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Eminem |
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Eminem is the stage name of Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972 in St. Joseph, Missouri), one of today's most controversial and popular rappers.
Brought to fame by rapper/producer Dr. Dre, Eminem is perhaps best known for being one of the few successful white rappers in the industry, not to mention one of the most critically acclaimed. Eminem's lyrical ability is matched by very few, and he is noted for his ability to change his own verbal pace ("flow") and style multiple times within one song without losing the beat. He is also infamous for the controversy surrounding many of his lyrics. Critics have accused him of being homophobic, misogynistic and excessively violent, though his actions (such as support for Tsunami Relief and Boys and Girls Club, and performing with bisexual artist Elton John) may suggest otherwise. In the song "Mosh", Eminem spoke out against the Iraq conflict, violence and President George W. Bush. Eminem also spoke out against violence amongst rappers with his remake of Toy Soldiers. Eminem also supports the Leary Fire Fighters Foundation. Although Eminem does not consider himself a militant or political artist he did have his own Hip Hop Political Convention in response to the National Political Convention. Eminem's protegé 50 Cent launched into superstardom in 2003.
Early life and career
Mathers was born in St. Joseph, MO (near K City), and spent most of his childhood moving back and forth between K City and suburban Detroit, Michigan where he became friends with Runyan Avenue Soldiers.
Interested in rap from a young age, Mathers began performing as early as thirteen, later gaining some popularity with a group, Soul Intent. His wife Kim gave birth to his daughter, Hailie Jade, on 25 December, 1995. In 1996, he released his first independent album, named Infinite (of which he sold about 500 copies out of the back of his car), following it up with The Slim Shady EP in 1997. He became famous in the hip-hop underground because of his distinctive, cartoonish style and the fact that he is white (a rarity in all rap, especially mainstream gangsta rap). Some people called him rap's "great white hope".
It is said that Dr. Dre found Eminem's demo on the garage floor of Jimmy Iovine, the Interscope label chief. Though this did not directly lead to a recording contract, once Eminem won second place vs. Otherwize at the 1997 Rap Olympics MC battle, Dr. Dre agreed to sign him. Other sources state that an exec at the offices of Interscope handed the demo to Iovine who passed it to Dre, which resulted in a contract.
Entering the mainstream
Once he joined Interscope, Eminem released The Slim Shady LP, which went on to be one of the most popular records of the year, going triple platinum. With the album's enormous popularity came controversy surrounding many of the album's lyrics. In "97 Bonnie and Clyde", Eminem describes a trip with his infant daughter, disposing of the bodies of his wife, her lover and his son. Another song, "Guilty Conscience" ends with Eminem and Dr. Dre encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover.
The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000, quickly selling 2 million copies. The first single released from the album, "The Real Slim Shady", created some buzz by trash-talking celebrities and spilling dubious gossip about them. In the song, Eminem claims, among other things, that Christina Aguilera gave "head" (oral sex) to Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit) and Carson Daly (of MTV's Total Request Live). In his second single, "The Way I Am" he takes some heat off Marilyn Manson on a heated controversy of the shootings at Columbine High School. In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank You"), Eminem attempts to deal with his new fame status, telling the story of a fan so obsessed with him that he winds up killing himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring one of the songs on The Slim Shady LP.
Backlash
With the enormous popularity of Eminem's second album, the controversy surrounding Eminem grew even larger, especially when The Marshall Mathers LP was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year. Though Mathers had always claimed that his lyrics were not meant to be taken seriously, and that he had nothing against homosexuals or women, the rights group GLAAD organized a boycott of the Grammys against Eminem. Mathers responded to this by singing "Stan" on-stage with bisexual singer Elton John, ending the performance by hugging John to show that he didn't have anything against homosexuals. Though it shocked a lot of people, this gesture failed to appease all of his critics.
Since Eminem's rapid ascent to fame, tell-all biographies of varying quality have been published, including Shady Bizzness by his former bodyguard Byron Williams. Eminem himself has written a book called Angry Blonde (2001), where he reveals the emotions and intent behind the lyrics in the Marshall Mathers LP, and describes his passion and approach to rapping.
As one of six members of the rap group D12, Eminem appeared on the album Devil's Night, released in 2001. The album was certified multi-platinum. The album contained the single "Purple Pills". Another song, "Blow My Buzz", was on the soundtrack for the film The Wash (2001), in which Eminem had a cameo.
