www.thesimpleguideto.comThe Simple Guide to Eminem

Published by Chris Scott at Smashwords.Copyright 2011 Chris Scott

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with

another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own

copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.Facts:

Name – Marshall Bruce Mathers III

Date of Birth – 17th October 1972

Born – Saint Joseph, Missouri, United States of America

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/eminem

Twitter - @eminem - Twitter

Website – http://www.eminem.com

TSGT – http://www.thesimpleguideto.com/eminem.html

~~~~~~~~~~

Eminem (A.K.A. “Marshall Mathers”) Biography

Early Days

Eminem was born as Marshall Mathers III on October 17th, 1972 in St.

Joseph, Missouri. Growing up, Eminem never knew his father. His

unfortunate disappearance left him to be raised by his mother,

Deborah Mathers. Since she wasn’t able to hold a job for very long,

they were forced to move around a lot, mainly between Missouri

and Detroit, Michigan. As you can see, it’s evident that Eminem’s

childhood wasn’t “ideal”.

He spent a large amount of time in public housing projects.

However, he didn’t even consider that the worst part, “I would

change schools two, three, times a year,” he says, “That was

probably the roughest part about it all”.

Fun Fact: Eminem holds the Guinness Book of World Records for

fastest selling hip-hop artist.

Growing up, he never had any close friends. He was more of an

outcast, “Beat up in the bathroom, beat up in the hallways, shoved

into lockers”. That was Eminem’s reality as a child.

Eventually, Marshall went on to attend Lincoln High School (Warren,

Michigan) and after failing the 9th grade three times, dropped out at

the age of seventeen. Surprisingly, he continued to be an avid

reader of comic books and the dictionary!

Fun Fact: A requirement for joining shady records (his label

company) is to have a rap battle against him (Eminem).

“I found that no matter how bad I was at school, and no matter how

my grades might have been at times, I always was good at English …

I just felt, like, I wanna be able to have all these words at my

disposal, in my vocabulary at all times whenever I need to pull em’

out. You know, somewhere, they’d be like stored, like, locked

away.”

Discovering His Passion

Despite being mostly for black people, Eminem decided to join the

rap scene. He would participate in frequent “rap battles”, a

contest where two individuals battle against each other using clever

lines to undermine one another, and quickly gained respect from his

peers.

Unfortunately, the man who introduced Eminem to hip-hop at the

age of 11, Ronald “Ronnie” Nelson (his uncle), committed suicide

via a shotgun wound to the head. Marshall was extremely close to

his uncle and was devastated by his death. If you ever see Eminem

live, you might notice the tattoo on his left upper arm reading

“Ronnie R.I.P”. His uncle has also been included in some of

Marshall’s songs including, “Stan”, “Cleaning out my closet”, and

“My dad’s gone crazy”. Despite this tragic event, he still focused

all his energy on rap and believed that he had finally found a way to

gain respect from his peers.

Fun Fact: Eminem is an avid Spiderman fan.

“I finally found something that yeah, this kid over here, you know,

he may have more chicks, and he may, you know, have better

clothes, or whatever, but he can’t do this like me you know what I

mean? He can’t write what I’m writing right now. And it started to

feel like, you know, maybe Marshall’s gettn a little respect”.

Fun Fact: Eminem wears glasses because he is near-sighted.

He was indeed starting to get a little respect, maybe more than a

little. He soon after took on the stage name M&M, which was

derived from his initials and was meant to be taken funny. After a

while he began writing it phonetically as Eminem.

It was during this period of his life that Eminem begin working odd

jobs to make ends meet. For quite some time, he held a minimum

wage job at a restaurant called Gilbert’s Lodge. It was here where

he would cook and clean for up to eight hours a day just to support

himself.

In his spare time, he was also putting in as many rap battles as he

could, all the while trying to snag a record deal. It didn’t come

easy and he put in a lot of hours on honing his trade.

Getting the Ball Rolling

During this period, he began dating a woman named Kim Ann Scott,

an old friend from high school and in 1995; the two of them had a

daughter who they named Hailie Jade Scott. Little did he know at

the time, Hailie would become the ultimate driving force in his life

and would be his reason for wanting to succeed even more.

Fun Fact: When Eminem was first discovered and seen by Dre,

he was wearing a bright yellow tracksuit that he got from his

sponsors since he couldn’t afford to by decent clothes. Dre said

that he looked like a banana.

With a daughter to support, Eminem became inspired and made his

first attempt at releasing a record. He called it Infinite. It was

after much saving up, he was able to record his record at Bassmint,

a recording studio which, at the time, was owned by the Bass

brothers. The record was released under their independent label

called Web Entertainment.

He recalls, “Obviously, I was young and influenced by other artists, I

got a lot of feedback saying that I sounded a lot like Nas and AZ.

Infinite was me trying to figure out how I wanted my rap style to

be, how I wanted to sound on the microphone and present myself.

It was a growing stage. I felt like Infinite was just a demo that got

all pressed up”.

Eminem did his best to incorporate his life into his songs. He

described his financial situation and how we wanted to make it, and

he also involved his new born daughter, Hailie, into his songs as

well. He was the kind of rapper who “had no secrets”. If

