”GEORGE BARIȚIU” COLLEGE OF
ECONOMICS
Eminem
Coordonating teacher :
Mușat Mărioara
Student:
Cotor Bogdan-Nicolae
Sibiu
2021
Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………………………1
Chapter one: Early Life……………………………………………………….…2
Chapter two: Career Highlights………………………………………….……..3
2.1 Rehab, 'Relapse' and 'Recovery'…………………..…………….….4
2.2 The Marshall Mathers LP 2……………………..…………….….…5
2.3 Shady XV and Southpaw……………………………..………….….5
2.4 Revival and Kamikaze……………………………..………………...6
Chapter three: Acting career……………………………………………………8
Chapter four: Achievements and honors……………………………………….8
Chapter five: Health……………………………………………………………..9
5.1 2007 overdose………………………………………………………...9
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………10
Introduction:
The reason I choose to write about Eminem is because I always liked the
music he created. I’ve been listening to his music since I was 13 years old and I
will continue to listen.
The paper is structured in six chapters and each of them describes
important events through his life.
The first chapter describes his early life, as a teenager he felt like an
outcast and he would change even three schools every year. Finally he found his
passion and gained some confidence because of that.
In the second chapter I described his music career. More exactly I
described all of his albums.
In the third and fourth chapter I wrote about his acting career and his
achievements and prizes.
And in the last chapter I talked about his health.
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Chapter one: Early Life
American rapper, record producer and actor Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III
on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri. He never knew his father, Marshall Mathers Jr.,
who abandoned the family when Eminem was still an infant and rebuffed all of his son's
many attempts to contact him during his childhood. As a result, Eminem was raised by his
mother, Deborah Mathers. She never managed to hold down a job for more than several
months at a time, so they moved frequently between Missouri and Detroit, Michigan,
spending large chunks of time in public housing projects. "I would change schools two, three
times a year," Eminem later recalled. "That was probably the roughest part about it all."
This itinerant lifestyle left a large impact on his personality. He had no close friends, kept
almost entirely to himself and was treated like an outcast at each new school. "Beat up in the
bathroom, beat up in the hallways, shoved into lockers," he remembered. Eminem has been
scathingly critical of the way his mother raised him. Through his song lyrics, he has publicly
accused her of being addicted to prescription drugs as well as subjecting him to emotional
and physical abuse. However, Deborah Mathers has vehemently denied all such accusations,
and in 1999 she filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against her son. They settled the case
for $25,000.
Eminem attended Lincoln High School in Warren, Michigan, where he failed the ninth
grade three times and eventually dropped out at the age of 17. Despite being a poor student,
Eminem always had a deep affinity for language, devouring comic books and even studying
the dictionary. "I found that no matter how bad I was at school, like, and no matter how low
my grades might have been at some times, I always was good at English ... I just felt like I
wanna be able to have all of these words at my disposal, in my vocabulary at all times
whenever I need to pull 'em out. You know, somewhere, they'll be stored, like, locked away."
As a teenage dropout, Eminem found a way to express his passion for language, as well as
to release his youthful anger, through the emerging musical genre of hip-hip. He identified
with the nihilistic rage of late-1980s and early-1990s rap music, and he was especially taken
with N.W.A., the popular and highly controversial gangster rap crew from Los Angeles.
Although at the time rap music was almost exclusively produced by black people,
Eminem, who has pale white skin and bright blue eyes, nevertheless entered into the Detroit
rap scene as a frequent competitor in rap "battles"competitions in which two rappers take
turns insulting the other through improvised rap lyrics. Eminem proved highly skilled at such
verbal sparring and, despite his race, quickly became one of the most respected figures in
Detroit's underground rap scene.
