Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born 17 October 1972), professionally known as Eminem (often stylized EMINƎM), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He is credited with popularising hip-hop in Middle America and is regarded as among the greatest rappers of all time. 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 represent the popular angst of the American underclass and has been cited as an influence on many musical artists. His alter ego, Slim Shady, is known for performing more provocative and violent lyrics.
He is Fovvs' favourite rapper(?)
Early life
Mathers was born on 17 October 1972 in St. Joseph, Missouri, the only child of Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. and Deborah "Debbie" Nelson. His mother nearly died during her 73-hour labour with him. 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. He wrote letters to his father, but Debbie said that they all came back marked "return to sender".
Much of his childhood was turbulent, experiencing abuse at the hands of his mother and brutally bullied at school. By the 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 before settling in Detroit. For much of his youth, Eminem and his mother lived in a bungalow-style house in a working-class, primarily Black, neighborhood in Detroit. He and Debbie were one of three white households on their block, and Eminem was beaten several times by other youths.
Eminem frequently fought with his mother, whom a social worker described as having a "very suspicious, almost paranoid personality". When he was a child, a bully named D'Angelo Bailey severely injured Eminem's head in an assault, 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.
Eminem was interested in storytelling, aspiring to be a comic book artist before discovering hip-hop. 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. Following Polkingharn's suicide in 1991, Eminem stopped speaking publicly for days and did not attend his funeral.
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". Eminem snuck into neighbouring Osborn High School with friend and fellow rapper Proof for lunchroom freestyle rap battles. 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. Struggling to succeed in a predominantly Black industry, Eminem was appreciated by underground hip-hop audiences. 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.
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. After spending three years in Year 10 due to truancy and poor grades, 17-year-old Eminem dropped out of Lincoln High School. Although interested in English, Eminem never explored literature, preferring comic books, and he disliked maths and social studies. He later earned a GED.
Eminem worked various jobs to help his mother pay the bills, including a stint at Little Caesar's Pizza in Warren. He later said that she would often throw him out of the house regardless – frequently after taking most of his wages. When she went out to play bingo, he would blast the stereo and write songs.
Personal life
Health
He has spoken publicly about his addiction to prescription drugs, including Vicodin, Ambien, and Valium. According to friend and fellow D12 member Proof, Eminem, who previously hinted in his 1999 single "My Name Is" that he avoided the use of drugs after experiencing his mother's history of drug abuse, first developed a drug addiction in 2002. During the production of 8 Mile, Eminem, working 16 hours a day, developed insomnia. An associate gave him an Ambien tablet which "knocked [him] out", encouraging him to obtain a prescription. This was Eminem's first experience of drug addiction, which would affect him for several years. Near the end of production on Encore, he would "just go into the studio and goof off [with] a pocketful of pills". Eminem began taking the drugs to "feel normal", taking a "ridiculous amount … I could consume anywhere from 40 to 60 Valium [in a day]. Vicodin, maybe 30". The drugs would put him to sleep for no more than two hours, after which he would take more. Eminem's weight increased to 230 pounds (100 kg) and he was regularly eating fast food: "The kids behind the counter knew me – it wouldn't even faze them. Or I'd sit up at Denny's or Big Boy and just eat by myself. It was sad". Eminem became less recognisable due to his weight gain and once overheard two teenagers arguing about whether or not it was him: "Eminem ain't fat".
In December 2007, Eminem was hospitalised after a methadone overdose. He had first bought from a dealer who had told him it was "just like Vicodin, and easier on [your] liver". He continued to buy more until he collapsed in his bathroom one night and was rushed to the hospital. Doctors there told him he had ingested the equivalent of four bags of heroin and was "about two hours from dying". After missing Christmas with his children, Eminem checked himself out of the facility, weak and not fully detoxed. He tore the meniscus in his knee after falling asleep on his sofa, requiring surgery; after he returned home, he had a seizure. His drug use "ramped right back to where it was before" within a month. Eminem began to attend church meetings to get clean, but after he was asked for autographs he sought help from a rehabilitation counselor. He began an exercise program that emphasized running. Elton John was a mentor during this period, calling Eminem once a week to check on him. Eminem has been sober since 20 April 2008.
Politics
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Eminem attacked politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties, including then President and First Lady Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Second Ladies Tipper Gore and Lynne Cheney, the latter two being activists against violent lyrics in music. In the song "Mosh", released a few weeks before the 2004 United States presidential election, Eminem heavily criticised then-president George W. Bush but did not endorse John Kerry either. While openly endorsing Barack Obama in a 2009 interview, Eminem would not express political views in his music again until the 2016 United States presidential election, when he released "Campaign Speech", which criticised presidential candidate Donald Trump. The following year, Eminem condemned Trump in a freestyle titled "The Storm". In the freestyle, Eminem expressed support for former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the US national anthem protests, and stated his disapproval of any of his fans who supported Trump. His 2020 song "Darkness" heavily references the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, and at the end of the music video, he expresses support for gun control.
The week before the 2020 presidential election, Eminem approved his song "Lose Yourself" to be used in a campaign video for Joe Biden. After the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Eminem posted a message on Twitter expressing his displeasure with the decision, saying, "As a father it pisses me off that women have fewer rights 2day than just a few days ago… we r fuckin goin bckwards. Here's how 2 help in Michigan. [sic]" and included a link to a pro-choice organization in Michigan. In 2023, he requested that Republican election candidate Vivek Ramaswamy stop rapping his song "Lose Yourself" at campaign rallies, sending Ramaswamy a cease and desist letter.
Eminem endorsed Kamala Harris during the 2024 United States presidential election. In October, he spoke at a Huntington Place rally supporting her, where he discussed the importance of voting in a swing state like Michigan and his belief that Harris "supports a future for this country" in which freedom of expression is protected.
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