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Last Updated: Friday 04-May-2001 17:15
ARTIST PROFILE
Birthdate: October 17, 1974
Birth Place: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Sign: Libra
Nationality: American
Education: Lincoln High School in Warren Osbourne High School
Wife: Kimberly Scott
Father: Marshall Mathers Jr.
Mother: Deborah Mathers - Briggs
Daughter: Haile Jade Scott (born December 25, 1995)
First Job: At the Gilbert's Lodge
The average rapper wouldn't be able to grace the pages of Rap Pages, VIBE,
Rolling Stone, Spin, The Source,
URB and Stress and go on a national tour months before their major-label
debut album is released. Then again,
Eminem isn't an average rapper. He's phenomenal.
The impending release of the The Slim
Shady LP, his first set on Aftermath/Interscope Records, already has
underground hip-hop heads searching for Eminem. Chock full of dazzling
lyrical escapades that delve into the
mind of a violently warped and vulgar yet extremely talented wordsmith,
the 14-cut collection contains some
of the most memorable and demented lyrics ever recorded.
For Eminem, his potentially controversial
and undoubtedly offensive songs will strike a chord with a multitude of
hip-hop loyalists who believe they have little to lose and everything
to gain.
"I'm not alone in feeling the way I feel," he says. "I
believe that a lot of people can relate to my shit--whether white,
black, it doesn't matter. Everybody has been through some s***, whether
it's drastic or not so drastic.
Everybody gets to the point of 'I don't give a f***.'"
Those words are more than just a slogan
for the Detroit resident. "I Just Don't Give A F***" and "Brain
Damage"
are the two songs comprising Eminem's initial single from The Slim Shady
LP. Each tune is sure to paralyze meek
listeners with their relentless lyrical assault. Produced primarily by
long-time collaborators FBT Productions, the
Slim Shady LP also features beatwork from Aftermath CEO Dr. Dre. The N.W.A.
alum handled beats for
"My Name Is" (the second single), "Guilty Conscience"
and "Role Model."
Dr. Dre was so impressed after hearing
Eminem freestyling on a Los Angeles radio station that he put out a
manhunt for the Michigan rhymer. Shortly thereafter, Dre signed Eminem
to his Aftermath imprint and the two
began working together. Thoroughly impressed with Eminem's previously
released independent Slim Shady EP,
Dre said they would include many of the EP's tracks on the album.
"It was an honor to hear the words
out of Dre's mouth that he liked my s***," Eminem says. "Growing
up,
I was one of the biggest fans of N.W.A, from putting on the sunglasses
and looking in the mirror and lipsyncing
to wanting to be Dr. Dre, to be Ice Cube. This is the biggest hip-hop
producer ever."
But like many other rappers, Eminem's
rise to stardom was far from easy. After being born in Kansas City and
traveling back and forth between KC and the Detroit metropolitan area,
Eminem and his mother moved into the
Eastside of Detroit when he was 12. Switching schools every two to three
months made it difficult to make
friends, graduate and to stay out of trouble.
Rap, however, became Eminem's solace.
Battling schoolmates in the lunchroom brought joy to what was
otherwise a painful existence. Although he would later drop out of school
and land several minimum-wage-paying,
full-time jobs, his musical focus remained constant.
Eminem released his debut album, Infinite,
in 1996. Desperate to be embraced by the Motor City's hip-hop scene,
Eminem rapped in such a manner that he was accused of sounding like Nas
and AZ.
"Infinite was me trying to figure
out how I wanted my rap style to be, how I wanted to sound on the mic
and present
myself," he recalls. "It was a growing stage. I felt like Infinite
was like a demo that just got pressed up."
After being thoroughly disappointed and
hurt by the response Infinite received, Eminem began working on what would
later become the Slim Shady EP -- a project he made for himself. Featuring
several scathing lines about local music
industry personalities as well as devious rants about life in general,
the set quickly caught the ear of hip-hop's
difficult-to-please underground.
"I had nothing to lose, but something
to gain," Eminem says of that point in his life. "If I made
an album for me and it was to
my satisfaction, then I succeeded. If I didn't, then my producers were
going to give up on the whole rap thing we were doing.
I made some s*** that I wanted to hear. The Slim Shady EP, I lashed out
on everybody who talked s*** about me."
By presenting himself as himself, Eminem
and his career took off. Soon after giving the Rap Coalition's Wendy Day
a copy of
the Infinite album at a chance meeting, she helped the aspiring lyrical
gymnast secure a spot at the Coalition’s 1997 Rap
Olympics in Los Angeles, where he won second place in the freestyle competition.
During the trip, Eminem and his manager,
Paul Rosenberg, gave a few people from Interscope Records his demo and
he made his major radio debut on the world famous
Wake Up Show with Sway and Tech. Realizing that this was the opportunity
of his lifetime, Eminem delivered a furious medley
of lyrics that wowed his hosts and radio audience alike.
"I felt like it's my time to shine,"
Eminem says of that performance. "I have to rip this. At that time,
I felt that it was a life or death situation."
Eminem would soon record the underground
classic "5 Star Generals." This record helped establish him
in Japan, New York and
Los Angeles. It also helped him earn a spot on the inaugural Lyricist
Lounge tour, which took him to stages from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.
Set to take the hip-hop world by storm
with his unique lyrical approach and punishing production, Eminem and
his The Slim Shady
LP are sure to have listeners captivated.
"I do say things that I think will
shock people," he says. "But I don't do things to shock people.
I'm not trying to be the next 2pac,
but I don't know how long I'm going to be on this planet. So while I'm
here, I might as well make the most of it."
---- http://www.shadyfactory.cjb.net
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