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He recalled, "I finally found something that yeah, this kid over here, you know, he may
have more chicks, and he may, you know, have better clothes, or whatever, but he can't do
this like me. You know what I mean? He can't write what I'm writing right now. And it
started to feel like, you know, maybe Marshall's gettin' a little respect." Mathers assumed the
stage name M&M, a playful reference to his initials, which he later began writing
phonetically as "Eminem." This period in Eminem's life—working odd jobs to make ends
meet while participating in rap battles and desperately attempting to land a record contract—
was later dramatized in Eminem's semi-autobiographical film, 8 Mile.
It was also during this period that Eminem began dating Kim Ann Scott, and in 1995 the
couple had a daughter named Hailie Jade Scott. Inspired by the birth of his daughter to make
a living as a rapper, in 1996, Eminem released his first independent rap album, Infinite.
Though the album displayed flashes of his verbal prowess, biting wit and flair for
storytelling, the low-budget record failed to turn a profit or attract more than local attention.
Chapter two: Career Highlights
A year later, however, Eminem released The Slim Shady EP, which was discovered by Dr.
Dre, the legendary rapper and former producer of Eminem's favorite rap group N.W.A. After
Eminem traveled to Los Angeles and became runner-up in the 1997 Rap Olympics MC
Battle, Dre listened to the rapper's cassette in the basement of executive Jimmy Iovine's
home. Dre was so impressed that he signed Eminem to his Interscope Records label. In 1999,
after two years of working with Dre, Eminem released The Slim Shady LP. The heavily
hyped record became an instant success and went on to sell over three million copies.
Eminem's first single, "My Name Is," mixed a childish humor and energy with rampant
profanity and flashes of violence—a potent and fascinating combination that felt different
from anything else in rap. Marshall and Kim Mathers married later that same year.
Eminem released his second studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP, in May 2000. The
album showed off Eminem's poetic talents as well as his emotional and artistic range. His
songs vary from manically funny ("The Real Slim Shady") to heartbreakingly poignant
("Stan") to explosively violent ("Kim") to disarmingly self-critical ("The Way I Am"). The
Marshall Mathers LP sold over 19 million copies worldwide, won the Grammy Award for
Best Rap Album, received a nomination for Album of the Year and is widely considered
among the greatest rap albums of all time.
Nevertheless, The Marshall Mathers LP also came under a firestorm of criticism for its
excessive profanity, glorification of drugs and violence and its apparent homophobia and
misogyny. While Eminem attempted to mitigate such criticism by maintaining that his raps
simply use the rough language he has been surrounded by since childhood, and later by
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performing a duet with Elton John at the Grammy Awards to demonstrate his openness to the
gay community, Eminem nevertheless remains widely reviled in some quarters for his
offensive lyrical content.
In 2001, Eminem reconnected with several of his friends from the Detroit underground rap
scene to form the group D12, recording an album called Devil's Night featuring the popular
single "Purple Pills." A year later, Eminem released a new solo album, The Eminem Show,
another popular and critically acclaimed album highlighted by the tracks "Without Me,"
"Cleaning Out my Closet" and "Sing for the Moment." His next album, 2004's Encore, was
less successful than his previous efforts, but still featured popular songs such as "Like Toy
Soldiers" and "Mockingbird."
Rehab, 'Relapse' and 'Recovery'
For the next several years, Eminem recorded very little music and was largely consumed
by personal problems. Eminem and Kim Mathers divorced in 2000 but continued to maintain
a tumultuous off-and-on relationship until remarrying in 2006. Nevertheless, they divorced
again several months later and began a protracted, ugly and highly public custody dispute
over their daughter Hailie. Meanwhile, Eminem slipped further into alcoholism and addiction
to sleeping pills and prescription painkillers. In December 2007, he overdosed and nearly
died. "If I would have got to the hospital two hours later, that would have been it," he said.
