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1972-present

Who Is Eminem?

Rapper and music producer Eminem is one of the best-selling musicians of the 21^st 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 Facts

REAL NAME: Marshall Bruce Mathers III
BORN: October 17, 1972
BIRTHPLACE: St. Joseph, Missouri
SPOUSE: Kim Scott (1999-2001 and 2006)

Early Life: Eminem’s Real Name, Mom, and Dad

Eminem’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 have been at some times, I always was good at English,” he said. “I just felt like I wanna be able to have 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 have never exploited her son and that her only concern was for her children.

Ex-Wife Kim Scott and Daughters

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Kim 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.

Children

With Kim Scott, Eminem raised three children: Alaina, Hailie Jade, and Stevie.

Their 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

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Eminem 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 have more chicks, and he may, you know, have 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.

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Eminem and Dr. Dre attend the 1999 MTV Music Awards Party.

Eminem’s breakthrough finally arrived in 1997. He traveled 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 Songs

Eminem 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).