Eminem
Eminem is a rapper who you can learn a whole lot about his personal life just by listening to his music. In fact one thing Marshall Mathers never seems to get credit for is his contributions to the type of reality-oriented programming that has, in a way, taken over the entertainment industry during the early 21st century.
In fact he was perhaps the first reality musician in American history. And what we mean by that is whereas, even prior to his ascension during the latter 1990s, rappers already had the tendency to reveal aspects of their personal lives and histories in song, Em was the first to really get intimate about the relationship with his moms, his wife, his dad, his daughter and what have you. So in a way, he contributed to it being chic to express one’s innermost feelings in public, which of course is a prerequisite for successful reality entertainment.
Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr.
Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III on 17 October 1972 in St. Joseph, Missouri. And as alluded to earlier, fans of the rapper already know that he’s never been too fond of his dad, Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. (1951-2019).
Mathers III did not grow up with his father and may have never met him during a stage of his life he could actually remember (i.e. not as an infant). This remained true even after Eminem blew up, as he didn’t appear overly receptive to reports that his father attempting to contact him after he became rich and famous.
So by the looks of things Marshall Mather Jr., who passed away at the age of 67, was never a direct beneficiary of his son’s monumental success. And relatedly Eminem rarely, if ever, referenced his father favorably in song. And indeed his main gripe with his pops was the fact that he deserted the family, forcing Em’s mom to raise him on her own.
Debbie Nelson
Said mother’s maiden name is Debbie Nelson. And based on what has been detailed above, you would think that Eminem would be kinder to her. But the truth is, at least lyrically, the rapper has called her out even more so than his dad. That’s more or less the concept upon which the chorus of his 2002 hit “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” is based.
In fact Eminem’s back and forth with his mom resulted in what we would presume were a couple of firsts. For instance, he was the first rapper – or at least the first prominent one – to refer to his mother as a “bit*h” in song – something which Eminem has done many times over.
And as opposed to his absentee dad, his beef with his mother has something to do with his claims of her being a bad mom in general, drug addiction and all. In fact due to him referencing her in such a manner, the relationship between them became super strained. It was so strained that way back in 1999, well before even the aforementioned song was dropped, Debbie sued her own son for a hefty $10,000,000 under accusations that he slandered her.
Eminem mends Relationship with Mother
Eminem’s history with his mother has a happier ending than that with his father though. And why? Because as reported, after Debbie revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Em went about mending his relationship with her.
Said efforts reached their pinnacle, at least in the public eye, in 2013 when the rapper dropped a related track entitled “Headlights“. And whereas we don’t know how close the two of them actually are at the moment, the general understanding is that Debbie has benefited off of her son’s success, at least more than his dad had. For example, she wrote a book, My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem in 2008 about her famous firstborn which sold really well in the UK.
Also as of the writing of this post, she reportedly boasts of a net worth nearing $1,000,000, on top of “run(ning) a taxi service” in her aforementioned hometown St. Joseph.
Ronnie Polkingharn
And while we’re on the subject of Shady’s mom it is also interesting to note that it was her half-brother, whose name was Ronnie Polkingharn (1972-1991), that introduced Eminem to rap music.
Serious Slim Shady fans would recognize Polkingharn as the “Uncle Ronnie” who is referenced in one of his greatest hits, “Stan” (2000). Moreover it would appear that Eminem has a tattoo in dedication to his late uncle on his right arm.
Despite being Marshall’s uncle, Ronnie was only a couple of months older than him, meaning that, as Em has stated, they “grew up together”. So when Polkingharn took his own life, it really affected Mathers hard. And that said, throughout the years Slim has definitely held him in generally higher regard than his own parents, even if he doesn’t mention his late uncle as often.
Hailie Scott-Mathers
So prior to becoming a big-time rapper, Mathers may not have been a gangbanger or drug dealer like some other hip-hoppers have claimed. But he came from a challenging childhood nonetheless, poverty and all. In fact those familiar with Eminem’s history can attest to the fact that one of the reasons he really started to take rap seriously is because he found it challenging providing for his daughter, Hailie Scott-Mathers, who was born when he was in his early 20s.
Similarly to Em’s parents, Hailie also went on to become of the Marshall’s favorite subjects/references in song. For instance according to one report from 2018, as of 2018, he had dropped 20 songs about her.
