Eminem Facts |
How He became famous
As Eminem's reputation grew, he was recruited by several rap groups; the first of these was the New Jacks. After they disbanded he joined Soul Intent, who released a single in 1995 featuring Proof.[2] The two rappers formed D12, a six-member ensemble resembling a Wu-Tang-style collective more than a regularly performing group.[15] Eminem had his first run-in with the law at age 20, when he was arrested for his involvement in a drive-by shooting with a paintball gun. The case was dismissed when the victim did not appear in court.[14]
Eminem was soon signed to Jeff and Mark Bass' FBT Productions, recording his debut album Infinite for their independent Web Entertainment label.[25] One lyrical subject ofInfinite was his struggle to raise his newborn daughter, Hailie Jade Scott Mathers, on little money. During this period Eminem's rhyming style, primarily inspired by rappers Nas andAZ, lacked the comically violent slant for which he would later be known.[26] Infinite was largely ignored by Detroit disc jockeys, and the feedback he did receive ("Why don't you go into rock and roll?") led him to craft angrier, moodier tracks.[15] At this time Eminem and Kim Scott lived in a crime-ridden neighborhood, and their house was robbed several times.[15] He cooked and washed dishes for the minimum wage at Gilbert's Lodge, a family-style restaurant at St. Clair Shores.[27] Described by his former boss as becoming a model employee, he worked 60 hours a week for six months after Hailie's birth.[14] He was once fired shortly before Christmas, and later said, "It was, like, five days before Christmas, which is Hailie's birthday. I had, like, forty dollars to get her something."[15] After the release of Infinite, his personal problems and substance abuse culminated in a suicide attempt.[2] By March 1997 he was fired from Gilbert’s Lodge for the last time, and lived in his mother's mobile home with Kim and Hailie.[14]
Eminem in Germany, 1999
Eminem attracted more attention when he developed Slim Shady, a sadistic, violent alter ego. The character, "a drug-dealing, bloodthirsty thug who spits furious rhymes about murder, rape, drugs and living by the law of the urban jungle", allowed him to express his anger.[14] In the spring of 1997 he recorded his debut EP, the Slim Shady EP, which was released that winter by Web Entertainment.[15] The EP, with frequent references to drug use, sexual acts, mental instability and violence, also explored the more-serious themes of dealing with poverty and marital and family difficulties and revealed his direct, self-deprecating response to criticism.[2] Hip-hop magazine The Source featured Eminem in its "Unsigned Hype" column in March 1998.[28]
After he was evicted from his home, Eminem went to Los Angeles to compete in the 1997 Rap Olympics (an annual, nationwide battle rapcompetition). He placed second, and Interscope Records staff in attendance sent a copy of the Slim Shady EP to company CEO Jimmy Iovine. Iovine played the tape for record producer Dr. Dre, founder of Aftermath Entertainment. Dre recalled, "In my entire career in the music industry, I have never found anything from a demo tape or a CD. When Jimmy played this, I said, 'Find him. Now.'" Although he was criticized by associates for hiring a white rapper, he was confident in his decision: "I don't give a fuck if you're purple; if you can kick it, I'm working with you."[15] Eminem, who had idolized Dre since listening to N.W.A as a teenager, was nervous about working with him on an album: "I didn't want to be starstruck or kiss his ass too much ... I'm just a little white boy from Detroit. I had never seen stars, let alone Dr. Dre."[29] He became more comfortable working with Dre after a series of productive recording sessions.[30]
Eminem released The Slim Shady LP in February 1999. Although it was one of the year's most popular albums (certified triple platinum by the end of the year),[31] he was accused of imitating the style and subject matter of underground rapper Cage.[32][33] Its popularity was accompanied by controversy over its lyrics; in "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" Eminem describes a trip with his infant daughter when he disposes of his wife's body, also "Guilty Conscience" which encourages a man to murder his wife and her lover. Guilty Conscience marked the beginning of a friendship and musical bond between Dr. Dre and Eminem. The label-mates later collaborated on a number of hit songs ("Forgot About Dre" and "What's the Difference" from Dr. Dre's album 2001, "Bitch Please II" from The Marshall Mathers LP, "Say What You Say" from The Eminem Show, "Encore/Curtains Down" from Encore, and "Old Time's Sake" and "Crack a Bottle" from Relapse), and Dre made at least one guest appearance on each of Eminem's Aftermath albums.[34] The Slim Shady LP has been certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.
