2014
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Eminem performing in 2018
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See also
In Spanish: Eminem para niños