Eminem's third major album, The Eminem Show was released in summer 2002. It featured the single "Without Me", an apparent sequel to "The Real Slim Shady" in which he makes derogatory comments about boy bands, *NSYNC's Chris Kirkpatrick, Limp Bizkit, Moby, and Lynne Cheney, among others.
On November 19th, 2003 new controversy surrounded Eminem when a cassette tape was played during a press conference held by The Source magazine. The 1988 cassette featured a younger Mathers performing a freestyle rap in which he made disparaging remarks about black women, calling them "stupid" in comparison to white women. Other racial slurs and remarks were stated to be on the tape. Mathers reportedly made the recording after breaking up with his black girlfriend. The ordeal would later end up with both Eminem and The Source arguing their views of the matter in court.
On December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service admitted it was "looking into" allegations that Mathers had threatened the President of the United States after the unreleased song "We as Americans" leaked onto the Internet. The lyrics in question: money/ I don't rap for dead presidents/ I'd rather see the president dead/ It's never been said, but I set precedents.
Then, in 2004, Eminem made the video "My Band" with D12. The controversial song was the band's sarcastic response to the media's frequent portrayal of D12 as Eminem's band, giving little to no credit to its other members. The video contained various parodies, including that of the Janet Jackson 'incident', and of 50 Cent's "In Da Club" video.
On October 12, 2004, a week after the release of "Just Lose It," Eminem's first video and single off Encore, Michael Jackson called into the Los Angeles-based Steve Harvey radio show to report his displeasure with the video, which parodies Jackson's child-molestation accusations, his rhinoplasty, and an incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire while he was filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. The lyrics to "Just Lose It" also refer to Jackson's troubles. In the video, Eminem also parodied Pee Wee Herman, MC Hammer, and a Blonde-Ambition-touring Madonna. Harvey himself declared, "Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back."
Black Entertainment Television was the first channel to stop airing the video. MTV, however, announced it would continue airing the video and "Just Lose It" became the number-one requested video on Total Request Live for the week ending October 22. The Source magazine, through its CEO Raymond "Benzino" Scott, wanted not only the video pulled, but the song off the album, and a public apology to Jackson from Eminem.
Others dismissed "Just Lose It" as a tame "Weird Al" Yankovic-style knockoff. On Jackson's protest, Yankovic himself told the Chicago Sun-Times, "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."
On October 26 2004 a week before the U.S. presidential election, 2004, Eminem released the video for his song titled "Mosh" on the Internet. The song features a very strong anti-Bush message, with lyrics such as " Bush" and "this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president". The video features Eminem gathering up an army of people presented as victims of the Bush administration and leading them to the White House. However, once the army breaks in, it is revealed that they are there to simply register to vote, and the video ends with the words "VOTE Tuesday November 2" on the screen. After Bush won the election, the video's ending was changed to Eminem and the rioters invading while Bush was giving a speech. On October 31, Eminem performed the song on Saturday Night Live, but some thought that he appeared to be lip-synching it.
Other works and ventures
Eminem made his Hollywood acting debut with the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile, released in November 2002. He recorded several new songs for the soundtrack, including "Lose Yourself," which won Eminem an Academy Award for Best Song. He has also lent his voice to the Crank Yankers show and a web cartoon called "The Slim Shady Show", which has since been pulled offline and is instead sold on DVD.
Eminem has also been linked to "Songs of Hope" by U2 and supported the Boys and Girls Club of America with various proceeds donated to these c. Also Eminem had a political convention in response to the National Political Convention. He also made an anti war/anti-violence song with the song Mosh. Eminem supports the American troops but does not believe support for the troops has to involve support of the war on terrorism. Eminem has also been linked to support the Leary Fire Fighters Foundation. Eminem was made an honorary priest by the Raelians Religious Movement, a nonviolent religious group, but he himself is a born again Christian and his recent works show biblical influence. He has also raised AIDS awareness in his music with a song about an HIV positve person who has slept with several people in a group of friends.