And out of the four family members Eminem tended to regularly earlier in his career, she’s by far his favorite of the lot. He views Hailie as more or less the victim of being born into a f**ked up familial situation. So accordingly, knowing how such situations tend to play out based on his own experiences, Marshall has always vowed to be the best father to her he possibly could.
Kimberly Anne Scott-Mathers
And you may have noticed that we just mentioned four family members of Shady’s who regularly appeared on his track. Three of them would be Debbie Mathers, Marshall Mathers Jr. and Hailie Scott-Mathers, but the fourth is not Uncle Ronnie. That distinction rather goes to Kimberly Anne Scott, Hailie’s mom, whom Eminem was actually married to twice.
The rapper has mentioned her innumerable times in song, including dropping an actual track called “Kim” in 2000. And in most cases he did so unfavorably. In fact the aforementioned Kim was so scathing that, like Debbie Mathers, Scott also sued Marshall for $10,000,000 (while they were simultaneously getting divorced) in that very year. And unlike Debbie she went on to reach a settlement with Marshall, though we don’t know for how much.
Either way despite being married twice, they only managed to stay together so cumulatively for about three years. And as the years progressed, Em has come to mention Kim, understandably, less in song.
Yet despite being pretty well off financially, Em’s ex-wife has still dealt with some serious issues, including a suicide attempt as recently as 2015. But to note, Eminem did go about making peace with her also, in song, via his 2017 track “Bad Husband”.
Whitney Scott Mathers and Alaina Marie Mathers
To note, Marshall also has two other adopted daughters. One of them, Whitney Scott Mathers, was born in 2002 to Kimberly Scott and another dude, the late Eric Hartter (d. 2019), after her first divorce with Eminem. And the other, Alaina Marie Mathers, is biologically the daughter of Dawn Scott (1975-2016), who was Kim’s twin sister.
So that means Eminem himself only has one biological child. Moreover, at least to date, he’s only actually been married to one woman.
Eminem’s Legal Troubles
Marshall Mathers’ tumultuous relationship with Kim Mathers also accounts for at least one or even perhaps both of the times he’s been arrested to date. In mid-2000, Shady assaulted a dude named John Guerra whom he found kissing on Kim, who by the way Marshall was still married to at the time.
And the rap star was also caught by police just the day prior due to brandishing an unloaded gun in public. And it wouldn’t be completely unreasonable to postulate that tension with his wife somehow contributed to that spazzing also.
Ultimately Em was able to get off on a plea deal. And outside of that all of the other times he found himself in court were for the most part were as the result of lawsuits. Take for instance, the case of a dude named DeAngelo Bailey who actually bullied Marshall as a child. Eminem went on to reference him in such a capacity on a 1999 song entitled “Brain Damage”. Resultantly, he tried to score a cool $1,000,000 from the rapper on an invasion of privacy charge in 2001. However, the said attempt failed.
Indeed Eminem is an artist who most regularly gets into varying degrees of drama due to the things he says. For instance, in 2003 he was investigated by the US Secret Service itself for more or less wishing the President at the time, George W. Bush, dead in song.
And then of course there are the beefs he tends to get into with other musicians, which we will get into later. And that’s not even to mention Em’s forays into homophobia and what have you, which have resulted for instance in the relatedly-controversial rapper being compelled to perform alongside the openly-gay Elton John at the 2001 Grammy Awards.
Em’s Career Beginnings
To make a long story short, Eminem struggled earlier in his career. Despite his undeniable talent, he is not one of those musicians who instantly blew up upon first release. In fact his actual debut album, 1996’s Infinite, is probably a project you never even heard of.
And that would at least be partially attributable to the fact that it was issued by a small-time Detroit label called Web Entertainment. And on that note, something we forgot to mention earlier is that despite being born in Missouri, Eminem spent his most-formative years in Detroit. Thus he is considered to be a Motor City rapper.
Sometimes success isn’t only about talent but also being blessed enough to hook up with the right people who can capitalize upon it. For instance, even the greatest athletes in the world don’t serve as their own agents. You may have the God-given ability, but you’ll need someone else, a professional exploiter so to speak, to fully realize its commercial potential. And for Eminem, that someone was established gangsta rapper/producer Dr. Dre.
