At the time, he was living with his girlfriend Kim and a newborn Hailie in a crime-infested neighborhood - even a stray bullet through the kitchen window wasn’t enough to pack up and leave - but after a burglar cleaned out their entire place and only spared the couches and beds, they were forced to move into the attic of Kim’s parents’ house. This bowel-induced epiphany led to his second project, The Slim Shady EP, which he recorded with the Bass Brothers in the spring of 1997. Motherfuckers was like, ‘You’re a white boy, what the fuck are you rapping for? Why don’t you go into rock & roll?’ All that type of shit started pissing me off.”Īt a crossroads, Eminem came up with the concept of an alter-ego while sitting on the toilet. A lot of it was because of the feedback I got. Unfortunately, it only sold around 70 copies and didn’t garner much love nor attention from the local radio stations he was written off as a triple-timing amateur who sounded like Nas and AZ.Īfter that record, every rhyme I wrote got angrier and angrier. In 1996, Eminem recorded his first independently-released album, Infinite, at a small studio owned by the Bass Brothers on 8 Mile Road. Once motherfuckers heard me rhyme, though, they’d shut up.” His opponents at both battlegrounds soon learned to be wary of the fair-skinned MC.Īs soon as I grabbed the mic, I’d get booed. On the weekends, he went to the Hip-Hop Shop on West 7 Mile to participate in open-mic contests hosted by Proof. Marshall dropped out of Lincoln High School after failing his freshman year for the third time, but on the weekdays, he would sneak into neighboring Osborne High School with Proof to hustle unsuspecting students for money (the dynamic duo developed a rap version of White Men Can’t Jump).
What got me through this phase of my life was rapping. I was beat up in the bathrooms, in the hallways, shoved in the lockers - for the most part for being the new kid. D’Angelo Bailey, who was the inspiration behind “Brain Damage” on The Slim Shady LP, knocked Marshall unconscious at school one day, and he suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage after bleeding out of his ear.
#Im shady slim shady album skin#
When Marshall turned 14, he finally settled down on the East side of Detroit in a predominantly black, lower-class neighborhood, but he had already developed an overwhelming sense of alienation from moving around so frequently his aloof demeanor, skin color, and small frame rendered him a constant target for bullying. He occasionally wrote letters to his estranged father in California, but they always came back unread, marked ‘Return to Sender’. He spent most of his childhood shuttling from place to place with his single mother - whom a social worker described as having a “very suspicious, almost paranoid personality” - staying in public housing projects or with relatives for no longer than a year or two at a time. He operates with an uncomfortable blend of insecurity and self-awareness, and while some of the slander is warranted, it’s crucial to understand that his fall from grace goes beyond music – a life filled with tragedy and unhealthy coping mechanisms has left him a shell of his former self.ġ7-year old Debbie Mathers nearly died during the 73-hour birth of her son, Marshall Bruce Mathers III. His fan base is split between the die-hard demographic that flocks to every release with unwavering adulation, and the former stans that objectively see the sharp decline in his artistry.Įvery recent Eminem album seems to be predicated on two things: addressing the backlash of the previous one, while also acknowledging the extent of his responsibility in its reception.
We revisit his meteoric rise from trailer parks to superstardom to make sense of this glaring dissonance.Īs someone who fell in love with rap after buying The Eminem Show in 2002, watching Marshall Mathers tarnish his legacy for the better part of a decade has been extremely difficult. At the tail end of his career, Eminem is at a crossroads between legacy and longevity.
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