Eminem

Marshall Bruce Mathers III, known professionally as Eminem, was born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri. Raised largely in working-class neighborhoods in Detroit by his mother Debbie after his father abandoned the family, he began rapping at the age of 14 under the name M&M, later stylized as Eminem.^[1]

He built his reputation through Detroit's underground battle rap scene throughout the early and mid-1990s, an environment that sharpened his facility with wordplay and confrontational delivery. As a white rapper in a predominantly Black genre, he faced both skepticism and unusual scrutiny from the beginning of his career.

His breakthrough came when he was discovered by Dr. Dre at the 1997 Rap Olympics battle rap competition. Dre signed him to Aftermath Entertainment, and the resulting collaboration produced The Slim Shady LP in 1999, which brought Eminem to mainstream prominence with its darkly satirical alter ego Slim Shady.^[2]

By the time The Marshall Mathers LP was recorded in 1999 and released in May 2000, Eminem was experiencing turbulence on multiple fronts: the pressures of rapid fame, a volatile marriage to his longtime girlfriend Kim Scott (whom he married in June 1999 and filed to divorce by August 2000), and the responsibility of raising his daughter Hailie Jade, born December 25, 1995.^[3] That album, and specifically the song "Stan," drew directly on his discomfort with fans who had taken his transgressive persona literally.

The Marshall Mathers LP set a record at the time as the fastest-selling rap album in the United States, and won Best Rap Album at the 43rd Grammy Awards in 2001. The Grammy ceremony included a celebrated and controversial performance of "Stan" with Elton John, which ended with the two artists embracing on stage.^[3]

Over the following two decades, Eminem became one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with subsequent albums including The Eminem Show (2002), Encore (2004), Relapse (2009), Recovery (2010), and The Death of Slim Shady (2024). His film 8 Mile (2002) and its accompanying song "Lose Yourself" brought him further critical recognition, earning him an Academy Award for Best Original Song.^[1]

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. His song "Stan" is widely considered one of the most narratively innovative tracks in hip-hop history, and gave rise to the word "stan" entering both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster as a common noun and verb.