something was going on in his life, you would be sure to hear about

it in his music. This trait is what really separated him from others

artists because people were really able to “connect” with an artist

for the first time.

Unfortunately, it flopped and didn’t receive anything more than

local attention. However, this did not stop his hunger to succeed,

not even close.

One year later he released another record which he called The Slim

Shady LP Demo. This was the move that set his career into motion.

It was discovered by hip-hop legend Dr. Dre who later flew to

Detroit to see Eminem during a rap battle. Needless to say, Dre

signed him to Interscope Records on the spot. From that day

forward, it was a quick explosive ride to the top.

Fun Fact: Have you ever noticed the “bling” that Eminem sports

on his wrist? Well, it isn’t your typical bling, it’s two bracelets

which say “DAD” on them and were made by his daughter

Hailie.

After two years of working with Dr. Dre, Eminem released The Slim

Shady LP which became an instant success. It was released on

cassette, CD, and of course vinyl and incorporated his alter ego Slim

Shady. This was Eminem’s second chance to dwell into poverty and

how he was dealing with the various problems in his life. Many

believed that music was Marshall’s outlet, a way for him to deal

with the problems in his life and share them with the world. The

Slim Shady LP captured audiences from all over the United States,

and became established with international audiences as well.

Things were going good for Eminem. After releasing this album, he

married Kim later that year. In May of 2000, he released his second

album, The Marshall Mathers LP. This record took off as well,

selling a massive 1.76 million copies in the first week. It was the

fastest selling hip-hop record in United States history.

It was on this record that Eminem produced one of his more, well

known hits, “The Real Slim Shady”. Chances are that you have

probably heard it. This song created a lot of controversy in the

celebrity world calling out singer Christina, for accusations on

performing sexual acts on Carson Daily and Fred Durst, among

others.

The other single on his record, “The Way I am” had a true spoken

sense about it. He described to his fans the pressures he would

face from his record company to top his first single, “The Real Slim

Shady” and so on. Marilyn Manson later performed a remix of this

song on stage with him and they were reportedly on very good

terms even though Eminem had called him out on a previous record.

However, this one didn’t receive as much “positive feedback” as his

other album. He was accused of corrupting the young through

vulgar lyrics and inappropriate use of language. He was heckled for

a long time about this.

Fun Fact: To take the role on 8 Mile, Eminem had to drop from

168 pounds to 145 pounds. On set, they would have to snatch

his notebook from his hand because he was constantly writing

lyrics between breaks.

He was on an album frenzy, releasing them within very short periods

of time. In 2001, he reconnected with old friends from Detroit and

created an album called Devils’ Night.

A year later, he released The Eminem Show. This was, not

surprisingly, another hit and sold well over 1 million copies in the

first week. It also had a few well known songs including, “Without

me” (a rather humorous single about Eminem making fun of boy

bands). However, despite the razzing, this became a certified 4x

platinum album, according to the RIAA (Recording Industry

Association of America).

Rough Times

What goes up must come down eventually, right? Well, in this case it

was true. Eminem had been living the high life for so long,

releasing record after record, raking in the big bucks, and gaining

popularity from across the world. He was unstoppable. But even

the most indestructible people can be broken, and that’s exactly

what happened.

On December 2008, he was investigated by the Secret Service for

supposed accusation on threatening the president’s life. The lyrics

which caused this unnecessary drama? "Fxxx money … I don't rap

for dead presidents … I'd rather see the president dead … It's never

been said, but I set precedents ... "

Fun Fact: Eminem has been falsely reported dead four times in

car accidents, and falsely reported dead by drug overdose once.

His apparent rising success quickly turned sour. He released his

album Encore in 2004, which included popular hits like “Toy

Soldiers” and “Mockingbird”. Again, it topped the chart at a rapid

rate. A week after the records release, Michael Jackson called

Steve Harvey (Los Angeles based radio-host) to report the

unpleasant feelings that the video produces, images relating to

child molestation, images of plastic surgery, and even a parody

describing the incident when Michael caught his hair on fire while

filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984.

They also referred to Jackson’s financial trouble and included lyrics

as follows: "... and that's not a stab at Michael… That's just a

metaphor… I'm just psycho...." Enraged by this, followers of Michael

(including Stevie Wonder) spoke out about the video saying things

like, “Kicking up while he’s down” and “Bullshit”.

All in all, despite the humorous theme that Eminem was hoping for,

Encore created a lot of controversy and had a huge share of touchy

subjects.

It was during this time, that Eminem was going through relationship

turmoil. He was in and out of relationships on a constant basis and

couldn’t seem to settle down with any one particular person.

In 2005, Eminem was ranked number 58 in Bernard Goldberg’s, “100

People Who Are Screwing Up America”. When interviewed,

Goldberg simply replied, “In Eminem’s world, all women are whores

and he is eager to rape and murder them.” This enraged Mathers