2000–02: The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem ShowThe Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. It sold 1,760,000 copies in its first week, breaking US records held by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle for fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time for fastest-selling solo album.[35][36] The first single from the album, "The Real Slim Shady", was a success despite controversies about Eminem's insults and dubious claims about celebrities (for example, that Christina Aguilera had performed oral sex on Fred Durst and Carson Daly).[37] In his second single, "The Way I Am", he reveals the pressure from his record company to top "My Name Is". Although Eminem parodied shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the music video for "My Name Is", they are reportedly on good terms; Manson is mentioned in "The Way I Am", appeared in its music video and has performed a live remix of the song with Eminem.[38] In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank You") Eminem tries to deal with his new fame, assuming the persona of a deranged fan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend (mirroring "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" from The Slim Shady LP).[23] Q magazine called "Stan" the third-greatest rap song of all time,[39] and it was ranked tenth in a Top40-Charts.com survey.[40] The song has since been ranked 296th on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.[41] In July 2000, Eminem was the first white artist to appear on the cover of The Source magazine.[28] The Marshall Mathers LP has been certified 11× platinum by the RIAA.
Eminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards ceremony in 2001,[42] with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD, an organization which considered Eminem's lyrics homophobic) condemning John's decision to perform with Eminem.[43] Entertainment Weekly placed the appearance on its end-of-decade "best-of" list: "It was the hug heard 'round the world. Eminem, under fire for homophobic lyrics, shared the stage with a gay icon for a performance of "Stan" that would have been memorable in any context."[44] On February 21, the day of the awards ceremony, GLAAD held a protest outside the Staples Center (the ceremony's venue).[45] In 2001 Eminem appeared in theUp in Smoke Tour with rappers Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and Ice Cube[46] and the Family Values Tour with Limp Bizkit,[47] headlining the Anger Management Tour with Papa Roach, Ludacris and Xzibit.
The Eminem Show was released in May 2002. It was another success, reaching number one on the charts and selling over 1.332 million copies during its first full week.[31] The album's single, "Without Me", denigrates boy bands, Limp Bizkit, Dick and Lynne Cheney, Moby and others. The Eminem Show (certified 10× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America) examines the effects of the rapper's rise to fame, his relationship with his wife and daughter and his status in the hip-hop community, addressing an assault charge brought by a bouncer he saw kissing his wife in 2000. Although several tracks are clearly angry, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic found The Eminem Showless inflammatory than The Marshall Mathers LP.[48] L. Brent Bozell III, who had criticized The Marshall Mathers LP for misogynistic lyrics, noted The Eminem Show 's extensive use of obscenity and called the rapper "Eminef" for the prevalence of the word "motherfucker" on the album.[49] The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of 2002.[50]
2003–07: Encore and musical hiatus
On the Anger Management Tour promoting Encore
On December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service said that it was "looking into" allegations that Eminem had threatened the President of the United States.[51] The cause for concern was the lyrics of "We As Americans" ("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"), which was later released on a bonus CD with the deluxe edition of Encore.[52]
Encore, released in 2004, was another success. Its sales were partially driven by the first single, "Just Lose It", which contained slurs aboutMichael Jackson. On October 12, 2004, a week after "Just Lose It"'s release, Jackson phoned the Los Angeles-based Steve Harvey radio show to report his displeasure with its video (which parodies Jackson's child molestation trial, plastic surgery and the 1984 incident when Jackson's hair caught fire during the filming of a commercial). In the song Eminem says, "That's not a stab at Michael / That's just a metaphor / I'm just psycho". Many of Jackson's friends and supporters spoke out against the video, including Stevie Wonder (who described it as "kicking a man while he's down" and "bullshit")[53] and Steve Harvey (who said, "Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back").[53] The video also parodied Pee-wee Herman, MC Hammer and Madonna during her Blond Ambition period.[54] "Weird Al" Yankovic, who parodied the Eminem song "Lose Yourself" on "Couch Potato" for his 2003 album Poodle Hat, told the Chicago Sun-Times about Jackson's protest: "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."[55] Although Black Entertainment Television stopped playing the video, MTV announced that it would continue to air it. The Source, through CEO Raymond "Benzino" Scott, called for the video to be pulled, the song removed from the album and Eminem to apologize publicly to Jackson.[56] In 2007 Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music from Viacom, giving him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira, Beck and others.[57]