By early 2008, Eminem had managed to kick his addictions to drugs and alcohol and
returned to recording music. He released his first album of new music in five years, Relapse,
in 2009, featuring the singles "Crack a Bottle" and "Beautiful." In 2010, Eminem released
another album, Recovery, a highly autobiographical attempt to come to terms with his
struggles with addiction and experience with rehabilitation. His most acclaimed album in
years, Recovery struck a somewhat gentler and more inspirational tone than his previous
music. Eminem said, "I don't want to go overboard with it but I do feel like that if I can help
people that have been through a similar situation, then, you know, why not?" The revealing
album won Eminem a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.
Eminem is doubtlessly one of the most acclaimed rappers in the genre's brief history. As
much as any other individual artist, he is responsible for rap's transformation into a
mainstream music genre over the past decade. And after 10 years and seven albums, the
rapper who shocked, appalled and fascinated the music world with the unbridled rage of his
youthful music is reinventing himself as a mature artist.
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"I started learning how to not be so angry about things, learning how to count my f---ing
blessings instead. By doing that, I've become a happier person, instead of all this self-loathing
I was doing for a while," Eminem said. "The music, I wouldn't say it's gotten happier, but it's
definitely more upbeat. I feel like myself again."
The Marshall Mathers LP 2
Eminem announced on May 24, 2012, that he was working on his next album, scheduled
for release the following year. Without a title or release date, it was included on a number of
"Most Anticipated Albums of 2013" lists Complex ranked it sixth, and XXL fifth.
On August 14, "Survival", featuring Liz Rodrigues and produced by DJ Khalil, premiered
in the multi-player trailer for the video game Call of Duty: Ghosts. According to a press
release, the first single from Eminem's eighth album would be released soon. During the 2013
MTV Video Music Awards, it was announced that the album would be entitled The Marshall
Mathers LP 2 (following The Marshall Mathers LP) and was scheduled for release on
November 5. Its lead single, "Berzerk", was released on August 25 and debuted at number
three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Three more singles followed: "Survival" (appearing on
the Call of Duty: Ghosts trailer), "Rap God" and "The Monster" (with Rihanna).
The album was released on November 5, by Aftermath Entertainment, Shady Records and
Interscope Records. Its standard version had 16 tracks, and the deluxe version included a
second disc with five additional tracks. The Marshall Mathers LP 2 was Eminem's seventh
album to debut atop the Billboard 200, and had the year's second-largest first-week sales. He
was the first artist since the Beatles to have four singles in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot
100. In the United Kingdom, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 debuted at number one on the UK
Albums Chart. The first American artist with seven consecutive UK number-one albums, he
is tied with The Beatles for second place for the most consecutive chart-topping UK
albums. The album secured Eminem's position as Canada's best-selling artist, and was 2013's
best-selling album.
On November 3, Eminem was named the first YouTube Music Awards Artist of the
Year, and a week later he received the Global Icon Award at the 2013 MTV EMA Music
Awards. On June 10, it was announced that Eminem was the first artist to receive two digital
diamond certifications – sales and streams of 10 million and above – by the RIAA (for "Not
Afraid" and "Love the Way You Lie"). On July 11 and 12, Eminem played two concerts
in Wembley Stadium. At the 57th Grammy Awards, he received Best Rap Album award
for The Marshall Mathers LP 2 and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (with Rihanna) for "The
Monster".
Shady XV and Southpaw
In the summer of 2014, Eminem and Rosenberg began using the hashtag #SHADYXV on
social networking sites, and Eminem wore a T-shirt with the hashtag onstage. This was later
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revealed to be the name of an upcoming Shady Records compilation. Shortly afterwards the
first single from the album ("Guts Over Fear", featuring singer-songwriter Sia Furler) was
released and the album's track list was released on October 29. Shady Records released
a cypher to promote the album, in which Eminem did a seven-minute freestyle. "Detroit vs.
