Marshall Bruce Methers III, better known as Eminem, is the king of hip-hop according to the Rolling Stones and one of the most successful rappers in the world.
How did it all begin?
However, his fate was not so simple. Ros Marshall is the only child in the family. Together with his mother, he constantly moved from city to city, but in the end they stopped near Detroit.
Here, as a 14-year-old teenager, Marshall first heard Licensed to Ill by the Beastie Boys. This moment can be considered the starting point in the hip-hop career of an artist.
From about the age of 15, the boy studied music and read his own rap under the stage name M&M. This pseudonym after a while transformed into Eminem.
While studying at school, he constantly took part in freestyle battles, where he often won. However, such a hobby was reflected in academic performance - the musician was left for the second year several times, and soon he was expelled from school altogether.
I had to earn extra money constantly and at a variety of jobs: as a doorman, and a waiter, and at a car wash.
The teenager often had conflicts with peers. Once Marshall was beaten so that he was in a coma for more than a week.
After moving to Kansas City, the guy received a cassette with songs from various rappers (a gift from his uncle). This music left a strong impression and made Eminem interested in hip-hop.
The beginning of a musical career
In 1996, the musician recorded the album Infinite. Unfortunately, then there were too many rappers, and rap albums were recorded all in a row. That is why Infinite went unnoticed in the circle of musicians.
Due to this failure, the musician fell into a deep depression with alcohol and drugs. Marshall tried to find the usual "mundane" work, because he already had a wife and a young daughter.
And fortune still smiled at Eminem. His idol rapper Dr Dre accidentally heard the guy's record and he was very interested in it. For Marshall, it was almost a miracle - not only was he noticed, but also his idol from childhood.
Three years later, Dr Dre advised the guy to re-record his Slim Shady single. And he became very popular. The song practically "blew up" radio and TV channels.
In the same 1999, Dr Dre took Eminem seriously. The full-length album The Slim Shady LP is released. Then it was an absolutely unformatted album, because almost no one saw or heard white rappers.
Marshall already had a huge fan base since the early 2000s. Four more successful albums (The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), The Eminem Show (2002), Encore (2004), Curtain Call: The Hits (2005) were nominated for various awards and broke sales records.
Popularity and its consequences
But popularity also brought a flurry of criticism. Fans talked about deep lyrics, about various social problems, and haters about the propaganda of violence, alcohol and drugs.
The rapper himself said that his lyrics are provocative, but they do not contain aggression and calls for violence.
After the overwhelming success, a long break in creativity followed. Everyone already thought that this was the end of the artist's career, but in 2009 he returned with the album Relapse, and a little later with another Refill. Both albums became commercially successful, but they failed to break previous sales records. Relapse sold 5 million copies.
Also, one funny situation is connected with the release of this album - at the MTV Movie & TV Awards ceremony, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen had to fly over the hall in the form of an angel.
By the way, he was dressed only in underwear. The actor landed his “fifth point” on the musician. Only a few days later, Eminem admitted that he knew about this number in advance, although Cohen was wearing pants at rehearsals.
Mount Olympus Eminem
In the summer of 2010, the rapper released his sixth studio album, Recovery. After the words of Eminem that the recording of Relapse 2 is canceled, the fans again thought about ending their careers. However, after the release, Recovery became one of the best-selling albums in history and stayed on the Billboard 200 chart for more than a month. By the fall of 2010, about 3 million copies of the album had been sold.
In 2013, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 was released with the composition Rap God. Here the rapper showed all his skills, saying 1560 words in 6 minutes.
2018 was marked by the release of Eminem's next album. Kamikaze was released without a prior promotional campaign. Once again, the album topped the Billboard 200. This is Eminem's ninth album to hit the chart.
Interesting facts about Eminem:
- In 2002, Eminem starred in the film 8 Mile, for which he wrote the soundtrack. The film won the Academy Award for Best Original Score (Lose Yourself).
- The music video for "Love The Way You Lie" has over 1 billion views on YouTube.
- In 2008, the film The Way I Am was released, where the performer spoke about his life, poverty, depression and drugs.
- According to the rapper, he read dictionaries every night to expand his vocabulary.
- Dislikes phones and tablets. He writes his texts by hand in a notebook.
- Marshall has often been accused of homophobia. But an interesting fact: while Eminem was being treated for drug addiction, Elton John offered his help to him. He constantly called the rapper and was interested in the state of health. A little later, they made a joint performance, which they considered an insult to sexual minorities.
Eminem in 2020
In 2020, Eminem presented his 11th studio album. The collection was called Music to Be Murdered By. The collection's central six-minute piece, Darkness, tells the listener about the execution of concertgoers in the first person (the American press shrugged).
The new compilation received mixed reviews from fans and music critics. Eminem himself said that this album is not for the squeamish.
The most influential rapper in the world in December 2020 presented the deluxe version of Music To Be Murdered By. Fans did not even suspect about the release of the collection. The LP topped 16 tracks. On some compositions there are feats with DJ Premier, Dr. Dre, Ty Dolla $ign.
Rapper Eminem in 2021
At the beginning of May 2021, rapper Eminem pleased the "fans" with the presentation of a video for the musical work Alfred's Theme. The rap artist in the video moved to the cartoon world. In the video, the main character watches the killer, follows him, and then becomes his victim himself.