Despite its lead single's humorous theme, Encore explored serious subject matter with the anti-war song "Mosh". The song criticized President George W. Bush as "This weapon of mass destruction that we call our president", with lyrics including "Fuck Bush".[58] On October 25, 2004, a week before the 2004 US Presidential election, Eminem released the video for "Mosh" on the Internet.[59] In it, Eminem gathers an army (including rapper Lloyd Banks) of Bush-administration victims and leads them to the White House. When they break in, it is learned that they are there to register to vote; the video ends with "VOTE Tuesday November 2". After Bush's reelection, the video's ending was changed to Eminem and the protesters invading the White House during a speech by the president.[60]
In 2005, industry insiders speculated that Eminem was considering ending his rapping career after six years and several multi-platinum albums. Rumors began early in the year about a double album to be released late that year, entitled The Funeral;[61] the greatest hits album, entitled Curtain Call: The Hits, was released in December. In July the Detroit Free Press reported a possible final bow for Eminem as a solo performer, quoting members of his inner circle as saying that he would embrace the roles of producer and label executive. The day of Curtain Call: The Hits 's release, Eminem appeared on WKQI's "Mojo in the Morning" show. Denying that he was retiring, he suggested he would take a break as an artist: "I'm at a point in my life right now where I feel like I don't know where my career is going ... This is the reason that we called it 'Curtain Call', because this could be the final thing. We don't know."[62] The following year, Eminem released Eminem Presents: The Re-Up on Shady Records.
In 2005 the rapper was ranked 58th in Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America.[63] Goldberg cited a 2001 column by Bob Herbert of The New York Times, in which Herbert wrote "In Eminem's world, all women are whores and he is eager to rape and murder them",[64] and the song "No One's Iller" from the Slim Shady EP as examples of the rapper's misogyny.[65] That summer Eminem began his first US concert tour in three years, with the Anger Management 3 Tour featuring 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil Jon,D12, Obie Trice and The Alchemist. In August he canceled the European leg of the tour, later announcing that he had entered drug rehabilitation for treatment of a "dependency on sleep medication".[66] Curtain Call: The Hits was released December 6, 2005 by Aftermath Entertainment.[67] During its first week it sold nearly 441,000 copies in the US, and was Eminem's fourth consecutive number-one album on the Billboard Hot 200.[68] The album has been certified double platinum by the RIAA.[69]
Every link is from Wikipedia.com and please don't sue for copyright laws.
-Holly Anne
Eminem was soon signed to Jeff and Mark Bass' FBT Productions, recording his debut album Infinite for their independent Web Entertainment label.[25] One lyrical subject ofInfinite was his struggle to raise his newborn daughter, Hailie Jade Scott Mathers, on little money. During this period Eminem's rhyming style, primarily inspired by rappers Nas andAZ, lacked the comically violent slant for which he would later be known.[26] Infinite was largely ignored by Detroit disc jockeys, and the feedback he did receive ("Why don't you go into rock and roll?") led him to craft angrier, moodier tracks.[15] At this time Eminem and Kim Scott lived in a crime-ridden neighborhood, and their house was robbed several times.[15] He cooked and washed dishes for the minimum wage at Gilbert's Lodge, a family-style restaurant at St. Clair Shores.[27] Described by his former boss as becoming a model employee, he worked 60 hours a week for six months after Hailie's birth.[14] He was once fired shortly before Christmas, and later said, "It was, like, five days before Christmas, which is Hailie's birthday. I had, like, forty dollars to get her something."[15] After the release of Infinite, his personal problems and substance abuse culminated in a suicide attempt.[2] By March 1997 he was fired from Gilbert’s Lodge for the last time, and lived in his mother's mobile home with Kim and Hailie.[14]
Eminem in Germany, 1999