Everybody" (the album's second single), with Eminem, Dej Loaf, Royce da 5'9", Danny
Brown, Big Sean and Trick-Trick, was released on November 11. Shady XV, released on
November 24 during Black Friday week, consists of one greatest-hits disc and one disc of
new material by Shady Records artists such as D12, Slaughterhouse, Bad Meets Evil
and Yelawolf. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week
sales of 138,000 copies in the United States.
The Official Eminem Box Set, a career-spanning, 10-disc vinyl box set, was released on
March 12, 2015. The set includes seven of Eminem's eight studio albums (excluding Infinite),
the 8 Mile soundtrack, the compilation Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, and the greatest hits
collection Curtain Call: The Hits. Early in the year, it was announced that he would appear
on Tech N9ne's "Speedom (Worldwide Choppers 2)". The song, also featuring Krizz Kaliko,
was released on April 20. Eminem also appeared on Yelawolf's "Best Friend", the single
from Love Story.
Eminem is the executive producer of the soundtrack on the sports drama Southpaw,
with Shady Records. The first single from the soundtrack called 'Phenomenal' was released
on June 2, 2015. Another single, "Kings Never Die" by Eminem featuring Gwen Stefani, was
released on July 10, 2015 on YouTube via Eminem's Vevo account. Eminem was the first
interview of Zane Lowe in Beats 1. The interview streamed online on the Beats 1 radio
on] July 1, 2015.
Eminem appeared on the public access show Only in Monroe, produced in Monroe,
Michigan, and was interviewed by guest host Stephen Colbert for an episode that aired July
1, 2015. In the episode Eminem sang snippets of Bob Seger songs at Colbert's prompting and
briefly discussed Southpaw. In June 2015, it was revealed that he will serve as the executive
producer and music supervisor on the TV series Motor City whose premise will be based
upon the 2002 film Narc.
In September 2016, Eminem was featured on Skylar Grey's song, "Kill For You", which
appears on her album, Natural Causes. On October 19, 2016, Eminem released a new song
called "Campaign Speech", a political hip hop song, and announced he was working on a new
album. On November 17, 2016, Eminem released a remastered version of 'Infinite' on his
YouTube VEVO channel. On November 22, 2016, Eminem released a trailer for a 10-minute
short documentary called Partners in Rhyme: The True Story of Infinite.
Revival and Kamikaze
In February 2017, Eminem appeared on "No Favors", a track from Big Sean's album I
Decided. In the song, Eminem calls the newly elected President Donald Trump a "b***h",
and also raps about raping conservative social and political commentator Ann Coulter, who is
a Trump supporter, with a variety of foreign objects. Coulter responded to the lyrics, stating,
"I think it's unfortunate that the left, from Berkeley to Eminem with his rap songs, has
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normalized violence against women, as Eminem has done." Eminem participated in the 2017
BET Hip Hop Awards' annual cypher, using his verse, a freestyle rap called "The Storm",to
further criticize Trump and the administration for, among other things, Trump's focus
on National Football League players' protests during "The Star Spangled
Banner" over Hurricane Maria recovery efforts and lack of gun control reform in the wake of
the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. Eminem ended the cypher by giving an ultimatum saying that
Trump supporters cannot be his fans. The verse received wide praise among other rappers
following its release. In October 2017, Eminem appeared on "Revenge", a track from Pink's
album Beautiful Trauma. It was reported that the Secret Service interviewed Eminem in
2018–2019, regarding threatening lyrics towards President Trump and daughter Ivanka.
Starting in late October 2017, Eminem and Paul Rosenberg began teasing what fans
speculated was the title of a new album titled Revival, in the form of advertisements for a
fake medication of the same name. Later in November, the first single "Walk on Water" was
released, which featured Beyoncé. The song was first performed, by Eminem, at the 2017
MTV Europe Music Awards on November 12, featuring Skylar Grey. He appeared
on Saturday Night Live on November 18, performing "Walk on Water", "Stan" and "Love the
Way You Lie" with Skylar Grey. On November 28, Dr. Dre posted a video confirming the
album's release date as December 15, 2017. On December 8, Eminem released a promotional
single titled "Untouchable" which featured a sample from the duo Cheech & Chong. Despite
an online leak of the album two days prior, Revival was released as planned on December 15.
