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Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor from Detroit, Michigan.
At age 14, Eminem began rapping with high-school friend Mike Ruby; they adopted the names "Manix" and "M&M," which evolved into "Eminem". Eminem snuck into neighboring 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, considered ground-zero for the Detroit rap scene. Struggling to succeed in a predominantly African-American 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.
As Eminem's reputation grew, he was recruited by several rap groups; the first of these was the New Jacks. After they disbanded he joined Soul Intent, who released a single on their 1995 self-titled EP featuring Proof. The two rappers formed D12, a six-member ensemble resembling a Wu-Tang-style collective more than a regularly performing group.
Eminem was soon signed to Jeff and Mark Bass' FBT Productions, recording his debut album Infinite for their independent Web Entertainment label. One lyrical subject of Infinite was his struggle to raise his newborn daughter, Hailie Jade Scott Mathers, on little money. During this period Eminem's rhyming style, primarily inspired by rappers Nas , Esham and AZ, lacked the comically violent slant for which he would later be known. Infinite was largely ignored by Detroit disc jockeys, and the feedback he did receive ("Why don't you go into rock and roll?") led him to craft angrier, moodier tracks.
Eminem attracted more attention when he developed Slim Shady, a sadistic, violent alter ego. The character, "a drug-dealing, bloodthirsty thug who spits furious rhymes about murder, rape, drugs and living by the law of the urban jungle", allowed him to express his anger. In the spring of 1997 he recorded his debut EP, the Slim Shady EP, which was released that winter by Web Entertainment. The EP, with frequent references to drug use, sexual acts, mental instability and violence, also explored the more-serious themes of dealing with poverty and marital and family difficulties and revealed his direct, self-deprecating response to criticism. Hip-hop magazine The Source featured Eminem in its "Unsigned Hype" column in March 1998.
After he was evicted from his home, Eminem went to Los Angeles to compete in the 1997 Rap Olympics (an annual, nationwide battle rap competition). He placed second, and Interscope Records staff in attendance sent a copy of the Slim Shady EP to company CEO Jimmy Iovine. Iovine played the tape for record producer Dr. Dre, founder of Aftermath Entertainment. Dre recalled, "In my entire career in the music industry, I have never found anything from a demo tape or a CD. When Jimmy played this, I said, 'Find him. Now.'" Although he was criticized by associates for hiring a white rapper, he was confident in his decision: "I don't give a fuck if you're purple; if you can kick it, I'm working with you." Eminem, who had idolized Dre since listening to N.W.A as a teenager, was nervous about working with him on an album: "I didn't want to be starstruck or kiss his ass too much ... I'm just a little white boy from Detroit. I had never seen stars, let alone Dr. Dre." He became more comfortable working with Dre after a series of productive recording sessions.
Eminem released The Slim Shady LP in February 1999. Although it was one of the year's most popular albums (certified triple platinum by the end of the year), he was accused of imitating the style and subject matter of underground rapper Cage. Its popularity was accompanied by controversy over its lyrics; in "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" Eminem describes a trip with his infant daughter when he disposes of his wife's body, also "Guilty Conscience" which encourages a man to murder his wife and her lover. Guilty Conscience marked the beginning of a friendship and musical bond between Dr. Dre and Eminem. The label-mates later collaborated on a number of hit songs ("Forgot About Dre" and "What's the Difference" from Dr. Dre's album 2001, "Bitch Please II" from The Marshall Mathers LP, "Say What You Say" from The Eminem Show, "Encore/Curtains Down" from Encore, and "Old Time's Sake" and "Crack a Bottle" from Relapse), and Dre made at least one guest appearance on each of Eminem's Aftermath albums. The Slim Shady LP has been certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.
The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. It sold 1,760,000 copies in its first week, breaking US records held by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle for fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time for fastest-selling solo album. The first single from the album, "The Real Slim Shady", was a success despite controversies about Eminem's insults and dubious claims about celebrities (for example, that Christina Aguilera had performed oral sex on Fred Durst and Carson Daly). In his second single, "The Way I Am", he reveals the pressure from his record company to top "My Name Is". Although Eminem parodied shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the music video for "My Name Is", they are reportedly on good terms; Manson is mentioned in "The Way I Am", appeared in its music video and has performed a live remix of the song with Eminem. In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank You") Eminem tries to deal with his new fame, assuming the persona of a deranged fan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend (mirroring "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" from The Slim Shady LP). Q magazine called "Stan" the third-greatest rap song of all time, and it was ranked tenth in a Top40-Charts.com survey. The song has since been ranked 296th on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. In July 2000, Eminem was the first white artist to appear on the cover of The Source magazine. The Marshall Mathers LP has been certified 11× platinum by the RIAA.
Eminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards ceremony in 2001, with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD, an organization which considered Eminem's lyrics homophobic) condemning John's decision to perform with Eminem. Entertainment Weekly placed the appearance on its end-of-decade "best-of" list: "It was the hug heard 'round the world. Eminem, under fire for homophobic lyrics, shared the stage with a gay icon for a performance of "Stan" that would have been memorable in any context." On February 21, the day of the awards ceremony, GLAAD held a protest outside the Staples Center (the ceremony's venue). In 2001 Eminem appeared in the Up in Smoke Tour with rappers Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and Ice Cube and the Family Values Tour with Limp Bizkit, headlining the Anger Management Tour with Papa Roach, Ludacris and Xzibit.
The Eminem Show was released in May 2002. It was another success, reaching number one on the charts and selling over 1.332 million copies during its first full week. The album's single, "Without Me", denigrates boy bands, Limp Bizkit, Dick and Lynne Cheney, Moby and others. The Eminem Show (certified 10x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America) examines the effects of the rapper's rise to fame, his relationship with his wife and daughter and his status in the hip-hop community, addressing an assault charge brought by a bouncer he saw kissing his wife in 2000. Although several tracks are clearly angry, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic found The Eminem Show less inflammatory than The Marshall Mathers LP. L. Brent Bozell III, who had criticized The Marshall Mathers LP for misogynistic lyrics, noted The Eminem Show's extensive use of obscenity and called the rapper "Eminef" for the prevalence of the word "motherfucker" on the album. The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of 2002.
On December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service said that it was "looking into" allegations that Eminem had threatened the President of the United States. The cause for concern was the lyrics of "We As Americans" ("Fuck money / I don't rap for dead presidents / I'd rather see the president dead / It's never been said, but I set precedents"), which was later released on a bonus CD with the deluxe edition of Encore.
Encore, released in 2004, was another success. Its sales were partially driven by the first single, "Just Lose It", which contained slurs about Michael Jackson. On October 12, 2004, a week after the release of "Just Lose It", Jackson phoned the Los Angeles-based Steve Harvey radio show to report his displeasure with its video (which parodies Jackson's child molestation trial, plastic surgery and the 1984 incident when Jackson's hair caught fire during the filming of a commercial). In the song Eminem says, "That's not a stab at Michael / That's just a metaphor / I'm just psycho". Many of Jackson's friends and supporters spoke out against the video, including Stevie Wonder (who described it as "kicking a man while he's down" and "bullshit") and Steve Harvey (who said, "Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back"). The video also parodied Pee-wee Herman, MC Hammer and Madonna during her Blond Ambition period. "Weird Al" Yankovic, who parodied the Eminem song "Lose Yourself" on "Couch Potato" for his 2003 album Poodle Hat, told the Chicago Sun-Times about Jackson's protest: "Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my 'Lose Yourself' parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career. So the irony of this situation with Michael is not lost on me." Although Black Entertainment Television stopped playing the video, MTV announced that it would continue to air it. The Source, through CEO Raymond "Benzino" Scott, called for the video to be pulled, the song removed from the album and Eminem to apologize publicly to Jackson. In 2007 Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music from Viacom, giving him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira, Beck and others.
Despite its lead single's humorous theme, Encore explored serious subject matter with the anti-war song "Mosh". The song criticized President George W. Bush as "This weapon of mass destruction that we call our president", with lyrics including "Fuck Bush". On October 25, 2004, a week before the 2004 US Presidential election, Eminem released the video for "Mosh" on the Internet. In it, Eminem gathers an army (including rapper Lloyd Banks) of Bush-administration victims and leads them to the White House. When they break in, it is learned that they are there to register to vote; the video ends with "VOTE Tuesday November 2". After Bush's reelection, the video's ending was changed to Eminem and the protesters invading the White House during a speech by the president.