Eminem attracted more attention when he developed Slim Shady, a sadistic, violent alter ego. The character, "a drug-dealing, bloodthirsty thug who spits furious rhymes about murder, rape, drugs and living by the law of the urban jungle", allowed him to express his anger.[14] In the spring of 1997 he recorded his debut EP, the Slim Shady EP, which was released that winter by Web Entertainment.[15] The EP, with frequent references to drug use, sexual acts, mental instability and violence, also explored the more-serious themes of dealing with poverty and marital and family difficulties and revealed his direct, self-deprecating response to criticism.[2] Hip-hop magazine The Source featured Eminem in its "Unsigned Hype" column in March 1998.[28]
After he was evicted from his home, Eminem went to Los Angeles to compete in the 1997 Rap Olympics (an annual, nationwide battle rapcompetition). He placed second, and Interscope Records staff in attendance sent a copy of the Slim Shady EP to company CEO Jimmy Iovine. Iovine played the tape for record producer Dr. Dre, founder of Aftermath Entertainment. Dre recalled, "In my entire career in the music industry, I have never found anything from a demo tape or a CD. When Jimmy played this, I said, 'Find him. Now.'" Although he was criticized by associates for hiring a white rapper, he was confident in his decision: "I don't give a fuck if you're purple; if you can kick it, I'm working with you."[15] Eminem, who had idolized Dre since listening to N.W.A as a teenager, was nervous about working with him on an album: "I didn't want to be starstruck or kiss his ass too much ... I'm just a little white boy from Detroit. I had never seen stars, let alone Dr. Dre."[29] He became more comfortable working with Dre after a series of productive recording sessions.[30]
Eminem released The Slim Shady LP in February 1999. Although it was one of the year's most popular albums (certified triple platinum by the end of the year),[31] he was accused of imitating the style and subject matter of underground rapper Cage.[32][33] Its popularity was accompanied by controversy over its lyrics; in "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" Eminem describes a trip with his infant daughter when he disposes of his wife's body, also "Guilty Conscience" which encourages a man to murder his wife and her lover. Guilty Conscience marked the beginning of a friendship and musical bond between Dr. Dre and Eminem. The label-mates later collaborated on a number of hit songs ("Forgot About Dre" and "What's the Difference" from Dr. Dre's album 2001, "Bitch Please II" from The Marshall Mathers LP, "Say What You Say" from The Eminem Show, "Encore/Curtains Down" from Encore, and "Old Time's Sake" and "Crack a Bottle" from Relapse), and Dre made at least one guest appearance on each of Eminem's Aftermath albums.[34] The Slim Shady LP has been certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.
2000–02: The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem ShowThe Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. It sold 1,760,000 copies in its first week, breaking US records held by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle for fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time for fastest-selling solo album.[35][36] The first single from the album, "The Real Slim Shady", was a success despite controversies about Eminem's insults and dubious claims about celebrities (for example, that Christina Aguilera had performed oral sex on Fred Durst and Carson Daly).[37] In his second single, "The Way I Am", he reveals the pressure from his record company to top "My Name Is". Although Eminem parodied shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the music video for "My Name Is", they are reportedly on good terms; Manson is mentioned in "The Way I Am", appeared in its music video and has performed a live remix of the song with Eminem.[38] In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank You") Eminem tries to deal with his new fame, assuming the persona of a deranged fan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend (mirroring "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" from The Slim Shady LP).[23] Q magazine called "Stan" the third-greatest rap song of all time,[39] and it was ranked tenth in a Top40-Charts.com survey.[40] The song has since been ranked 296th on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.[41] In July 2000, Eminem was the first white artist to appear on the cover of The Source magazine.[28] The Marshall Mathers LP has been certified 11× platinum by the RIAA.
Eminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards ceremony in 2001,[42] with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD, an organization which considered Eminem's lyrics homophobic) condemning John's decision to perform with Eminem.[43] Entertainment Weekly placed the appearance on its end-of-decade "best-of" list: "It was the hug heard 'round the world. Eminem, under fire for homophobic lyrics, shared the stage with a gay icon for a performance of "Stan" that would have been memorable in any context."[44] On February 21, the day of the awards ceremony, GLAAD held a protest outside the Staples Center (the ceremony's venue).[45] In 2001 Eminem appeared in theUp in Smoke Tour with rappers Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and Ice Cube[46] and the Family Values Tour with Limp Bizkit,[47] headlining the Anger Management Tour with Papa Roach, Ludacris and Xzibit.