As the story goes, Marshall participated in an event called the Rap Olympics in 1997 where rappers would lyrically duke it out for a $500 grand prize, along with a Rollie (aka Rolex watch). Marshall didn’t even win, rather coming in second to another rapper called Otherwize, whom we’re about 100% sure you never heard of unless you’re a serious Slim Shady scholar.
However, an Interscope Records’ intern, Dean Geistlinger, was in attendance. And he was so impressed with Eminem that he asked him for a copy of his 1997 Slim Shady EP, also a product of Web Entertainment, which still stands as Eminem’s first and only extended play.
Said EP then ended up in the hands of Interscope Records’ head honcho Jimmy Iovine. Iovine then turned around and played it for Dr. Dre, who he was affiliated with from Dre’s days with Death Row Records and now was a direct business partner of the Doctor’s own label, Aftermath Entertainment, which was just founded in 1996.
Up until that point in time, according to Dre himself, he “never found anything from a demo tape or a CD” that he actually liked enough to reach out to its artist, even though he had already been in the game for over a decade. But upon hearing Eminem rap, he went about contacting Marshall immediately.
Now note that during the 1990s, there was the overt presence of an anti-White sentiment in mainstream hip-hop. Or put differently, this was back in the days when Caucasians weren’t perceived as credible rappers.
There may have been one or two here and there, such as NYC’s 3rd Bass, who earned a notable degree of street credibility. But also keep in mind that up until this point the most-successful White rappers the world had ever witnessed were the likes of Vanilla Ice, Marky Mark and the Beastie Boys. And this is not to disrespect any of them, as they all made their contributions to the overall progress of the genre. But the point being made is that you likely wouldn’t go to South Central L.A. – where artists like Dr. Dre originated – and hear someone bumping a Beastie Boys’ or Marky Mark track.
So accordingly, Dre initially dealt with criticism for taking Em, a White rapper, seriously. Moreover when the two of them first met, others present initially thought Marshall was a joke.
Such was exacerbated by the fact that, due to his financial struggles at the time, Mathers did not appear on the scene as idealized. But once Slim got around to displaying the talent which impressed Dre in the first place, all doubts were squashed. So Eminem went on to be signed by Aftermath during March of 1998. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The Slim Shady LP (1999)
As such many people actually consider The Slim Shady LP, i.e. the first album that Em released under Aftermath, to be his true debut full-length. Or at least it was the first that he put out via a major label.
That project proved to be a major success, earning Eminem his first two Grammy Awards in 2000. One was for Best Rap Album and the other Best Rap Solo Performance awarded to “My Name Is“, which was his first big hit. Four singles were released from that undertaking, with the most-successful out of the lot being the aforementioned, which achieved double-platinum status.
“My Name Is” also happens to be the song in which Slim Shady more or less referred to his mom as a drug addict, which resulted in her suing him as noted earlier. And there are a couple of other tracks on the album that need to be acknowledged in a similar regard. For instance, the aforementioned “Brain Damage” is also part of its playlist.
Additionally, Eminem was successfully sued (i.e. reached a settlement) in 2003 for not properly crediting a sample he used on another of its songs, “Kill You”. But either way, whereas the world may not have known it when The Slim Shady LP first came out, even with the Grammys and all, Marshall Mathers was now on his way to achieving historical mega-stardom.
The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
For instance, we failed to mention that the Slim Shady LP has gone quadruple-platinum in the United States and has sold in the region of 5.5 million copies worldwide. But its success still pales in comparison to that of Eminem’s follow-up, 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP, if you can imagine that.
Up until this point, despite winning a couple of Grammys, Eminem was still seen more or less as a novelty act – a passing fad so to speak. After all “My Name Is” is largely comical in nature, and rap music is not a genre which tends to embrace comedy. But The Marshall Mathers LP really established the titular rapper as a superstar. For instance, it didn’t just go multi-platinum; it went diamond, meaning that it has sold over 10,000,000 copies in the United States alone. And around the globe it has exceeded 20,000,000 copies sold, including going octuple-platinum in the UK and Canada.
The Marshall Mathers LP also introduced the world to what are still some of Eminem’s greatest raps, such as “The Real Slim Shady“, “The Way I Am” and of course the timeless “Stan”. In fact in 2001 the first of those songs earned Eminem his second-consecutive Best Rap Solo Performance Grammy, and the album itself garnered the rapper yet another Best Rap Album award.
