“Marshall Mathers” and “Slim Shady” redirect here. For other uses, see Marshall Mathers (disambiguation) and Slim Shady (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Ememem.

Eminem

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Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and music producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in Middle America and is regarded as among the greatest rappers of all time.^[3] His success is considered to have broken racial barriers to the acceptance of white rappers in popular music. While much of his transgressive work during the late 1990s and early 2000s made him a controversial figure, he came to be a representation of popular angst of the American underclass and has been cited as influencing many musical artists. His most successful songs on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 include “The Real Slim Shady”, “Without Me”, “Lose Yourself”, “Not Afraid”, “Love the Way You Lie”, “The Monster”, “Godzilla” and “Houdini”.

After the release of his debut al

bum Infinite (1996) and the extended play Slim Shady EP (1997), Eminem signed with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment and subsequently achieved mainstream popularity in 1999 with The Slim Shady LP. His next two releases, The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) and The Eminem Show (2002), were worldwide successes and nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, the latter becoming the best-selling album worldwide of 2002. After the release of his next album, Encore (2004), Eminem went on hiatus, largely due to a prescription drug addiction.^[4] He returned to the music industry with the releases of Relapse (2009) and Recovery (2010), the latter becoming the best-selling album worldwide of 2010. He then released the U.S. number-one albums The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013), Revival (2017), Kamikaze (2018), Music to Be Murdered By (2020), and The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) (2024).

Eminem was also a member of the hip hop groups “New Jacks”, “Soul Intent”, “Outsidaz” and “D12″, and has collaborated with fellow Detroit-based rapper Royce da 5’9” as the duo Bad Meets Evil. Eminem played a dramatized version of himself in the 2002 musical drama film 8 Mile. “Lose Yourself”, a song from its soundtrack, topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks—the most for a solo rap song—and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, making him the first hip hop artist ever to win the award.^[5] He also co-founded Shady Records, which helped launch the careers of artists such as D12, 50 Cent, and Obie Trice, and established his own Sirius XM Radio channel, Shade 45.

Eminem is among the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated worldwide sales of over 220 million records. He was the best-selling music artist in the United States for the 2000s, placing third for the 2010s. He was the first artist to have ten albums consecutively debut at number one on the Billboard 200 chart,^[6] and has had five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100.^[7] The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show, Curtain Call: The Hits (2005), “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).^[8] He has won numerous awards, including 15 Grammy Awards, eight American Music Awards, 17 Billboard Music Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and an MTV Europe Music Global Icon Award. Billboard named him the “Artist of the Decade (2000–2009)”, and Rolling Stone named him one of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” and “100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time”. In 2022, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[9]

Early life

Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri, the only child of Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. and Deborah Rae “Debbie” (née Nelson).^[10][11] His mother nearly died during her 73-hour labor with him.^[12]: 1 Eminem’s parents were in a band called Daddy Warbucks, playing in Ramada Inns along the Dakotas–Montana border before they separated. His father abandoned his family when Eminem was a year and a half old, and Eminem was raised only by his mother, Debbie, in poverty.^[10] He wrote letters to his father, but Debbie said that they all came back marked “return to sender”.^[13] His mother later had a son named Nathan “Nate” Kane Samara.^[14]
After living in several towns in Missouri and Michigan, Eminem and his mother settled in 8 Mile Road in Detroit.
By age of twelve, Eminem and his mother shuttled between states, rarely staying in one house for more than a year or two and mostly living with family members, moved several times and lived in St. Joseph, Savannah, Missouri, Kansas City, Warren, Michigan and Roseville, Michigan^[15] before settling in Detroit.^[16] For much of his youth, Eminem and his mother lived in a working-class, primarily black, Detroit neighborhood. He and Debbie were one of three white households on their block, and Eminem was beaten several times by black youths.^[13]

Eminem frequently fought with his mother, whom a social worker described as having a “very suspicious, almost paranoid personality”.^[12]: 3 When he was a child, a bully named D’Angelo Bailey severely injured Eminem’s head in an assault,^[17] an incident which Eminem later recounted (with comic exaggeration) on the song “Brain Damage”. Debbie filed a lawsuit against the public school for this in 1982. The suit was dismissed the following year by a Macomb County, Michigan, judge, who said the schools were immune from lawsuits.^[12]: 2

Eminem was interested in storytelling, aspiring to be a comic book artist before discovering hip hop.^[18] He heard his first rap song (“Reckless”, featuring Ice-T) on the Breakin’ soundtrack, a gift from Debbie’s half-brother, Ronnie Polkingharn. His uncle was close to the boy and later became a musical mentor to him. When Polkingharn committed suicide in 1991, Eminem stopped speaking publicly for days and did not attend his funeral.^[13][19]

At age 14, Eminem began rapping with high-school friend Mike Ruby; they adopted the names “Manix” and “M&M”, the latter evolving into “Eminem”.^{[19][12]: 4} Eminem snuck into neighboring Osborn High School with friend and fellow rapper Proof for lunchroom freestyle rap battles.^[20] On Saturdays, they attended open mic contests at the Hip-Hop Shop on West 7 Mile Road, considered “ground zero” for the Detroit rap scene.^[13] Struggling to succeed in a predominantly black industry, Eminem was appreciated by underground hip hop audiences.^[19][21][22] When he wrote verses, he wanted most of the words to rhyme; he wrote long words or phrases on paper and, underneath, worked on rhymes for each syllable. Although the words often made little sense, the drill helped Eminem practice sounds and rhymes.^[23]

In 1987, Debbie allowed runaway Kimberly Anne “Kim” Scott to stay at their home. Several years later, Eminem began an on-and-off relationship with Scott.^[12]: 4 After spending three years in ninth grade due to truancy and poor grades,^[24] 17-year-old Eminem dropped out of Lincoln High School. Although interested in English, Eminem never explored literature, preferring comic books, and he disliked math and social studies.^[23] Eminem worked at several jobs to help his mother pay the bills, one of which was at Little Caesar’s Pizza in Warren.^[25] He later said she often threw him out of the house anyway, often after taking most of his paycheck. When she left to play bingo, he would blast the stereo and write songs.^[13]