Marshall Bruce Mathers III (Eminem)was born on 17 october 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri. His father abandoned the family when he was 18 months old, and he was raised solely by his mother. By the age of 12, Mathers and his mother had moved between various cities and towns in Missouri, before they settled in Warren, Michigan.As a child, Mathers developed an interest in storytelling and aspired to become a comic book artist before discovering hip hop.Young Marshall became interested in hip hop as a teen after listening to the Beastie Boys. He began performing in amateur shows at the age of 14.In 1991, Mathers was devastated by the suicide of his uncle. He has a tattoo reading "Ronnie R.I.P." on his upper left arm.Ronnie was mentioned in the songs "
Mathers was initially signed to FBT Productions in 1992, run by brothers Jeff and Mark Bass. Mathers also held a minimum-wage job of cooking and dish washing at the restaurant Gilbert's Lodge at St. Clair Shores for some time.In 1996, his debut album Infinite, which was recorded at the Bassmint, a recording studio owned by the Bass Brothers was released under their independent label Web Entertainment.After the release of Infinite, Eminem's personal struggles and abuse of drugs and alcohol culminated in an unsuccessful suicide attempt.
The Slim Shady EP was a debut extended play by Eminem, published by Web Entertainment in 1997. Eminem first introduced his "Slim Shady" personality on this EP, and his lyrics are a marked departure from those found on Infinite, featuring constant references to drug use, sexual acts, mental instability, and over-the-top violence. Another departure was his exploration of more serious themes of dealing with poverty, his direct and self-deprecating response to criticism, and of marital and family difficulties. His flow is also noticeably different than on Infinite; whereas critics claimed he sounded too much like Nas and AZ on that album.Eminem had "realized his musical ambitions were the only way to escape his unhappy life".
After being signed to Aftermath Records in 1998, Eminem released his first major studio album The Slim Shady LP heavily based on the production by Dr. Dre, one year later in 1999.It went on to be one of the most popular albums of 1999, going triple platinum by the end of the year.With the album's popularity came controversy surrounding many of the album's lyrics. In "'97 Bonnie and Clyde", he describes a trip with his infant daughter, disposing of his wife's body. Another song, "Guilty Conscience", ends with his encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover. "Guilty Conscience" marked the beginning of the friendship and musical bond that Dr. Dre and Eminem would share. The two label-mates would later collaborate on a line of hit songs, including "Forgot About Dre" and "What's the Difference" from Dr. Dre's album 2001, "Bitch Phase 2" from The Marshall Mathers LP "Say What You Say" from The Eminem Show, "Encore/Curtain downs", from Encore and "Old Time's Sake" and "Crack a Bottle" from Relapse. Dr. Dre would go on to make at least one guest appearance on all of Eminem's studio albums under the label Aftermath.[28] The album has now been certified 4× platinum by the RIAA. With the release of it, Eminem was accused of imitating the style and subject matter of underground rapper Cage.
The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. It went on to sell 1.76 million copies in its first week, breaking the records set by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle as the fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time as the fastest-selling solo album in United States history.The first single released from the album, "The Real Slim Shady", was a success and created some controversy by insulting celebrities.In his second single, "The Way I Am", he reveals to his fans the pressures from his record company to top "My Name Is" and sell more records. Although Eminem had parodied shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the video "My Name Is", the artists are reportedly on good terms; Manson is name-dropped in "The Way I Am" and also appeared in its music video, as well as performing a remix of the song with Eminem in concert. In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank You"), Eminem attempts to deal with his new-found fame, taking on the persona of a deranged fan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" on The Slim Shady LP.In the music video of "Stan", Eminem was shown writing with his left hand, ending the fan debate over his dominant hand. Q magazine named "Stan" the third-greatest rap song of all time,and the song came tenth in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com. The song has since become highly acclaimed and was ranked 290th in Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. In July 2000, Eminem became the first white person to be featured on the cover of The Source magazine.
Eminem's third major album,The Eminem Show,was released in summer 2002 and proved to be another hit for the rapper reaching number one on the charts and selling well over 1 million copies in its first week of release.The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of 2002.
In 2004, Eminem released his fourth major album, Encore. The album was another chart-topper, as it was driven by the single "Just Lose It", notable for being disrespectful towards Michael Jackson. On October 12, 2004, a week after the release of "Just Lose It", Eminem's first single from 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 trial, plastic surgery, and an incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984.Despite the comedic theme of the lead single, Encore had its fair share of serious subject matter, including the anti-war track "Mosh". On October 25, 2004, a week before the 2004 US Presidential election, Eminem released the video for "Mosh" on the Internet. The song featured 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, including rapper Lloyd Banks, presented as victims of the Bush administration and leading them to the White House.
In September 2007, Eminem called into New York radio station Hot 97 during an interview with 50 Cent and said he was "in limbo" and "debating" about when and if he would release another album. He said, "I'm always working – I'm always in the studio. It feels good right now, the energy of the label. For a while, I didn't want to go back to the studio ... I went through some personal things. I'm coming out of those personal things [and] it feels good.