Furthermore Eminem earned a third Grammy that year – this time in the category of Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group – for a track entitled “Forgot About Dre” which is actually featured on Dr. Dre’s album 2001 (2000).
However this was also the era in history in which Slim Shady really proved how loose-tongued he could actually be in the name of his artistry. And note everyone, including some pretty powerful people, was not impressed by what they interpreted as misogynistic, homophobic and even murderous lyrics. So a bit of PR was in order. And it was such which led to Em performing Stan with Elton John, as noted earlier. And that particular performance is generally considered to be one of the greatest in Grammy Awards’ history.
The Eminem Show (2002)
The Eminem Show (2002) currently stands as Marshall Mathers’ most-successful album, with some 27,000,000 copies being sold, thus even significantly outperforming its predecessor. This was the undertaking that brought us the singles “Without Me“, “Superman“, “Sing for the Moment” and the previously referenced “Cleanin’ Out My Closet”.
It also resulted in two additional Grammys being added to Eminem’s trophy case, one for Best Music Video (“Without Me”) and yet another Best Rap Album award.
It was also during The Eminem Show era that Marshall dropped a track entitled “Lose Yourself” (2002). It wasn’t a part of said album but rather the soundtrack to 8 Mile, a semi-autobiographical movie about and starring Eminem, which also came out in 2002. And that particular song is actually the second biggest hit in his discography as of the writing of this post, having been certified diamond in the United States and quattuordecuple-platinum in Australia.
In fact this was the time, relatively early in his career, where Em’s output may have been at its peak. That is to say that 8 Mile itself also proved to be a notable commercial success. “Lose Yourself” also won a couple of Grammys on its own in 2004, in the categories of Best Rap Song and Best Male Rap Solo Performance. And The Eminem Show itself also resulted in Marshall’s third Best Rap Album award at the Grammys.
Encore (2004)
Encore (2004) did not prove as commercially viable as the two albums which preceded it. But it still sold over 11,000,000 copies, thus making it a project that any musician would likely be proud of.
The most-notable hits derived from this album were “Like Toy Soldiers” and “Mockingbird“, both multi-platinum successes. And whereas Encore did result in four Grammy nominations, it was the first of Eminem’s albums to not actually win any. An interesting bit of side trivia is that this was also the last Slim Shady solo album to feature D12, i.e. the now-defunct rap crew that Mathers belonged to.
Eminem’s Hiatus (2005-2009)
After Encore, Eminem took a break from releasing studio albums. As idealized, the goal was for him to focus more on being a producer as opposed to a lyricist, and Em’s production discography does indicate that he was perhaps most active in that capacity during this juncture.
However, there were other, unplanned events which really knocked him off course. For instance, a tour he co-headlined called Anger Management 3 was cut off as the rapper entered himself in drug rehab. Eminem also got married to Kimberly Scott a second time in 2006, with said union not even reaching the three-month mark this time around.
Moreover his best friend from high school, long-time hype man and D12 bandmate Proof was murdered in their hometown of Detroit, at the age of 32, that very year. And that incident in particular led to Em not only suffering from depression but also becoming even more dependent on drugs.
This all culminated in Marshall actually ODing to the point of hospitalization in 2007 and entering a 12-step rehabilitation program shortly thereafter in 2008. And this was also around the time when the rapper was concurrently dealing with his mother’s cancer or at least when the world at large really became cognizant of the situation. But we can now say that his intervention, even if not as idealized, still helped save her life.
But in the meantime Eminem’s first compilation album, Curtain Call: The Hits, did come out in 2005, as well as a collaborative full-length, Eminem Presents: The Re-Up in 2006. Both were notable hits, especially Curtain Call, which topped the Billboard 200 and has sold 7,000,000 copies stateside.
However, for the first time in his career Marshall did go four consecutive years, from 2005 to 2009, without winning a Grammy. But he still dropped some hits along the way, such as “Smack That” alongside Akon, which was part of The Re-Up album.
Relapse (2009)
Eminem expeditiously returned to form with his 2009 studio album Relapse, at least as far as critical reception goes. That is to say that the project earned Marshall his fourth Best Rap Album Grammy in 2010. And its lead single, “Crack a Bottle”, also took home a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, as it featured regular Shady collaborators 50 Cent and Dr. Dre.
