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On October 17, 1972 Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born in Kansas City. He was born to Debbie Mathers, who was going to be a single mother. His family was constantly
moving back and forth between Kansas City and Metro Detroit. From ages 1 to 5 he lived in Detroit, then in Kansas from ages 5 to 9. The family settled in East Detroit when Marshall was 12. Growing up in a mostly black neighborhood, Marshall always had a love for hip hop.
Living in a high crime area, two incidents that Marshall based his music on were the time that he returned the finger to a car full of passing kids, who then stripped him of his clothes and pointed a gun at him. Another was when he introduced a childhood friend, MC Poof to a white neighborhood, and they challenged his right to be there, and
subsequently fired at both boys with a gun. Those were major turning points in his life and he based several songs on those experiences which are so cruel, but so true of life today.
Mathers dropped out of school and landed several minimum wage paying, full time jobs. Through it all his musical focus remained constant. Mathers, aka Eminem, was
discovered at age 14 by a pair of Detroit producers who call themselves Funky Bass Team. The two name songs that put Mathers on the right tract were “Fucking Bastard”
and “Biterphobia”.
The album finally got recognition though with songs such as “Murder Murder”, “No Ones Iller”, and “Low Down Dirty”. The album sold so well that the record company
at the time “Web Entertainment”, had to order thousands more copies. Mathers then needed an alias, which then became Slim Shady, Eminem. Eminem finally got connected
with Dr.Dre in 1998. Dre saw his demo tape, listened to it, and liked it. He was signed to Dre’s Aftermath label in January of 1998. The Slim Shady LP went Triple Platinum.
His newly released album, “The Marshall Mathers LP” is almost finished and also his second full length album for Aftermath. Through all this fame though, his own mother
brought a litigation law suit against him due to the lyrics of his music. The lawsuit is however pending. Also after the release of his album that went Triple Platinum, his wife, Kimberly Mathers, attempted suicide. She however did not die, she luckily survived. While dealing with all the fame, Marshal Mathers is now trying to balance it all with his personal life.
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