One of the influential and often controversial American rappers, Eminem, was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in 1973 in Kansas City.
Eminem had a rough childhood. After his father abandoned the family, Eminem was raised by his mother, Deborah “Debbie” Nelson, who couldn’t provide for them and kept changing jobs; as a result, the family kept moving and sometimes lived in public housing projects.
“I would change schools two, three times a year. That was probably the roughest part about it all.” Eminem once said.
Eminem eventually dropped out at the age of 17, but one thing he really enjoyed was language classes, comic books and even studying the dictionary.
“I found that no matter how bad I was at school, like, and no matter how low my grades might have been at some times, I always was good at English. I just felt like I wanna be able to have all of these words at my disposal, in my vocabulary at all times whenever I need to pull ’em out. You know, somewhere, they’ll be stored, like, locked away,” he said.
At age 14, Eminem began rapping with high-school friend Mike Ruby; they adopted the names “Manix” and “M&M”; the latter changed into “Eminem”, and he entered the Detroit rap scene as a competitor in rap battles.
At the time, Eminem worked many odd jobs while participating in rap battles and trying to land a record contract. His first music contract was signed in 1995 with F.B.T. Productions, a Detroit-based production company and independent label run by brothers Jeff and Mark Bass. Under their independent label WEB Entertainment, Eminem released his debut studio album, Infinite, in 1996.
Infinite was poorly received; however, his breakthrough arrived a year later. Eminem traveled to Los Angeles and became runner-up in that year’s Rap Olympics MC Battle.
At the time, Eminem was also working on his album The Slim Shady LP; after its release, he started his own record label, Shady Records, in late 1999.
In the early 2000s, Eminem reached a chaotic peak of fame after releasing his album The Marshall Mathers LP. His sudden fame turned his private struggles into legal battles.
Eminem was arrested twice in one weekend, facing legal troubles after pulling an unloaded gun and allegedly assaulting a man named John Guerra after catching him kissing his ex-wife, Kim Scott. He was also arrested for using a weapon during an argument with the rap group Insane Clown Posse.
After his hit “My Name Is,” Eminem’s mother sued him for $10 million after saying that he claimed she was addicted to prescription drugs and accused her of faking illness. And it ended in a $25,000 out-of-court settlement in 2001.
The same happened with his ex-wife, Kim Scott. She filed a $10 million defamation and emotional distress lawsuit against him in 2000 over his track Kim. Like his mother’s case, they settled the lawsuit out of court in 2001 for an undisclosed sum, alongside their initial divorce proceedings.
In 2002, Eminem starred in the movie 8 Mile and won an Oscar for the hit song “Lose Yourself.” He also released other albums like The Eminem Show and Encore.
In 2007, he suffered an overdose that nearly ended his life, which led him to take a long break from music. He entered a recovery and rehab program, then returned a year later with albums like Relapse and Recovery.
In the years that followed, he continued making music and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
This year, Eminem shared an Instagram post with a photo of himself holding an 18-year sobriety coin to mark the special milestone.
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