But commercially it did not perform as well as the three studio albums which preceded it. And to note, the other three singles that came from Relapse were respectively We Made You, 3 a.m. and Beautiful.
Recovery (2010)
It didn’t take long for Eminem to drop yet another studio full-length, which was 2010’s Recovery. It resulted in the rapper, once again, winning consecutive Best Rap Album Grammy Awards. The lead single from that project, “Not Afraid“, also proved to be one of his best-sellers.
Meanwhile its follow-up, “Love the Way You Lie” featuring Rihanna, is in fact Eminem’s top-selling song to date. For instance it achieved duodecuple-platinum status, which means it has been RIAA-certified double-platinum on top of going diamond. It also marked the second time Em reached quattuordecuple-platinum status in Australia.
And on the critical side, that track alone wound up being nominated for six Grammys on its own, although it didn’t actually take home any of them.
The other two singles released from the album were “No Love” and “Space Bound”. And Recovery marks the final time to date that one of Eminem’s albums exceeded the 10,000,000 sales’ mark. Moreover, “Love the Way You Lie” is also apparently the last time one of his singles sold that many copies.
The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)
The Marshall Mathers LP 2 came out in 2013. With the original Marshall Mathers LP being Eminem’s quintessential, the goal of this project, to some degree, was to reclaim the magic of yesteryear.
Em was still an in-demand artist at this point and likely always will be. But his image had changed a lot from the reckless Slim Shady LP days as compared to the Recovery era, which this album was following up.
This undertaking was well-received by critics, resulting in Eminem’s fifth Grammy win for Best Rap Album. One of the singles from it, another collaboration with Rihanna called “The Monster“, also took home a Grammy in 2015. Yet sales of the album were humble compared to Recovery.
But still, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 is the last album Eminem has dropped, as of the writing of this post, that actually achieved RIAA multi-platinum status. And it would be four years before he was nominated for another Grammy Award, so this project also marks the last time Em did in fact win a Grammy.
But to note two other singles from the album, “Berzerk” and “Rap God“, also received their own respective Grammy nominations.
Revival (2017)
There was a pretty lengthy time span between the release of 2013’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 and 2017’s Revival. But in the meantime Eminem did drop another collaborative album, Shady XV (2014), as well as being the executive producer behind the soundtrack to a movie entitled Southpaw (2015).
Moreover his second box set, The Vinyl LPs, also came out in 2015. Additionally in 2017, a couple of months before the release of Revival, Em dropped a freestyle at the BET Hip Hop Awards where he tore into concurrent US President Donald Trump. In fact he did so effectively that this time around the Secret Service actually interviewed the rapper.
But said freestyle also went viral and was a good piece of publicity leading into the release of Revival. But that said, this project proved to be the first studio album Eminem came out with since Infinite that didn’t even go platinum in the United States. Nor did any of its three singles, which respectively featured Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and Kehlani, achieve RIAA platinum status.
So even though it did top the Billboard 200, as have all of Eminem’s studio albums (except Infinite), the overall performance of Revival implied that Mathers’ star power was now carrying him in terms of record sales more so than the music itself.
Kamikaze (2018)
Kamikaze, which came out the following year, did better though. For example, its third single, “Lucky You” featuring Joyner Lucas, was nominated for a Grammy Award. And the second single, “Venom“, also managed to go RIAA platinum, as did the album itself.
Music to be Murdered By (2020)
Eminem’s next studio album, Music to be Murdered By, was a surprise January 2020 release – an unconventional strategy for an artist of his stature. However, it isn’t far-fetched to believe that the rapper’s decision to do so had something to do with the fact that his beef with Nick Cannon, which we will get into shortly, was at its peak around that time.
And whereas Marshall did not use the project to attack Cannon, he did, as the title suggests, take the opportunity to once again embrace his Slim Shady persona. And in the process, he pissed off some people as in the days of old, such as when Shady, according to many, distastefully referenced the Manchester Arena bombing of 2017 on the track “Unaccommodating“.
Eminem dropped a couple of singles from the MTBMB, most notably amongst the two being a collaboration with the late Juice WRLD, who had just died a month prior, entitled “Godzilla“. The album itself exceeded a million sales in the US, and it also marked Em’s ninth consecutive solo album that was a Billboard 200 chart topper.