even further and served as a fuel of motivation to continue his

work.

In 2006, Eminem tried to remarry Kim. This worked for several

months but, as it did previously, turned sour and the two split up.

However, this time it was different. Marshall and Kim participated

in heated court cases in who would have custody over their

daughter, Hailie. This dragged on for years.

Fun Fact: When he was 11 years old, Eminem used to have a

crush on pop singer, Madonna.

In December 2007, he overdosed and almost lost his life, “If I would

have gotten to the hospital two hours later, that would have been

it”. This close call in Eminem’s life really gave him a new

perspective on things and made him see things much differently.

From this point forward, he decided that things were going to

change.

Making a Comeback

Some people allow the stress of daily life to overtake them. It’s

easy to get hooked on stimulants like drugs and alcohol. It serves as

a temporary solution to, usually, a bigger problem. It’s even easier

to stay hooked on those stimulants. Users become so accustomed

to its daily use that it becomes a lifeline. Without it, they can’t

function and lose their mind.

Fun Fact: Eminem wears size XXL clothes

However, this didn’t apply to Marshall, who managed to break free

from his drug and alcohol addictions in early 2008. He was back, he

was motivated. With his new and improved swagger, he released his

first album in five years which was called Relapse. It was a hit and

had a much gentler tone than his previous records.

He had some major singles on this records. “We made you” was the

first official single included with the record and was released on

April 7th. Although Eminem wasn’t able to sell quite as many

records as he done in the past, Relapse was still named one of the

top albums in 2009 and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.

Here was his statement about the release, “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.”

After all, Marshall had become a humbler man and from then on,

wanted to create music that could have a positive effect on the

lives of others, and that’s exactly what he did.

Fun Fact: Eminem cuts his own hair.

In 2010, he released another record, Recovery, which was designed

to outline his life and his attempts to break free from his addiction.

At first, Eminem had thought about naming this record “Relapse 2”;

as he posted a tweet saying so on Twitter. Fans were unsure of his

motives. He believed that Recovery deserved its own title because

it depicted an entirely different point in his life.

In the first week, it sold over 740,000 copies. Although this wasn’t

his record high (in terms of selling records), it still became

Marshall’s sixth consecutive #1 album in the United States and even

carved it’s way over to international waters, reaching #1 in several

other countries as well.

Popular hits on the album included: “Not Afraid” (which was

released on April 29th and rose to #1 on the billboard top 100

charts), “Love the way you lie (which debuted second but quickly

rose to the top as well and was the best selling record in the UK),

and many others. The record had a few insanities but critics loved

the feel that it produced and believed that others could benefit

from such a positive message.

He stated, “I don’t want to go overboard with it, but I do feel like

that if I can help people that have been through similar situations,

then, you know, why not?”

Around this time, when rapper Asher Roth (white rapper) came into

the hip-hop scene, Eminem was asked whether or not it bothered

him. He replied, "I haven't had a chance to, like, really get into

everything, like, really get into what he's about, because I've only

heard a couple songs. There was talk about people saying he

sounded like me, and he was doing this and that and, you know,

trying to take what I do and do it. You know, shit like that. I've

heard things. But the stuff that I've heard from him honestly, which

certainly isn't enough for me to make my own opinion and say,

‘Yeah, he does sound like me' or ‘No, he doesn't.' But the couple of

songs I've heard, I don't really think he does. You know what I

mean? He's doing his own thing. I can respect it, too, because at

the end of the day, I think he's dope."

Today, Eminem tries to spend as much time with his daughter,

Hailie, and also tries to lead a better life overall. “I started

learning how to not be so angry about things, learning how to count

my blessings instead. By doing that, I’ve become a happier person,

instead of self-loathing like I was doing for a while.”

Needless to say…

Eminem is one of most acclaimed rapper/hip artists in history. He

has been through unimaginable pain and has been driven to achieve

great heights in his career. He has achieved ten number one albums

and received more than 33 million track downloads in the United

States alone, millions more when you include international

countries. He has been ranked and listed as one of the best rappers

to ever live in various magazines and his mix of unusual style and

“no filter” rapping can service as evidence as to why he deserves it.

Not only is he a lyrical poet, but he is also one tough cookie. He

has made it through so much controversy in his life, and managed to

come out on top- how many people do you think can actually say

that? My guess is not many.

As long as he lives, Eminem will continue to be an inspiration to

those around him and, if provided the opportunity, will hopefully

continue to express himself through his music and provide us all

with genuine connection.

To learn more about Simple Guides visit

http://www.thesimpleguideto.com

The Simple Guide To Justin Bieber

The Simple Guide To Lady Gaga

The Simple Guide To Eminem

The Simple Guide To Taylor Swift

The Simple Guide to Nicki Minaj

The Simple Guide To Katy Perry