In 2005, industry insiders speculated that Eminem was considering ending his rapping career after six years and several multi-platinum albums. Rumors began early in the year about a double album to be released late that year, entitled The Funeral; the greatest hits album, entitled Curtain Call: The Hits, was released in December. In July the Detroit Free Press reported a possible final bow for Eminem as a solo performer, quoting members of his inner circle as saying that he would embrace the roles of producer and label executive. The day of Curtain Call: The Hits's release, Eminem appeared on WKQI's "Mojo in the Morning" show. Denying that he was retiring, he suggested he would take a break as an artist: "I'm at a point in my life right now where I feel like I don't know where my career is going ... This is the reason that we called it 'Curtain Call', because this could be the final thing. We don't know." The following year, Eminem released Eminem Presents: The Re-Up on Shady Records.
In 2005 the rapper was ranked 58th in Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. Goldberg cited a 2001 column by Bob Herbert of The New York Times, in which Herbert wrote "In Eminem's world, all women are whores and he is eager to rape and murder them", and the song "No One's Iller" from the Slim Shady EP as examples of the rapper's misogyny. That summer Eminem began his first US concert tour in three years, with the Anger Management 3 Tour featuring 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil Jon, D12, Obie Trice and The Alchemist. In August he canceled the European leg of the tour, later announcing that he had entered drug rehabilitation for treatment of a "dependency on sleep medication". Curtain Call: The Hits was released December 6, 2005 by Aftermath Entertainment. During its first week it sold nearly 441,000 copies in the US, and was Eminem's fourth consecutive number-one album on the Billboard Hot 200. The album has been certified double platinum by the RIAA.
In September 2007 Eminem called New York radio station WQHT during an interview with 50 Cent, saying that he was "in limbo" and "debating" about when (or if) he would release another album: "I'm always working – I'm always in the studio. It feels good right now, the energy of the label. For a while, I didn't want to go back to the studio ... I went through some personal things. I'm coming out of those personal things [and] it feels good."
Eminem appeared on his Shade 45 Sirius channel in September 2008, saying: "Right now I'm kinda just concentrating on my own stuff, for right now and just banging out tracks and producing a lot of stuff. You know, the more I keep producing the better it seems like I get 'cause I just start knowing stuff." Interscope confirmed that a new album would be released in spring 2009. In December 2008 the rapper provided a few more details about the album, entitled Relapse: "Me and Dre are back in the lab like the old days, man. Dre will end up producing the majority of the tracks on 'Relapse'. We are up to our old mischievous ways ... let's just leave it at that."
According to a March 5, 2009 press release, Eminem would release two new albums that year. Relapse, the first, was released on May 19; its first single and music video, "We Made You", had been released on April 7. Although Relapse did not sell as well as the rapper's previous albums, it was a commercial success which received positive reviews and re-established his presence in the hip-hop world. Relapse was named one of the top albums of 2009, and has sold more than five million copies worldwide. During the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, Sacha Baron Cohen descended on the audience in an angel costume. He landed buttocks-first on Eminem, who stormed out of the ceremony; three days later, the rapper said that the stunt had been staged. On October 30 he headlined at the Voodoo Experience in New Orleans, his first full performance of the year. Eminem's act included several songs from Relapse, many of his older hits and an appearance by D12. On November 19, he announced on his website that Relapse: Refill would be released on December 21. The album was a re-release of Relapse with seven bonus tracks, including "Forever" and "Taking My Ball". Eminem described the CD:
I want to deliver more material for the fans this year like I originally planned ... Hopefully these tracks on The Refill will tide the fans over until we put out Relapse 2 next year ... I got back in with Dre and then a few more producers, including Just Blaze, and went in a completely different direction which made me start from scratch. The new tracks started to sound very different than the tracks I originally intended to be on Relapse 2, but I still want the other stuff to be heard.
On April 14, 2010, Eminem tweeted: "There is no Relapse 2". Although his followers thought he was not releasing an album, he had changed its title to Recovery and confirmed this by tweeting "RECOVERY" with a link to his website. According to the rapper:
I had originally planned for Relapse 2 to come out last year. But as I kept recording and working with new producers, the idea of a sequel to Relapse started to make less and less sense to me, and I wanted to make a completely new album. The music on Recovery came out very different from Relapse, and I think it deserves its own title.
