Occupation:
Rapper
Date of Birth: 
October 17, 1974 
Place of Birth:
Kansas City, Missouri
Marital Status:
Divorcied (Kim) 
Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III in Kansas City, Missouri. He was raised by his mother splitting time between KC and Detroit. His childhood had its rough moments, as he was repeatedly beaten up by a school bully who eventually beat him up so bad that he was in a coma for 10 days. Marshall never had many friends though he did develop a close relationship with his uncle Ronnie Pilkington, who shared his same desire to rap. The two saw little of each other after Marshall's move to Detroit was more permanent. Marshall later met Kimberly at High School and formed a rap group. His rap efforts initially were met with loud booing and laughter, but he later worked his way to respectability overcoming his skin color. Just when things were going good for Marshall, he was devastated to hear that his best friend Ronnie had killed himself. Marshall was so devastated that he stopped rapping for over a year.
Marshall's career was reborn though after his girlfriend Kim gives birth to Haile Jade. He launches himself as Eminem and puts out a CD entitled Infinite in 1996. Unfortunately, the album flops and things get so bad, Eminem and Kim are kicked out of their apartment and Kim ditches Em to move back home with her parents. Eminem isn't even allowed to see his daughter and her family thought of him as a loser. All this was too much for Eminem as he attempted suicide in December of 1996. The experience turned his life around and he is reborn as his alter ego, Slim Shady.
Fortunately for Eminem, his rap idol Dr. Dre was listening to a rap competition he took part in for an LA radio station. Dre didn't even know Eminem was white, later saying "It's pretty rare when you can find a white cat that can flow like that." His work with Dre under his Aftermath label quickly launches Eminem, along with excitement from MTV over his look and sound. The Real Slim Shady debuts at #2 in the Billboard charts and from there he hasn't looked back, releasing the Marshall Mathers LP in 2000. His success helped bring Kim back into his life, as the two married in September of 1999, despite the fact that he sang lyrics suggesting he wanted to kill her. This success has done nothing to repair the relationship between Eminem and his mother, Debbie Mathers-Briggs, who filed a $10 million slander suit against him in 1999. |