Discovered by rapper and producer Dr. Dre, Eminem is known as one of the most skillful in the industry, becoming a crossover sensation with his debut single "My Name Is", and earning respect for his lyrical talent. He is noted for his ability to change his vocal pace and style multiple times within one song without losing the beat, and has been praised for his skill in alliteration and assonance.



He is infamous for the controversy surrounding many of his lyrics. With the enormous success of his sophomore album The Marshall Mathers LP following its release in May 2000, and its subsequent nomination for four Grammy awards including Album of the Year, critics such as GLAAD denounced his lyrics as homophobic, while others protested that it was also extremely misogynistic and promoted violence.

His most recent solo album is Curtain Call: The Hits, a compilation covering many of his previous hit songs, which includes three new tracks. Mathers has stated that he is taking a break from solo work but is in no way retiring, as he continues to produce for and collaborate with Shady/Aftermath and G-Unit artists as well as rappers under his Shady Records label.

Early life

Mathers was born in St. Joseph, Missouri (near Kansas City) to parents Deborah "Debbie" Mathers-Briggs and Marshall Mathers Junior, and spent most of his childhood moving back and forth between Kansas City, and Metro Detroit. His father abandoned the family when Marshall was 15 months old, and the two have not had contact since, (attempts by his father to contact him after his rise to fame have been rejected).Constantly moving from home to home, he frequently changed schools, often finding himself to be an outcast in the new communities, and frequently fell victim to bullying. On the song "Brain Damage," he recounted (in greatly exaggerated form) being assaulted in grade school by a classmate named D'Angelo Bailey. Bailey sued soon after the song was released[3], accusing Mathers of libel and privacy infringement; the suit was eventually dismissed in court.

By most accounts, the Mathers family was extremely poor, which was the primary reason for their constant moves, during which Marshall and his mother would often find themselves living in public housing, mobile homes, and under the care of relatives. During this time, Debbie Mathers was legally taking the prescription drugs Vicodin and Valium; Mathers later claimed in numerous interviews and songs that his mother was abusing the drugs, to which she retaliated with a lawsuit pressing defamation charges (see below). In the song "Cleaning Out My Closet" (The Eminem Show, 2002), Mathers also accuses his mother of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy, adding that "my whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn't." This was not the first time someone had suggested she had the disorder; a social worker had made similar comments following a 1996 investigation of her mistreatment of her second child, Nathan Samra-Mathers.

Mathers was especially close to his uncle, Ronald Dean "Ronnie" Polkingharn, who was born just three months before Mathers, on July 27, 1972. Polkingharn introduced Mathers to hip hop and the two were best friends. On December 14, 1991, a 19 year old Polkingharn committed suicide, an event which Mathers has said was devastating, not just to him but to the entire extended family. Ronnie Nelson's older brother Steven suffered a stroke as a result of the stress. Mathers was so distraught he abandoned his musical career for a year. References to Ronnie's death appear in several songs, including "Stan", "Cleaning Out My Closet" and "My Dad's Gone Crazy." Mathers has a tattoo on his upper left arm that says "Ronnie R.I.P."

Before dropping out of Lincoln High School in Warren at the age of 17 (after failing ninth grade three times), Mathers made a number of significant acquaintances at the school. This included the late rapper Proof, who was to become one of his closest friends, and future wife Kimberly Ann "Kim" Scott, with whom he soon developed a long-term relationship. When she became pregnant, Mathers started working on getting a record deal to support his new family; He discusses this in "Never Far" (Infinite, 1996), saying "I got a baby on the way, I don't even got a car...I still stay with my moms...we gotta make some hit records or something [because] I'm tired of being broke..." When the Infinite album failed to generate the revenue and acclaim he had hoped for, she ended their relationship, preventing him from seeing his newborn child, a daughter named Hailie Jade Scott (born December 25, 1995); distraught, he attempted suicide with an overdose of Tylenol. After the attempt failed, he resumed his efforts to succeed in the music industry and reconcile with his ex-girlfriend. He ultimately succeeded in doing both, marrying her on June 14, 1999, in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Mathers would go on to mention his daughter extensively in some of his songs, including "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" (The Slim Shady LP, 1999), which takes the form of a one-sided dialogue with Hailie, as well as "Hailie's Song" (The Eminem Show, 2002), "Mockingbird" (??Encore??, 2004), and "When I'm Gone" (Curtain Call: The Hits, 2005), all of which are proclamations of his love and dedication to her. In addition, he samples her voice in the track "My Dad's Gone Crazy" (The Eminem Show, 2002).