Yesterday, I had some friends over and for some reason, we arrived on the topic of famous celebrity idols that we look up to. As we all went around the room, we began discussing many actors, actresses, and singers that we love. I mentioned to my friends that one of my all-time favorite rappers was hands down “The Real Slim Shady”.
My friend (we’ll call her Bella) looked oddly confused at the person I had mentioned and I asked “Do you know who Slim Shady is?” Bella straight-face responded with “I know who he is, but I don’t know what he looks like…” As mine and all of my other friends’ jaws hit the floor I finally asked, “You don’t know what Eminem looks like??!” She then instantly covered her face to hide from this hilarious, yet honest mistake as well all laughed with her. Therefore, I decided to dedicate today’s post to Slim Shady to help Bella out with the next time she is caught in some Eminem trivia. 😉
Marshall “Eminem” Mathers was born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri to a 15-year-old mother. When he was just 12 years old, he and his mother relocated to the Eastside of Detroit, Michigan where he struggled to make friends due to his constant switch in school districts. Eventually, after failing the 9th grade three times, Marshall dropped out of school.
At the age of 14, Marshall began pursuing his dream of rapping as he often performed for local community house parties and gatherings. As a staple for this young rapper, at 17 he then gifted himself a proper stage name to better hype up his performances and was further known as “Eminem” (A play off of the first initials of his full name (M)arshall (M)athers).
As the Hip-Hop community was commonly used to Black rappers, Eminem was rejected on several occasions for trying to live up to his dreams of becoming a famous rapper. To prove himself, Eminem found that it was best that he compete (and win) in underground rap battles to let his voice be heard loud and proud. Once he began his rap battles, people began understanding this mastermind of a rapper and slowly started to accept him into the hip-hop community and industry. Eminem even so much as impressed Detroit native rapper, Proof, in which they decided to form the career turning-point group with four other friends. The group D12 (The Dirty Dozen) lasted from 1996 to 2006, when the group decided it was time to put the gig to rest after the beloved Proof was shot and murdered.
As Eminem struggled mentally and economically during his career startup, he found a reason to keep pushing as his girlfriend of many years, Kim Scott, gave birth to their first child, Hailie, on Christmas day of 1995. This is the pushing point that encouraged the underdog to keep going on with his career as he now has a family to provide for. After one whole year of turning his blood, sweat, and tears into music, Em released his first album “Infinite” in 1996.