Do you know how Marshall Bruce Mathers III became America’s very well known Eminem? Mathers’ childhood was lonely and sad, yet he was good at many things. He started rapping at a young age, and he released many hit albums. His career gave him the attention he never had as a child. I believe that he is a great artist and musician to listen to.
On October 17, 1972, Deborah Mathers, a 15 year old, gave birth to Marshall Bruce Mathers III. He was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri.His father left him and his mother when he was very young. After that, he was raised by his mother in Detroit, Michigan. He had Scottish, German, Swiss, Polish, Luxembourgian, and English ancestry (Compton's).
Mathers went to Lincoln High School in Warren, Michigan. He was good in English, and liked to read comics and study the dictionary at times. When Mathers was 14, he gave himself the nickname M&M, which he later changed to Eminem. A unique twist he made on the name Eminem is that the second e is backwards. He also began rapping at Clubs in Detroit around the age of 14. In Mathers’ Third year of taking ninth grade, he dropped out of school. In 1997, he went to the Los Angeles Rap Olympics to try to win money, but came in Second place. (IMDb) A local rapper, Champtown, got Mathers his first studio time. A tattoo on his right upper arm reads R.I.P. Ronnie, in memory of his uncle who committed suicide (Wikipedia).
On June 14, 1999, Mathers married Kimberley Anne Scott. They got divorced in 2001, only to get remarried in 2006. They divorced again the same year, and agreed to share custody of Hailie (Compton's). Hailie Jade Mathers was born on December 25, 1995 and he hoped she would become an actor. He adopted Scott’s daughter, Whitney, and Kim’s sister’s daughter, Alaina Mathers (IMDb). He is the legal guardian of Nathan, his younger half brother (Wikipedia).  
Infinite, Mathers’ first album, came out in 1996. In 1999, he released The Slim Shady LP. The Eminem Show came out in 2002, and Encore was released in 2004. Curtain Call, which came out in 2005, is an album full of his greatest hits. After that, he took a break from recording, but started releasing new music in 2009 with the album Relapse. His hit song “Not Afraid” is the lead single on Recovery from 2010. (Compton's) He sold 86 million albums worldwide, and 42 million track downloads (Wikipedia).
Mathers has won a total of twelve Grammy awards two of which were for the Slim Shady LP, which he also won four Music Television Music Awards(Wikipedia)(Biography.com). Not Afraid won the Best Solo Performance at the 2011 Grammy Awards. The Marshall Mathers LP was the fastest selling album in rap history. He also won an Academy Award for “Lose Yourself” (Compton's). Rolling Stones Magazine named him number 82 on the top 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and also named him the hip-hop king (Wikipedia).
Mathers was a member of the band D12. D12 is short for “Dirty Dozen” or Detroit Twelve.” Their first album, Attack of The Weirdos, came out in 1997. Later, they released an album called The Underground EP in 1999, and Devil’s Night, in 2001 (Compton's). In 2004, D12 released D12 World, and in 2011, they released Return of The Dozen Volume Two.
Mathers appeared in The Walsh in 2002. He was also in Funny People in 2009 and he made a guest appearance in the television show Entourage. The songs "'97 Bonnie & Clyde", "Hailie's Song", "My Dad's Gone Crazy", "Mockingbird", "When I'm Gone", "Beautiful", "Airplanes Pt. II", "Going Through Changes", and "You're Never Over" all feature Hailie (Wikipedia). He was the only white person to be featured on the cover of The Source and XXL (IMDb). He was the main character in his semi autobiographical movie 8 Mile and made three million dollars from it.
The 5’8” tall rapper, record producer, and actor recently lived in Rochester Hills, Michigan(IMDb)(Compton's). He was a Detroit Pistons fan, and his favorite movie was Scarface. (IMDb) He founded The Marshall Mathers Foundation, which helps disadvantaged children (Wikipedia). He had his own fashion line called Shady Limited (IMDb). The Way I Am is a memoir on him, which was released on October 21, 2008 (Wikipedia). His mother, Deborah, wrote an autobiography about him called My son Marshall, My son Eminem. He has his own radio station called Shade 45 and is managed by Paul Rosenburg, and he had a record label called Shady records (Compton’s). (Wikipedia)
 Marshall Mathers, in my opinion, was a great rapper even though he had a somewhat bad reputation. His childhood is really where his career started, because he began rapping at a young age. I think the nickname he gave himself was pretty cool, and that he got a tattoo in memory of his uncle. His talent made his music great, and his music made him famous.


Works Cited
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"Eminem." Compton's by Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition.
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"Eminem." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
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