| Interested
in rap from a young age, Mathers began performing as early as fourteen,
later gaining some popularity with a group, Soul Intent. His wife
Kim gave birth to his daughter, Hailie Jade, on Christmas of 1995.
In the same year, he released his first independent album, named
Infinite, 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.
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 album's first single, "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 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 gay rights group GLAAD organized a boycott of the Grammys
against Eminem. Mathers responded to this by singing "Stan"
on-stage with gay singer Elton John, ending the performance by hugging
John to show that he didn't in fact have anything against homosexuals.
Though shocking 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, 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.
Mathers reportedly made the recording after breaking up with his
black girlfriend.
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:
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.
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 "fuck 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. 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 signed a deal with Sirius satellite radio to program a hip-hop
oriented station called Shade 45, which is set to debut on October
28, 2004 [5] (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041019/latu076a_1.html).
He also owns a clothing line called "Shady Ltd." and runs
the music label Shady Records with signed artists including 50 Cent,
D12 and Obie Trice.
Encore
Eminem originally set his release date for his latest album, Encore,
to be November 16, 2004. However, the leakage of the album to the
Internet forced him to put forward his release date to November
12, 2004 (in a similar fashion to the release of his last studio
album, The Eminem Show, in 2002). As the charts in the UK only start
on Mondays, and that November 12 was a Friday, this meant he had
only three days to compete for the #1 position that week. However,
with the huge anticipation and pre-order sales for the album, this
still allowed him to reach the top spot there, beating albums from
top-selling artists like Britney Spears and Westlife. He also didn't
have a full chart week for the debut of the album in the US, but
he was still able to get to #1 and beat a greatest hits compilation
by Shania Twain, which did have a full chart week. He also topped
the Australia albums chart.
Music
Videos
The Slim Shady LP:
Just Don't Give A Fuck
Role Model
My Name Is...
Guilty Conscience
The Marshall Mathers LP:
Real Slim Shady
The Way I Am
Stan
Devil's Night (with D12):
Shit On You
Purple Pills
Fight Music
The Eminem Show:
Without Me
Cleaning Out My Closet
White America
Sing For The Moment
Superman (on 8 Mile DVD only)
8 Mile O.S.T.:
Lose Yourself
D12 World (with D12):
My Band
40 Oz.
How Come
Git Up
Encore:
Just Lose It
Mosh
Solo discography
Albums and EPs
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 (9X Platinum); #1 UK
The Eminem Show (2002) #1 US (8X Platinum); #1 UK
8 Mile Soundtrack (2002) #1 US
Encore (2004) #1 US; #1 UK
Hit singles
1999 "My Name Is..." #36 US; #2 UK
1999 "Guilty Conscience" (feat. Dr. Dre) #5 UK
2000 "Forgot about Dre" (Dr. Dre feat. Eminem) #25 US;
#7 UK
2000 "The Real Slim Shady" #4 US; #1 UK
2000 "The Way I Am" #8 UK
2000 "Stan" (feat. Dido) #1 UK
2002 "Without Me" #2 US; #1 UK
2002 "Cleanin' out My Closet" #4 US; #4 UK
2002 "Lose Yourself" #1 US; #1 UK
2003 "Sing for the Moment" #14 US; #6 UK
2003 "Superman" #15 US
2003 "Business" #6 UK
2004 "Just Lose It" #6 US; #1 UK
He also had a few major hit singles and albums as part of D12.
|