And to note, it also topped the UK Albums Chart and the album charts in about 20 other countries, as are also Eminem norms.
So if there’s one thing we learned from the trajectory of Marshall Mathers’ musical career, it’s this. He may no longer be the most-trending rapper in the game. But he is, all things considered, the most famous in the world, at least as far as the early 21st century goes.
Such is to be expected when you’re the top-selling hip-hop artist ever, and less than 10 musical acts in the history of the music industry have managed to sell more records than you. So we wouldn’t be overly surprised if Eminem, who was 47 years old when MTBMB dropped, will still be topping charts when he’s 60 years of age.
Allies of Eminem
As noted earlier, Eminem had some help along the road to achieving superstardom. By the time the century turned, he had already established himself in such a regard, having been active up until that point for about a decade. So many of his most-notable allies actually come from the early days of his career.
Dr. Dre
First and foremost amongst them would of course be Dr. Dre, who put Slim Shady on in the first place. And whereas Dre has helped Eminem immensely we have to presume that the association has been mutually beneficial, to say the least.
For instance, Dr. Dre, as far as being a musician himself, has fallen out of the spotlight ages ago. However, he has profited directly off of Mathers’ success, as Aftermath has been behind the issuance of all of the aforementioned studio albums besides Infinite. So this isn’t the case of an artist blowing up, being dissatisfied with their original label and then moving on to another. Rather to this very day, Dr. Dre and Eminem are still very much business partners, with the association not appearing as if it will dissolve anytime soon.
Also as far as the early years go, in researching Eminem there are a couple of other figures whose names tend to popup regularly. First amongst them would be Luis Resto, who produced not only many of Em’s tracks but also those of his other associates, 50 Cent and D12, who we will get to shortly.
And another was an established Dr. Dre behind-the-scenes’ man named Mike Elizondo. And we’re sure that there’s also a few others, but again those two normally appear in our research of Eminem / Dr. Dre.
D12
Also like just about any rapper worth his salt, Marshall started off as a part of a rap crew. Said crew was known as the Dirty Dozen or D12 for short. In reality they were only seven-men deep at the peak of their membership, but you get the point.
D12 went on to experience a considerable degree of mainstream exposure due to their association with Eminem. However, they never really took off on their own, though they had their moments. So at the end of the day the dozen apparently disbanded for good in 2018. And as noted earlier, Em’s bestie Proof was also part of this crew.
50 Cent
Then there’s 50 Cent. Fiddy had already managed to make a name for himself as a rapper prior to hooking up with Em, albeit one who was primarily known on the NYC underground scene. But in 2002, Eminem basically played in the same role in 50’s career that Dre had previously done in his own, i.e. introducing Fiddy to the mainstream.
And of course out of all the rappers whom Marshall had put on throughout the years, 50 Cent by far went on to become the most successful. Initially, with the support of Shady Records, 50 established himself as a music superstar in his own right, as well as currently becoming a Hollywood actor. And then about a decade or so later he got into television production and put out a couple of popular TV shows, most notable amongst them being the Power series.
Enemies of Eminem
Eminem’s professional history includes actually getting into beef with the government(s). This is due to the fact that, especially when he takes on the persona of Slim Shady, the rapper goes about making comments which inevitably offend and even alarm some people. In some cases he may be lambasting family members and in other fellow celebrities/politicians.
But either way the situation is such that Marshall Mathers is so famous that any controversial or offensive statement he makes in song can result in major backlash.
For instance, we’ve already noted how Em’s loose tongue has resulted in him getting into serious drama with the Secret Service, his mother and his ex-wife. However, there are also a number of musicians he’s gone at it with throughout the years. Indeed Eminem’s rivals of the last two decades are too numerous to mention all here.
Michael Jackson
But some of the more notable beefs include when he offended Michael Jackson, via the music video to Just Lose It (2004), to the point whereas not only the King of Pop but also Stevie Wonder, another humanitarian artist, publicly Shady.
Machine Gun Kelly
In more recent times he also had a well-publicized beef with fellow White rapper Machine Gun Kelly, which dates back to 2012 and MGK referring to Em’s most-beloved, Hailie, as being “hot as f**k”.
Nick Cannon
And then there was the ugliest of them all, the aforementioned misunderstanding with Nick Cannon. Who Eminem initially had beef with in that particular regard was none other than Mariah Carey who, according to the Shady himself, he briefly dated (though Mariah has always denied such).
