Marshall Bruce Mathers III, better known by his stage name Eminem, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album The Slim Shady LP, which won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The following album, The Marshall Mathers LP, became the fastest-selling hip hop album in history. It brought Eminem increased popularity, including his own record label, Shady Records, and brought his group project D12 to mainstream recognition.

Mathers was born in St. Joseph, Missouri the son of Deborah Mathers-Briggs (née Nelson) and Marshall Bruce Mathers, Jr. He is of Scottish, English and distant Swiss and German ancestry. Shortly after his birth, his father abandoned his family. Until he was twelve, Mathers and his mother moved between various cities and towns in Missouri (including St. Joseph, Savannah and Kansas City) before moving to Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

After procuring a copy of the Beastie Boys album Licensed to Ill as a teenager, Mathers became interested in hip hop, performing amateur raps at age fourteen under the pseudonym “M&M” and joining the group called “Bassmint Productions” and released their first EP called “Steppin’ Onto The Scene”. They later changed their name to “Soul Intent” and around 1995 they released their first single called “Fuckin’ Backstabber” under the record label Mashin’ Duck Records. Although he was enrolled at Lincoln High School in Warren, he frequently participated in freestyle battles at Osborn High School across town, gaining the approval of underground hip hop audiences. After repeating the ninth grade twice due to truancy, he dropped out of high school at age 17.

The Marshall Mathers LP and his third album, The Eminem Show also won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LP’s. He then won the award again in 2010 for his album Relapse, giving him a total of 11 Grammys in his career. In 2002, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Lose Yourself” from the film 8 Mile, in which he also played the lead. “Lose Yourself” would go on to become the longest running #1 hip-hop single. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005.

He released his first album since 2004′s Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. Eminem is the best-selling artist of the decade, and has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide to date, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Eminem is also ranked as one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time by Rolling Stone magazine. He was also named the Best Rapper Ever by Vibe magazine. Including his work with D12, Eminem has achieved eight #1 albums on the Billboard Top 200 and 12 number one singles worldwide. In December, 2009 Eminem was named the Artist of the Decade by Billboard Magazine. According to Billboard, Eminem has two of his albums among the top five highest selling albums of the 2000s. On November 19, 2009, Eminem announced on his website that Relapse: Refill will be released on December 21. The album will be a re-release of the Relapse album with seven bonus tracks, including “Forever” and “Taking My Ball”.

Other Information

• Birth name : Marshall Bruce Mathers III
• Also known as : Slim Shady
• Born : October 17, 1972
• Birth place : Saint Joseph, Missouri, U.S.
• Origin : Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
• Genres : Hip hop
• Occupations : Rapper, record producer, actor, songwriter
• Years active : 1995–present
• Labels : Mashin’ Duck Records, Web Ent., Interscope Records, Aftermath Ent., Shady Records, Game Recordings
• Associated acts : D12, Bad Meets Evil, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent
• Website : www.eminem.com

Discography

Studio albums

• Infinite (1996)
• The Slim Shady LP (1999)
• The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
• The Eminem Show (2002)
• Encore (2004)
• Relapse (2009)
• Relapse 2 (2010)

Compilations

• 8 Mile (2002)
• The Singles (2003)
• Curtain Call: The Hits (2005)
• Eminem Presents: The Re-Up (2006)

Collaborations

• Devil’s Night (2001) – with D12
• D12 World (2004) – with D12

EP’s

• The Slim Shady EP (1997)
• Straight from the Lab (2003)

Tags: Eminem