On January 5, 2018, the second single "River" was released, which featured Ed Sheeran. It
became Eminem's eighth consecutive album to top the US Billboard 200 upon release with
197,000 copies sold in its first week. As a result, he became the first musical act to have eight
entries in a row debut atop the chart. The album was met with mixed reviews from music
critics and is generally considered his worst album. In 2018, an extended edition of "Nowhere
Fast" with Kehlani and a remix of "Chloraseptic" featuring 2 Chainz and Phresher were
released from Revival.
On August 31, 2018, Eminem released his tenth studio album and first surprise
album Kamikaze, making it his second full-length studio album in 8 months. The album
topped the Billboard 200, making it his ninth album in a row to do so, after selling 434,000
units in the first week. The album was released as a response to criticism of Revival, his
worst rated album. The album was promoted with three singles: "Fall", "Venom", from
the 2018 film of the same name, and "Lucky You". During the October 15, 2018 episode of
the late-night television show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Eminem performed the song "Venom"
at the 103rd floor of the Empire State Building in New York City as a promotion of the
album.
On December 1, Eminem released an 11 minute freestyle to his YouTube channel titled
'Kick off'. Eminem collaborated with several artists throughout early 2019,
including Boogie, Logic, Ed Sheeran, 50 Cent, and Conway the Machine. On February 23,
2019, to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Eminem released a re-issue of The Slim Shady LP,
including acapellas instrumentals and radio edited versions of tracks from the album. On June
25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Eminem among hundreds of artists whose
material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Studios fire.
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Chapter three: Acting career
After small roles in the 2001 film The Wash and as an extra in the 1998 Korn music video
for "Got the Life" (during which he gave the band a demo tape), Eminem made his
Hollywood debut in the semi-autobiographical 2002 film 8 Mile. He said it was a
representation of growing up in Detroit rather than an account of his life. He recorded several
new songs for the soundtrack, including "Lose Yourself" (which won an Academy Award for
Best Original Song in 2003 and became the longest-running No. 1 hip hop single in history.
Eminem was absent from the ceremony and co-composer Luis Resto accepted the award.
Eminem voiced an aging, corrupt, Ebonics-speaking police officer in the video game 50
Cent: Bulletproof and guested on the Comedy Central television show Crank Yankers and a
Web cartoon, The Slim Shady Show He was signed to star in an unmade film version of Have
Gun – Will Travel, and was considered for the role of David Rice in the 2008
film Jumper. Eminem had a cameo appearance, arguing with Ray Romano, in the 2009
film Funny People. In a 2010 interview with Jonathan Ross, he stated "You know, I love
music so much. This is my passion this is what I want to do. Not saying that I won't do a
movie ever again, but this is me."
Chapter four: Achievements and honors
With global sales of over 220 million records, Eminem is one of the best-selling music
artists of all time. He has had ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200: seven solo, two
with D12 and one with Bad Meets Evil. He was the best-selling music artist from 2000 to
2009 in the US according to Nielsen SoundScan. He was also the best-selling male music
artist in the United States of the 2010s. He has sold 47.4 million albums in the country and
107.5 million singles in the US. The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show, "Lose
Yourself", "Love the Way You Lie" and "Not Afraid" have all been certified Diamond or
higher by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Eminem has over ten
billion views of his music videos on his YouTube Vevo page, and in 2014 Spotify named him
the most-streamed music artist of all time.