His seventh album was released on June 18. In the US Recovery sold 741,000 copies during its first week, topping the Billboard 200 chart. Eminem's sixth consecutive US number-one album also topped the charts in several other countries. Recovery remained atop the Billboard 200 chart for five consecutive weeks of a seven-week total.
Billboard reported that it was the bestselling album of 2010, making Eminem the first artist in Nielsen SoundScan history with two year-end bestselling albums. Recovery is the bestselling digital album in history. Its first single, "Not Afraid", was released on April 29 and debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100; its music video was released on June 4. "Not Afraid" was followed by "Love the Way You Lie", which debuted at number two before rising to the top. Although "Love the Way You Lie" was the bestselling 2010 single in the United Kingdom, it did not reach number one (the first time this has happened in the UK since 1969). Despite criticism of its inconsistency, Recovery received positive reviews from most critics. As of November 21, 2010, the album had US sales of three million copies. Recovery was the bestselling album worldwide in 2010, joining 2002's bestseller The Eminem Show to give the rapper two worldwide year-end number-one albums. With Recovery, Eminem broke the record for the most successive US number-one albums by a solo artist.
He appeared at the 2010 BET Awards, performing "Not Afraid" and "Airplanes, Part II" with B.o.B, and performed at the Activison E3 concert. In June Eminem and Jay-Z announced they would perform together in Detroit and New York, at concerts called The Home & Home Tour. The first two concerts quickly sold out, prompting an additional show in each city. BET called Eminem the number-one rapper of the 21st century. He opened the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, performing "Not Afraid" and "Love the Way You Lie" with Rihanna singing the choruses. Due to the success of Recovery and the Home & Home Tour, Eminem was named the 2010 Hottest MC in the Game by MTV[91] and Emcee of the Year by the online magazine HipHopDX. He and Rihanna again collaborated on "Love the Way You Lie (Part II)", the sequel of their hit single. Unlike the original, Rihanna is the lead vocalist and it is sung from the female perspective. In December 2010, the "Great Eminem Recovery" was number one on Billboard's Top 25 Music Moments of 2010. He appeared at the 2011 Grammy Awards on February 13, performing "Love the Way You Lie (Part II)" with Rihanna and Adam Levine and "I Need a Doctor" with Dr. Dre and Skylar Grey. That month it was announced that "Space Bound" would be the fourth single from Recovery, with a music video featuring former porn star Sasha Grey; the video was released June 24 on the iTunes Store.
In 2010, Eminem again began collaborating with Royce da 5'9" on their first EP as Bad Meets Evil; the duo formed in 1999. The EP, Hell: The Sequel, was released on June 14, 2011. Eminem was featured on Royce da 5'9"'s "Writer's Block", released on April 8, 2011. On May 3 they released the lead single "Fast Lane" from their upcoming EP, and a music video was filmed. In March 2011, within days of each other, The Eminem Show and The Marshall Mathers LP were certified diamond by the RIAA; Eminem is the only rapper with two diamond-certified albums. With more than 60 million "likes" he was the most-followed person on Facebook, outscoring Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Michael Jackson. Eminem was the first artist in five years with two number-one albums (Recovery and Hell: The Sequel) in a 12-month period. Early in 2011 he leaked "2.0 Boys", on which Yelawolf and Slaughterhouse collaborated when they signed with Shady Records in January, and performed it in April. Bad Meets Evil released their next single, "Lighters", on July 6 and its music video in late August. On August 6, Eminem performed several songs from throughout his career at Lollapalooza with the artists who had been featured on each song.
Eminem announced on May 24, 2012 that he was working on his next album, scheduled for release the following year. Without a title or release date, it was included on a number of "Most Anticipated Albums of 2013" lists (including MTV); Complex Magazine ranked it sixth, and XXL listed it fifth.
He talked about the album on June 30, 2012, with DJ Whoo Kid on Shade 45; the material was taking shape, and Dr. Dre would be involved. On August 30, Slaughterhouse member Royce da 5'9" said about it: "I'm not so sure how the world is going to respond from some of the things that I've heard from him."[citation needed] Friend and fellow rapper 50 Cent was confirmed as appearing on the album. Eminem appeared on Pink's "Here Comes The Weekend", from The Truth About Love.
