Marshall Bruce Mathers was born in 1972 in Missouri. He had a turbulent childhood as his father abandoned the family when he was an infant. As a single mother, Deborah Mathers struggled to hold down a job for too long. As a result, they moved between Missouri and Michigan frequently and resorted to public housing projects. Not only was his living situation difficult, but so was his social life. Every time he moved to a new school, he would get “beat up in bathrooms, beat up in hallways, and shoved into lockers.” His tumultuous childhood impacted his personality largely. A lot of his earlier project speak of the obstacles and struggles he had to endure.

Eminem has been very critical of the way his mother raised him. Through his song lyrics, he has publicly accused her of being addicted to prescription drugs as well as subjecting him to emotional and physical abuse.

Eminem attended Lincoln High School in Warren, Michigan, where he failed the ninth grade three times and eventually dropped out at the age of 17. You’ve probably heard of Eminem studying the dictionary to expand his vocabulary. Well, despite being a poor student, Eminem always had a deep affinity for language. He loved comic books and often studied the dictionary.

As a teenage dropout, Eminem found a way to express his passion for language, as well as to release his youthful anger, through the emerging genre of hip-hop. He identified with the rage of late-1980s and early-1990s rap music, and he was especially taken with NWA, a popular and highly controversial gangster rap crew from Los Angeles.

Although at the time rap music was almost exclusively produced by the African American community, Eminem entered into the Detroit rap scene anyway as a frequent competitor in rap battles. Eminem proved highly skilled at such verbal sparring and, despite his race, quickly became one of the most respected figures in Detroit’s underground rap scene.

Mathers took on the stage name M&M, for Marshall Mathers, which he later began writing phonetically as “Eminem.” This period in Eminem’s life where he was working odd jobs to make ends meet while participating in rap battles and desperately attempting to land a record contract, was later dramatized in Eminem’s semi-autobiographical film, 8 Mile. Definitely a must watch in my opinion. It was also during this period that Eminem began dating Kim Ann Scott, and in 1995 the couple had a daughter named Hailie Jade Scott.

A year later, however, Eminem released The Slim Shady EP, which was discovered by Dr. Dre, the legendary rapper and former producer of Eminem’s favorite rap group NWA. This heavily hyped record became an instant success and went on to sell over three million copies.

Although he has slowed down on his music output, Eminem continues to dabble in the music industry and is still mentioned as one of the greatest, self made, rappers of all time.