Among Eminem's awards is 15 Grammy Awards, eight American Music Awards and
17 Billboard Music Awards, Billboard named him the "Artist of the Decade (2000–
2009)". In 2013, he received the Global Icon Award at that year's MTV Europe Music
Awards ceremony. His success in 8 Mile saw him win the 2002 Academy Award for Best
Original Song for his song "Lose Yourself", co-written with Jeff Bass and Luis Resto,
making him the first rapper to receive the award. He also won the MTV Movie & TV
Awards for Best Actor in a Movie and Best Breakthrough Performance and the Critics'
Choice Movie Award for Best Song for "Lose Yourself".
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Eminem has also been included and ranked in several publications' lists. Rolling
Stone included him in its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest
Songwriters of All Time. He was ranked 9th on MTV's Greatest MCs of All Time list. He
was ranked 13th on MTV's 22 Greatest Voices in Music list and 79th on the VH1 100
Greatest Artists of All Time lists. He was ranked 82nd on Rolling Stone's "The Immortals"
list. In 2010, MTV Portugal ranked Eminem the 7th biggest icon in popular music history. In
2012, The Source ranked him 6th on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time,
while About.com ranked him 7th on its list of the 50 Greatest MCs of Our Time (1987–
2007). In 2015, Eminem was placed third on "The 10 Best Rappers of All Time" list
by Billboard. In 2008, Vibe readers named Eminem the Best Rapper Alive. In 2011, Eminem
was labelled the "King of Hip-Hop" by Rolling Stone based on an analysis of album sales,
chart positions, YouTube views, social media following, concert grosses, industry awards and
critical ratings of solo rappers who released music from 2009 to the first half of 2011.
Chapter five: Health
Eminem has spoken publicly about his addiction to prescription drugs,
including Vicodin, Ambien, and Valium. According to friend and fellow D12 member Proof,
Eminem first straightened out in 2002. During the production of 8 Mile, Eminem, working 16
hours a day, developed insomnia. An associate gave him an Ambien tablet which "knocked
him out", encouraging him to obtain a prescription. This was Eminem's first experience of
drug addiction, which would affect him for several years. Near the end of production
on Encore, he would "just go into the studio and goof off with a pocketful of pills". Eminem
began taking the drugs to "feel normal", taking a "ridiculous amount" I could consume
anywhere from 40 to 60 Valium in a day. Vicodin, maybe 30." The drugs would put him to
sleep for no more than two hours, after which he would take more. Eminem's weight
increased to 230 pounds (100 kg), and he was regularly eating fast food: "The kids behind the
counter knew me – it wouldn't even faze them. Or I'd sit up at Denny's or Big Boy and just
eat by myself. It was sad." Eminem became less recognizable due to his weight gain, and
once overheard two teenagers arguing about whether or not it was him: "Eminem ain't fat".
2007 overdose
In December 2007, Eminem was hospitalized after a methadone overdose. He had first
bought from a dealer who had told him it was "just like Vicodin, and easier on your liver". He
continued to buy more until he collapsed in his bathroom one night and was rushed to the
hospital. Doctors there told him he had ingested the equivalent of four bags of heroin and was
"about two hours from dying". After missing Christmas with his children, Eminem checked
himself out of the facility, weak and not fully detoxed. He tore the meniscus in his knee after
falling asleep on his sofa, requiring surgery; after he returned home, he had a seizure. His
drug use "ramped right back to where it was before" within a month. Eminem began to attend
church meetings to get clean, but after he was asked for autographs he sought help from a
rehabilitation counselor. He began an exercise program that emphasized running. Elton
John was a mentor during this period, calling Eminem once a week to check on him. Eminem
has been sober since April 20, 2008.
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Conclusion:
In conclusion, while Eminem was rejected from the world because of his race, he
went into the world with a desire to succeed, and in the end was able to turn his miserable
childhood into fame and fortune through his acting and rapping. Eminem suffered a lot by
always being rejected but even when he was “about to die”, he still got back up and worked
even harder to finally accomplish his lifelong dream of being one of the best rappers ever.
Eminem teaches everyone out there not to quit. He makes people realize that they have
nothing to lose only much to gain and learn from.
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