On February 11, 2013, Shady Records president and Eminem manager Paul Rosenberg announced that the rapper's eighth album would be released after Memorial Day. "We fully expect to be releasing a new Eminem album in 2013. He's been working on it for some time," said Rosenberg. "It's safe to say that it will be post-Memorial Day at some point, but we're not exactly sure when. We've got some dates locked in for him to perform live in Europe in August, so we're trying to see what else lines up." The album remained untitled. On March 22, Dr. Dre said that he worked with Eminem on the album and it was nearly finished; No I.D. was confirmed as producer.
On August 14 "Survival", featuring Liz Rodrigues and produced by DJ Khalil, premiered in the multi-player trailer for the video game Call of Duty: Ghosts. According to a press release, the first single from Eminem's eighth album would be released soon. During the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, it was announced that the album would be entitled The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (following The Marshall Mathers LP) and was scheduled for release on November 5.
Its lead single, "Berzerk", was released on August 25 and debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Three more singles followed: "Survival" (appearing on the Call of Duty: Ghosts trailer), "Rap God" and "The Monster" (with Rihanna).
The album was released on November 5 by Aftermath Entertainment, Shady Records and Interscope Records. Its standard version had 16 tracks, and the deluxe version included a second disc with five additional tracks. The Marshall Mathers LP 2 was Eminem's seventh album to debut atop the Billboard 200, and had the year's second-largest first-week sales. The rapper was the first artist since The Beatles to have four singles in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.
In the United Kingdom The Marshall Mathers LP 2 debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. The first American artist with seven consecutive UK number-one albums, he is tied with The Beatles for second place for the most consecutive chart-topping UK albums. The album secured Eminem's position as Canada's best-selling artist, and was 2013's best-selling album.
On November 3 Eminem was named the first YouTube Music Awards Artist of the Year, and a week later he received the Global Icon Award at the 2013 MTV EMA Music Awards.[131] On June 10, it was announced that the rapper was the first artist to receive two digital diamond certifications – sales and streams of 10 million and above – by the RIAA (for "Not Afraid" and "Love the Way You Lie"). On July 11 and 12, Eminem played two concerts in Wembley Stadium. At the 57th Grammy Awards, he received Best Rap Album award for The Marshall Mathers LP 2 and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (with Rihanna) for "The Monster".
In June 2014 Eminem and Rosenberg began using the hashtag #SHADYXV on social-networking sites, and the rapper wore a T-shirt with the hashtag onstage. According to an August 25 press release on Eminem's website, the hashtag was the name of an upcoming Shady Records compilation: Shady XV. That day, the first single from the album ("Guts Over Fear", featuring singer-songwriter Sia Furler) was released and the album's track list was released on October 29. Shady Records released a cypher to promote the album, in which Eminem did a seven-minute freestyle. "Detroit Vs. Everybody" (the album's second single), with Eminem, Dej Loaf, Royce da 5'9", Danny Brown, Big Sean and Trick-Trick, was released on November 11. Shady XV, released on November 24 during Black Friday week, consists of one greatest-hits disc and one disc of new material by Shady Records artists such as D12, Slaughterhouse, Bad Meets Evil and Yelawolf. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 138,000 copies in the United States.
The Official Eminem Box Set, a career-spanning, 10-disc vinyl box set, was released on March 12, 2015. The set includes seven of Eminem's eight studio albums (excluding Infinite), the 8 Mile soundtrack, the compilation Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, and the greatest hits collection Curtain Call: The Hits. Early in the year, it was announced that he would appear on Tech N9ne's "Speedom (Worldwide Choppers 2)". The song, also featuring Krizz Kaliko, was released on April 20. Eminem also appeared on Yelawolf's "Best Friend", the single from Love Story.
Eminem is the executive producer of the soundtrack on the sports drama Southpaw, with Shady Records. The first single from the soundtrack called 'Phenomenal' was released on June 2, 2015. Another single, "Kings Never Die" by Eminem featuring Gwen Stefani, was released on July 10, 2015 on YouTube via Eminem's Vevo account. Eminem was the first interview of Zane Lowe in Beats 1. The interview streamed online on the Beats 1 radio on July 1, 2015. Eminem appeared on the public access show Only in Monroe, produced in Monroe, Michigan, and was interviewed by guest host Stephen Colbert for an episode that aired July 1, 2015. In the episode Eminem sang snippets of Bob Seger songs at Colbert's prompting and briefly discussed Southpaw.