Anyway Em decided to lyrically attack her while she was concurrently married to musician/media personality Nick Cannon via a 2009 track entitled “Bagpipes from Baghdad” (which is featured on Relapse). And Shady, being who he is, also dissed Nick Cannon in the process.
Well this was something that Cannon never forgot, not only Eminem calling him out but also his wife, even after he and Mariah divorced in 2016. So to make a long story short, the beef between him and Marshall really jumped off later in the 2010s. And it turned into a big mess, with race and all types of other stuff becoming a factor. In fact even the incarcerated Suge Knight – an intimidating figure by almost anyone’s standard – chimed in by referring to Eminem as “a b*t*h” on behalf of Nick Cannon (on Nick’s 2019 track “The Invitation“). And whereas Shady has dogged many people in the past this time around, considering that he was reluctant to respond to Cannon, his rival can be said to have emerged victorious, despite being the less-talented lyricist in the equation.
But that said Eminem’s music has still more or less remained the same content wise since, i.e. Music to Be Murdered By.
In Conclusion
It was a joy writing the biography of such a famous and popular musician. Eminem is a phenomenon that was never meant to be – a White rapper who not only had credibility amongst the Black masses but also went on to become one of the top-10 best-selling musicians in world history.
And Marshal Mathers is in fact a rapper, not a rapper/singer or a rapper/rock star. So even though he may always deal with a certain degree of reverse racism due to his skin color coupled with the genre he specializes in, no logical person can deny that his contribution to propagating rap music, i.e. helping to make the genre globally mainstream, has been monumental. And by the looks of things, even though his albums and songs are no longer selling gazillions of copies, it appears that Marshall Mather will continue to sell records until he himself decides to call it quits.
Some Popular Eminem Songs we have Covered
“Forever” (along with Drake, Lil Wayne and Kanye West)
“From the D 2 the LBC” (alongside Snoop Dogg)
“Is This Love (’09)” (alongside 50 Cent)
“Under the Influence” (alongside D12)
“Guilty Conscience” (alongside Dr. Dre)
“Last One Standing” (alongside Polo G, Mozzy and Skylar Grey)
“Walkthrough!” (alongside GRIP)
“Killer (Remix)” (alongside Jack Harlow and Cordae)
“Guns Blazing” (alongside Sly Pyper and Dre)
“Book of Rhymes” (ft. DJ Premier)
“Roman’s Revenge” (alongside Nicki Minaj)
“Coffin” (alongside Jessie Reyez)
“No Regrets” (ft. Don Tolliver)
“Yah Yah” (ft. Royce da 5’9, Q-Tip, Denaun and Black Thought)
“I Will” (ft. Royce da 5’9, Joell Ortiz and KXNG Crooked)
“You Gon’ Learn” (ft. Royce da 5’9 and White Gold)
“Leaving Heaven” (ft. Skylar Grey)
“Bang” (alongside Conway the Machine)
“Rainy Days” (alongside Boogie)
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[…] Yourself is a song by American superstar rapper Eminem. The song contains lyrics that are about the life of the character Jimmy “B-Rabbit” […]
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[…] is a song performed by American rapper Eminem. The song, which is a prequel of the 1998 song titled ’97 Bonnie and Clyde, has very […]
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[…] Bonnie & Clyde is a rap song by rapper Eminem with lyrics that portray the controversial rapper rapping about murdering his former wife Kimberly […]
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[…] is a Grammy Award-nominated rap song performed by American rapper Eminem. The song, which pays homage to old-school rap music, sees Eminem blast a number of prominent […]
Eminem is a multiple Grammy Award winning American rapper and actor who became internationally successful with the release of his 1999 major-label debut album titled The Slim Shady LP, which gave birth to such hit songs as My Name Is and Guilty Conscience. Over the course of his career, Eminem went on to release several other big hits such as Lose Yourself, Cleanin’ Out My Closet, Not Afraid and Love the Way You Lie (with Rihanna). Away from his solo career, Eminem has also made a name for himself as a member of a number of popular hip-hop groups, including D12 (The Dirty Dozen). As an actor, Eminem has appeared in a number of movies over the years, including 2002’s 8 Mile.
He’s so bad at rapping
we got a sped in the comments