The Eminem Show was released in May 2002. It was another success, reaching number one on the charts and selling over 1.332 million copies during its first full week.[31] The album's single, "Without Me", denigrates boy bands, Limp Bizkit, Dick and Lynne Cheney, Moby and others. The Eminem Show (certified 10× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America) examines the effects of the rapper's rise to fame, his relationship with his wife and daughter and his status in the hip-hop community, addressing an assault charge brought by a bouncer he saw kissing his wife in 2000. Although several tracks are clearly angry, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic found The Eminem Showless inflammatory than The Marshall Mathers LP.[48] L. Brent Bozell III, who had criticized The Marshall Mathers LP for misogynistic lyrics, noted The Eminem Show 's extensive use of obscenity and called the rapper "Eminef" for the prevalence of the word "motherfucker" on the album.[49] The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of 2002.[50]
2003–07: Encore and musical hiatus
On the Anger Management Tour promoting Encore
On December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service said that it was "looking into" allegations that Eminem had threatened the President of the United States.[51] The cause for concern was the lyrics of "We As Americans" ("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"), which was later released on a bonus CD with the deluxe edition of Encore.[52]
Encore, released in 2004, was another success. Its sales were partially driven by the first single, "Just Lose It", which contained slurs aboutMichael Jackson. On October 12, 2004, a week after "Just Lose It"'s release, Jackson phoned the Los Angeles-based Steve Harvey radio show to report his displeasure with its video (which parodies Jackson's child molestation trial, plastic surgery and the 1984 incident when Jackson's hair caught fire during the filming of a commercial). In the song Eminem says, "That's not a stab at Michael / That's just a metaphor / I'm just psycho". Many of Jackson's friends and supporters spoke out against the video, including Stevie Wonder (who described it as "kicking a man while he's down" and "bullshit")[53] and Steve Harvey (who said, "Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back").[53] The video also parodied Pee-wee Herman, MC Hammer and Madonna during her Blond Ambition period.[54] "Weird Al" Yankovic, who parodied the Eminem song "Lose Yourself" on "Couch Potato" for his 2003 album Poodle Hat, told the Chicago Sun-Times about Jackson's protest: "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."[55] Although Black Entertainment Television stopped playing the video, MTV announced that it would continue to air it. The Source, through CEO Raymond "Benzino" Scott, called for the video to be pulled, the song removed from the album and Eminem to apologize publicly to Jackson.[56] In 2007 Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music from Viacom, giving him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira, Beck and others.[57]
Despite its lead single's humorous theme, Encore explored serious subject matter with the anti-war song "Mosh". The song criticized President George W. Bush as "This weapon of mass destruction that we call our president", with lyrics including "Fuck Bush".[58] On October 25, 2004, a week before the 2004 US Presidential election, Eminem released the video for "Mosh" on the Internet.[59] In it, Eminem gathers an army (including rapper Lloyd Banks) of Bush-administration victims and leads them to the White House. When they break in, it is learned that they are there to register to vote; the video ends with "VOTE Tuesday November 2". After Bush's reelection, the video's ending was changed to Eminem and the protesters invading the White House during a speech by the president.[60]
In 2005, industry insiders speculated that Eminem was considering ending his rapping career after six years and several multi-platinum albums. Rumors began early in the year about a double album to be released late that year, entitled The Funeral;[61] the greatest hits album, entitled Curtain Call: The Hits, was released in December. In July the Detroit Free Press reported a possible final bow for Eminem as a solo performer, quoting members of his inner circle as saying that he would embrace the roles of producer and label executive. The day of Curtain Call: The Hits 's release, Eminem appeared on WKQI's "Mojo in the Morning" show. Denying that he was retiring, he suggested he would take a break as an artist: "I'm at a point in my life right now where I feel like I don't know where my career is going ... This is the reason that we called it 'Curtain Call', because this could be the final thing. We don't know."[62] The following year, Eminem released Eminem Presents: The Re-Up on Shady Records.
In 2005 the rapper was ranked 58th in Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America.[63] Goldberg cited a 2001 column by Bob Herbert of The New York Times, in which Herbert wrote "In Eminem's world, all women are whores and he is eager to rape and murder them",[64] and the song "No One's Iller" from the Slim Shady EP as examples of the rapper's misogyny.[65] That summer Eminem began his first US concert tour in three years, with the Anger Management 3 Tour featuring 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil Jon,D12, Obie Trice and The Alchemist. In August he canceled the European leg of the tour, later announcing that he had entered drug rehabilitation for treatment of a "dependency on sleep medication".[66] Curtain Call: The Hits was released December 6, 2005 by Aftermath Entertainment.[67] During its first week it sold nearly 441,000 copies in the US, and was Eminem's fourth consecutive number-one album on the Billboard Hot 200.[68] The album has been certified double platinum by the RIAA.[69]
Every link is from Wikipedia.com and please don't sue for copyright laws.
-Holly Anne