Shady Records
Dr. Dre's leading protege succeeded in multi-platinum record sales. Eminem was granted his own record label. He and his manager Paul Rosenberg created Shady Records in 2000. Eminem had established his best selling artist 50 Cent to the roster. Also his own Detroit collective D12, and Obie Trice were also signed to the label. In 2003, Eminem and Dr. Dre signed on Atlanta rapper Stat Quo to the roster. DJ Green Lantern, the former deejay for Eminem was signed to Shady Records at a period until a dispute with 50 Cent forcing him depart from the label and is no longer associated with Eminem. The Alchemist is now officially Eminem's tour deejay and possible signing to his Shady Records.
Eminem signed a deal with Sirius satellite radio to program a hip-hop oriented station called Shade 45, which debuted on October 28 2004. He also owns a clothing line called "Shady Ltd."
Eminem as a producer
Eminem is also active as a producer of rap records. Besides D12's two albums, Devil's Night and D12 World, he also produced Obie Trice's Cheers as well as 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' and The Massacre. Furthermore, his own records increasingly contain tracks produced by himself. He recently produced 2Pac's fifth posthumous album, Loyal to the Game with 2Pac's mother, Afeni Shakur..
Samples
- of "Kill You" from The Marshall Mathers LP. (Parental Advisory : Explicit Content)
Music videos
- The Slim Shady LP:
- Just Don't Give A
- Role Model
- My Name Is...
- Guilty Conscience
- Dr. Dre 2001 (with Dr Dre):
- The Marshall Mathers LP:
- The Real Slim Shady
- The Way I Am
- Stan (samples "Thank You" by Dido)
- Devil's Night (with D12):
- On You
- Purple Hills (or Purple Pills, the album version)
- Fight Music
- The Eminem Show:
- Without Me
- Cleaning Out My Closet
- White America
- Sing For The Moment (samples "Dream On" by Aerosmith)
- Superman (on 8 Mile DVD only)
- Business (live performance)
- D12 World (with D12):
- My Band
- 40 Oz.
- How Come
- Git Up
- U R The One
- Encore:
- Just Lose It
- Mosh
- Like Toy Soldiers (samples "Toy Soldiers" by Martika)
- Mockingbird
- Ass Like That
Solo discography
Albums and EPs
- F@#!in' Backstabber / Biterphobia (1995)
- Infinite (1996)
- The Slim Shady EP (1997)
- The Slim Shady LP (1999)
- 2 US (4X Platinum);
- 12 UK
- The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
- 1 US (8 weeks) (9X Platinum);
- 1 UK
- The Eminem Show (2002)
- 1< US (6 weeks) (9X Platinum);
- 1 UK
- 8 Mile Soundtrack (album production, and rapping on five of the tracks - 2002)
- 1 US (4 weeks) (4X Platinum);
- 1 UK (compilation chart)
- Encore (2004)
- 1 US (4X Platinum);
- 1 UK
Hit singles
From The Slim Shady LP:
- 1999 "My Name Is..."
- 36 US;
- 2 UK
- 1999 "Guilty Conscience" (feat. Dr. Dre)
- 5 UK
From Chronic 2001 (by Dr. Dre):
- 2000 "Forgot about Dre" (Dr. Dre feat. Eminem)
- 25 US;
- 7 UK
From The Marshall Mathers LP:
- 2000 "The Real Slim Shady"
- 4 US;
- 1
UK
- 2000 "The Way I Am"
- 58 US,
- 8 UK
- 2000 "Stan" (feat. Dido)
- 51 US,
- 1
UK
From The Eminem Show:
- 2002 "Without Me"
- 2 US;
- 1 UK
- 2002 "Cleanin' out My Closet"
- 4 US;
- 4 UK
From 8 Mile Soundtrack:
- 2002 "Lose Yourself"
- 1 (12 weeks) US;
- 1 UK
From The Eminem Show:
- 2003 "Sing for the Moment"
- 14 US;
- 6 UK
- 2003 "Superman"
- 15 US
- 2003 "Business"
- 6 UK
From Encore:
- 2004 "Just Lose It"
- 6 US;
- 1 UK
- 2004 "Encore"
- 25 US
- 2004 "Like Toy Soldiers"
- 34 US;
- 1 UK
- 2004 "Mockingbird"
- 11 US;
- 4 UK;
- 14 CAN
- 2005 "Ass Like That"
He also had a few major hit singles and albums as part of D12.
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