A product of Detroit, MI-by way of Kansas City, MO,-Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III on October 17, 1973. A quick glimpse of the Breakin' Soundtrack, courtesy of his late Uncle Ronnie, was all young Marshall needed to know the game of rap was his life. A vagabond childhood would be the cause of Em's angry characteristics on the mic. Convinced that emceeing was his callin', Em went through the rough process of being a white rapper trying to make his name known in a predominantly Black market by taking on other emcees in spots like Detroit's now defunct Rhythm Kitchen, The Shelter and Maurice Malone's Hip-Hop Shop. After taking out virtually anyone who contested his skills, Em eventually made his way to the Rap Coalition's Rap Olympics, an emcee battle in which teams of five take each other on.
In early 1995, Em had taken his income tax return from his burger-flippin' job at Gilbert's Lodge in Detroit and pressed up the scarce 12'inch single "Backstabbers" b/w
"Biteaphobia". He later aligned himself with Mark and Jeff Bass (The Bass Brothers) and released his full-length debut, Infinite, in late 1995. A few month's later, while in the confines of his bathroom, Em created his alias: Slim Shady. He released the Slim Shady EP in the fall of 1997, in 1998 he received the Source magazine's prestigious "Unsigned Hype" honors. Em's golden moment came while making a memorable appearance on Sway and Tech's "Wake Up Show." With the whole of Los Angeles tuning in, Eminem gave it his all to a point where the-then reclusive Dr. Dre heard him burn the mic at the station and inquired about that "ill-ass white boy".
After a solder-like tour of duty through hip-hop's underground, Slim was signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records, where he released The Slim Shady LP. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts and went on to sell over 3.5 million copies. The album introduced the world to hip-hop's new clown prince of rhyme. With letting the world paint that picture of a clown, Em followed it up with no-nonsense appearances on Dr. Dre's The Chronic 2001, Notorious B.I.G's Born Again, Sway & Tech's This Or That and the "Bad Meets Evil" single with Detroit conspirator, Royce the 5'9". That anger eventually surfaced during the recording of his highly anticipated follow-up for the new millennium.
"I think I'm starting to grow up finally. I grew up a lot on since the last album and I wanted to show people that I can be funny and shit like that, but that was then this is now. I wanted this album to be more serious and have a better feel to it than the last album. Say shit that people could feel in their hearts. Be more straight up with my shit instead of all punch-liney-happy-go-lucky-everything is funny. On this album, it's angrier, it's more energy...more force. It was like 'alright all jokes aside'."
After four years Eminem officially announced the street date of his eagerly awaited new album. Relapse (Interscope/ Aftermath/Shady) will be released on May 19, 2009.Anticipation for Relapse has been building since the fall, when Eminem first announced the album title and debuted the freestyle, "I'm Having A Relapse," during an interview on his Shade 45 satellite radio station. Last month, the release of "Crack A Bottle" from Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent brought that anticipation to a head. The track soared to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Eminem's second #1 after 2002's "Lose Yourself")