BIO
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| Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972) Stage Name : EMINEM |
American
rapper, record producer and actor Eminem was born Marshall Bruce
Mathers III on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri. He 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 Mathers. She never managed to hold down
a job for more than several months at a time, so they moved
frequently between Missouri and Detroit, Michigan, 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."
A
year later, however, Eminem released The
Slim Shady EP,
which was discovered by Dr. Dre, the legendary rapper and former
producer of Eminem's favorite rap group N.W.A. After Eminem traveled
to Los Angeles and became runner-up in the 1997 Rap Olympics MC
Battle, Dre listened to the rapper's cassette in the basement of
executive Jimmy Iovine's home. Dre was so impressed that he signed
Eminem to his Interscope Records label. In 1999, after two years of
working with Dre, Eminem released The
Slim Shady LP.
The heavily hyped record became an instant success and went on to
sell over three million copies.
Eminem
released his second studio album, The
Marshall Mather's 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 heart breakingly poignant
("Stan") to explosively violent ("Kim") to
disarmingly self-critical ("The Way I Am"). The
Marshall Mather's 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.
In
2001, Eminem reconnected with several of his friends from the Detroit
underground rap scene to form the group D12, recording an album
called Devil's
Night featuring
the popular single "Purple Pills." A year later, 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." His next album, 2004's Encore,
was less successful than his previous efforts, but still featured
popular songs such as "Like Toy Soldiers" and
"Mockingbird."
The next several years, Eminem recorded very little music and was
largely consumed by personal problems.
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. Eminem said, "I don't want to go overboard with it but I
do feel like that if I can help people that have been through a
similar situation, then, you know, why not?" The revealing album
won Eminem a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.
Eminem
released his eighth album, MMLP2,
on November 5, 2013. The announcement for the future Grammy-winning
album, formally titled The
Marshall Mathers LP 2,
was made during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. On the awards show,
Eminem leaked a snippet of the first single from his 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 new single "Guts Over Fear" quickly
rose up the charts after its late October debut.
