Eminem, the King of Hip Hop is an American rapper, record producer, actor, and lyricist (songwriter). His name is the evolution of his teenage stage name M&M that he adopted from the initials of his legal name Marshall Bruce Mathers III. He is the bestselling rapper artist having sold more than 172 million albums. M&M has penned his name in the Guinness Book of world Records for being fastest selling hip-hop artist.

Early life

• Marshall, the only child of Marshall Bruce Mathers, Jr. and Deborah Rae Nelson was born on October 17, 1972, in Joseph, Missouri, U.S. He is of English, German, Scottish and Swiss ancestry. His kinsfolks gave him a nickname, Mickey in his babyhood because of his big ears.
• Eminem dropped out of school at age 17 after failing 9th grade 3 times. Despite English being his favorite subject, he never explored literature as he was more inclined towards comic books.
• He began rapping when he was fourteen. He sneaked into Osborn High School nearby with rapper friend Proof for lunchroom freestyle rap battles.
• However, storytelling was his childhood fascination and he aspired to become a comic-book artist before discovering his first rap song Reckless, featuring Ice-T at age nine on the Breakin’ soundtrack.

Early career

• Eminem debuted with Infinite in 1996. His first Grammy award winner album The Slim Shady LP (1999) paved his way to success.
• M&M turned out to be the first artist to win the Grammy Award for three consecutive LPs, The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) and The Eminem Show (2002).
• Encore (2004) was another critical and commercial success. He bagged 15 Grammy after winning for The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013).
• Lose Yourself made him the first rapper to have won the Academy Award.
• His other ventures include Shady Records and his own channel, Shade 45, on Sirius XM Radio.
• Eminem has made cameo appearances in the films The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009), The Interview (2014) and the television series Entourage. In November 2002, Eminem starred in the hip hop film 8 Mile.
• In addition to his solo career, he is a member of D12 and (with Royce da 5’9″) half of the hip-hop duo Bad Meets Evil. Rolling Stone ranked him 83rd on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has had ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200.

Contemporary Era

• Eminem performed at the Concert for Valor in Washington, D.C. in 2014
• In June 2014 Eminem and Rosenberg began using the hashtag #SHADYXV on social-networking sites, and the rapper wore hashtag imprinted T-shirt The hashtag was the name of an upcoming Shady Records composition: Shady XV. Shady Records released a cypher to promote the album, in which Eminem did a seven-minute freestyle rap. Detroit Vs. Everybody (the album’s second single), with Eminem, Dej Loaf, Royce da 5’9″, Danny Brown, Big Sean and Trick-Trick, was released on November 11. Shady XV, released on November 24 during Black Friday week, consists of one greatest-hits disc and one disc of new material by Shady Records artists such as D12, Slaughterhouse, Bad Meets Evil and Yelawolf. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 138,000 copies in the United States.
• Eminem is the executive producer of the soundtrack on the sports drama Southpaw, with Shady Records. Phenomenal (2015) was the first single from the soundtrack. Another single, Kings Never Die by Eminem featuring Gwen Stefani, was released on July 10, 2015 on YouTube via Eminem’s Vevo account.
• He was the first interview of Zane Lowe in Beats 1. M&M appeared on the public access show Only in Monroe, produced in Monroe, Michigan.

Random Facts on M&M

• He is a Spiderman fan.
• He used to spend hours at night exploring the dictionary to develop his vocabulary for his rhymes.
• He came up with the Slim Shady character on the toilet.
• The only book he has read is LL Cool J’s I Make My Own Rules.
• He toned down the shock value on The Eminem Show to prove he could sell records without it.
• He wrote the hook for “Just Lose It” in 30 seconds.
• He has seen the Rocky movies, Shooter, and Boogie Nights around 150 times.
• He wrote Lose Yourself in one take while on the set of 8 Mile.