Eminem made an appearance on his Sirius channel Shade 45 in September 2008 in which he said, "Right now I'm kinda just concentrating on my own stuff, for right now and just banging out tracks and producing a lot of stuff. You know, the more I keep producing the better it seems like I get 'cause I just start knowing stuff." It was around this time that Interscope finally confirmed the existence of a new Eminem album, with Spring 2009 later being stated as the period span in which the album is due. In December 2008, he gave more details on the album, which he recently reported was being titled Relapse. He said, "Me and Dre are back in the lab like the old days, man. Dre will end up producing the majority of the tracks on 'Relapse'.
On March 5, 2009, Eminem reported in a press release that he would be releasing two new albums that year. Relapse, the first album, was released on May 19, while "We Made You", the first official single and its music video, were released on April 7. While Relapse did not manage to sell as well as Eminem's previous efforts, it was still a commercial success that received some critical acclaim, while also re-establishing his presence in the hip hop world. Relapse was named one of the top albums of 2009. Relapse has sold more than five million copies worldwide.On November 19, Eminem announced on his website that Relapse: Refill would be released on December 21. The album was a re-release of the Relapse album with seven bonus tracks, including "Forever" and "Taking My Ball".
On April 14, 2010, Eminem tweeted, "There is no Relapse 2", to his followers. This caused people to believe that he was not releasing an album at all, but it simply meant that the album title would be changed to Recovery. He confirmed this by tweeting, "RECOVERY", with a link to his website. Eminem said, "I had originally planned for Relapse 2 to come out last year. But as I kept recording and working with new producers, the idea of a sequel to Relapse started to make less and less sense to me, and I wanted to make a completely new album. The music on Recovery came out very different from Relapse, and I think it deserves its own title." His seventh studio album, Recovery, was released on June 18. In the US, Recovery sold 741,000 in its first week to land atop the Billboard 200. It became Eminem's sixth consecutive number-one album in the US and achieved international commercial success, charting at number one in several other countries. It stayed at number-one on the US Billboard 200 chart for five consecutive weeks and a total of seven weeks.Recovery was reported by Billboard to be the best-selling album of 2010, making Eminem the first artist in Nielsen SoundScan history to have two year-end best-selling albums.Recovery is the best selling digital album in history. The first single, "Not Afraid", was released on April 29, and debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video was released on June 4."Not Afraid" was followed by a second single, "Love the Way You Lie," which debuted at number 2 and then rose to the top. "Love the Way You Lie" was the best-selling single of 2010 in the United Kingdom even though it did not reach number 1 there, this is the first time this has happened in the UK since 1969. Despite some criticism towards its consistency, Recovery received positive reviews from most music critics. As of November 21, 2010, the album had sold three million copies in the US. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002 giving him two worldwide year end number one albums.With Recovery, Eminem achieved the record for most successive US No.1 albums by a solo artist.

In 2010, Eminem started collaborating with Royce da 5'9" on their first EP as Bad Meets Evil. The duo was formed in 1999 and has reunited. The EP, entitled Hell: The Sequel, was released on June 14, 2011.Eminem was featured on 'Writer's Block' with Royce da 5'9", which was officially released on April 8, 2011.On May 3, 2011, they released the lead single "Fast Lane" for the upcoming sequel, for which a music video was shot. In March 2011, within days of each other, both The Eminem Show and The Marshall Mathers LP were certified diamond by the RIAA. This makes Eminem the only rapper to have two diamond-certified albums.Also, Eminem climbed to the top of the Facebook charts by being the most followed person with more than 60 million "likes", outscoring Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Michael Jackson.Eminem is also the first artist in five years to have two number one albums in a 12-month period: Recovery and the collaborative Hell: The Sequel.Early in 2011, Eminem leaked "2.0 Boys", for which Yelawolf and Slaughterhouse collaborated upon signing to Shady Records in January 2011 and performing it in April 2011. Bad Meets Evil released their next single, "Lighters", on July 6, 2011 and premiered a music video in late August. On August 6, 2011, Eminem took several of his songs throughout his music career to a live performance at the Lollapalooza 2011, performing with various artists featured in their respective songs.
On May 24, 2012, Eminem announced he is working on his next studio album.It is set to be released in 2013.
On June 30, 2012, Eminem talked about the album with DJ Whoo Kid, on his own radio station, Shade 45. He stated that the material is taking shape, and that Dr. Dre will be involved in some way. On August 30, 2012, Slaughterhouse member Royce da 5'9" gave his thoughts on the album, stating "I'm not so sure how the world is going to respond from some of the things that I've heard from him." Close friend and fellow rapper 50 Cent is also confirmed to feature on the album. Producer No I.D. has been confirmed to produce on the album.
In December 2012 it was announced Eminem will headline the Reading Festival 2013 and Leeds Festival, both taking place over the weekend of August 23-25 2013 in England

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