In a few short months, Eminem has gone from being one of the
most heralded emcees in independent hip-hop to one of the most
provocative, controversial rappers in contemporary pop music.
The overnight success of his debut album, The
Slim Shady LP, literally rocked the rap world, making him
one of the biggest music success stories of 1999. But Eminem is
more than the latest rap artist to blow up. He's spent the last
several years paying his dues, and his lyrics, which cover topics
such as poverty and single parenthood, reflect a rough upbringing.
His unlikely acceptance by the pop mainstream has made some wonder
how his popularity will affect the future of hip-hop music.
Before he had the world singing along to "My Name Is …,"
he was Marshall Mathers, a poor kid growing up in Warren, Mich.
"It's like the real, stereotypical, trailer park, white trash,"
Eminem told Rap Pages earlier this year. As a child, he and his
mother moved constantly, staying at relatives' homes in places
as disparate as Warren and Kansas City, Mo. As a result, Marshall
found it difficult to make friends, and he retreated into his
comic books and television. "I didn't really start opening
up until eighth grade, going into ninth," he said.
When Mathers was 12, his mother finally settled down on the east
side of Detroit. There, he attended Lincoln Junior High School
and Osbourne High School, hanging out with friends and listening
to artists like LL Cool J and the 2 Live Crew. He battled against
other rappers at his high school, and quickly gained a reputation
as a nimble rhymer. But his penchant for skipping school led him
to fail the ninth grade. After dropping out of high school, he
held down several odd jobs, while continuing to work on his craft.
"I tried to go back to school five years ago," he said,
"but I couldn't do it. I just wanted to rap and be a star
one day."
Mathers rapped in several groups such as Basement Productions,
the New Jacks, and Sole Intent, before deciding to go solo. In
1997, he released an album, Infinite, through a local company
called FBT Productions; it was met with derision from the local
hip-hop community. "I was getting a lot of feedback saying
I sounded like Nas or
Jay-Z," he admitted. Despite the criticism, Eminem continued to
promote himself through shows and appearances at radio stations
and freestyle competitions across the nation. His perseverance
garnered him a notice in the Source's influential "Unsigned
Hype" column. Later that year, he won the 1997 Wake Up Show
Freestyle Performer of the Year from L.A. DJs Sway and Tech, and
earned second place in Rap Sheet magazine's "Rap Olympics,"
an annual freestyle rap competition.
In 1998, Eminem put out The Slim Shady EP, which contained the
original version of "Just Don't Give A …" "Slim
Shady is the evil side of me, the sarcastic, foul-mouthed side
of me," he said during an interview with the Source. The
EP made him an underground star, and Eminem was invited to appear
on underground MC Shabaam Sahdeeq's "Five Star Generals"
single, Kid Rock's Devil Without a Cause, and other rap releases.
At the end of the year, Eminem put out a popular 12-inch, "Nuttin'
to Do/ Scary Movies," with fellow Detroit rapper Royce the
5'9".
Meanwhile, a copy of The Slim Shady EP made its way into the
hands of Dr. Dre, the legendary creator of The Chronic and N.W.A.,
and current president of Aftermath Entertainment. Dr. Dre adopted
the young rapper as his protégé and quickly signed
Eminem to his label. The two began preparing The Slim Shady EP
for a full-fledged release, adding songs like "My Name Is
…" and "Guity Conscience." Early in 1999,
Eminem made the world take notice with his charismatic video for
"My Name Is …" parodying everyone from Marilyn
Manson to the President of the United States. Shortly afterward,
The Slim Shady LP debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Album Chart.
Its sensationalistic depiction of rampant drug use, rape, sex,
and violence horrified some; equally disturbing was Eminem's various
four-letter-word insults directed at his mother and songs like
"'97 Bonnie and Clyde," where Eminem fantasized about
killing the mother of his child.
In defense, Eminem claimed that he was just speaking his mind.
"I do feel like I'm coming from a standpoint where people
don't realize there are a lot of poor white people," he explained
in the Source. "Rap music kept my mind off all the bulls--t
I had to go through." His cynical take on life struck a chord
with millions of rap fans, and drove The
Slim Shady LP to double-platinum-plus sales. He began to tour,
including a solo jaunt with the Beatnuts and Mixmaster Mike.
While most in the hip-hop community greeted Eminem with open
arms, others took a more cautious approach, wondering why rock
stations across the country who never played rap music added "My
Name Is …" to their playlists. Was it because Eminem
was the first "legitimate" white rapper to gain widespread
popularity? "I'm white in a music started by black people.
I'm not ignorant to the culture and I'm not trying to take anything
away from the culture," he said in his defense. "But
no one has a choice where they grew up or what color they are.
If you're a rich kid or a ghetto kid you have no control over
your circumstance. The only control you have is to get out of
your situation or stay in it."
Eminem's follow-up, 2000's Marshall
Mathers LP, was an even bigger phenomenon, selling almost
2 million copies in its first week of release alone, thus becoming
the fastest-selling hip-hop album of all time. However, the album
stirred up even more of an uproar than its predecessor, making
Mathers the target of much public hatred. Among other conflicts
and controversies, the album created a feud with pop princess
Christina
Aguilera (the single "The Real Slim Shady" alleged that she had
performed oral sex on both
Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst and MTV's Carson Daly); led his mother to file a
defamation lawsuit against him (a judge later dismissed the case);
and generated accusations of homophobia and sexism mostly centering
around the songs "Kill You" and "Kim" (the
latter a rant about the mother of his child, whom he had recently
married but would soon divorce, and later reconcile with yet again).
But Eminem thrived on the controversy, becoming an even bigger
superstar and racking up a surprising number of Grammy nominations
in 2001, much to the chagrin of his many outspoken detractors.
And he kept people guessing about how much of the Slim Shady "character"
was really the real deal, when he performed a duet version of
his single "Stan" with the openly gay
Elton John at the Grammys ceremony, even warmly hugging Elton onstage. Mathers
won three Grammys that night--Best Rap Solo Performance (for "The
Real Slim Shady"), Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group
(for his work on the Dr. Dre duet "Forgot About Dre"),
and Best Rap Album (for The Marshall Mathers LP)--adding to the
two statuettes he'd won the previous year for "My Name Is"
(Best Rap Solo Performance) and The Slim Shady LP (Best Rap Album).
There seemed no stopping Eminem--not even convictions on weapons
and assault charges (stemming from separate incidents involving
his estranged wife with another man and rival Detroit rap act
Insane Clown Posse). Eminem was sentenced to community service
and kept on recording, releasing Devil's Night with old group
D12 in 2001 and then The
Eminem Show, one of the most critically heralded albums of
2002 and his most personal work yet. He also revealed more of
his real-life persona in 8 Mile, a Rocky-style feelgood flick
lensed by L.A. Confidential/Wonder Boys director Curtis Hanson
that presented a sort of cleaned-up version of Eminem's rags-to-riches
life story. Eminem put on such an impressive performance in the
film that there was actually speculation that he would receive
a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars in 2003 (In the end, he
went home with an Oscar for 'best song').
While Eminem may have seemed like a novelty act at first--with
his shocking, four-letter lyrics, cartoonish bad-boy image, and,
of course, pale skin color (a real anomaly in hip-hop)--he has
since established himself as one of the most important artists
of his time and a true force to be reckoned with, continuing to
cross both color boundaries and genre boundaries with his edgy,
rock-tinged raps. With his turbulent personal life, powder-keg
temper, and tendency to tangle with the law, it is still uncertain
how long his career will last before he burns out, but it's already
obvious that his music had made history and will long outlast
any controversy that dogs him.
