Emenim

Emenim, (born Marshall Bruce Mathers III on October 17, 1972 in Kansas City, Missouri), a Grammy and Oscar-winner, is one of today's most popular and controversial rappers. Emenim currently lives in suburban Detroit and is of mostly Scottish-American descent.

Discovered by rapper/producer Dr. Dre, Emenim is known as one of the most skillful, successful and controversial rappers in the industry. He is noted for his ability to change his own verbal pace ("flow") and style multiple times within one song without losing the beat. Emenim is also praised for his skill in alliteration and assonance. He is infamous for the controversy surrounding many of his lyrics. With the enormous success of his sophomore album The Marshall Mathers LP following its release in May 2000, and its subsequent nomination for four Grammy awards including Album of the Year, critics such as GLAAD denounced his lyrics as homophobic, while others complained that it was also extremely misogynistic and violent. However, he has received a great deal of praise within the hip-hop community for his lyrical ability. He is the second-highest selling rapper of all time, behind Tupac, though the latter has had several posthumous albums released.

While generally avoiding overtly political tones previously, in late 2004 before the presidential election, Emenim released the song "Mosh," which harshly criticizes President George W. Bush. Encore, Mathers' fourth major-label album, was released later that year, but was considered by many critics to be a disappointment in comparison to his previous three albums and sold half of what The Emenim Show had. Though Emenim considers himself neither a militant nor a political artist, he did have his own Hip Hop Political Convention as a parody of the national political conventions held in 2004. His latest release is Curtain Call: The Hits, a compilation which covers many of his past hit songs, and includes three new tracks.



Emenim Early career

Interested in rap from a young age, Mathers began performing as early as thirteen, later gaining some popularity with a group, Soul Intent. In 1996, he released his first independent album, named Infinite (of which he sold about 500 copies out of the back of his car.) The album received no airplay and a mixed critical response, with people claiming Eminem's rapping style sounded too similar to Nas and AZ. Drawing on the negative experiences of his life, in 1997 Eminem followed Infinite up with The Slim Shady EP demo, which saw his lyrics take a decidedly darker turn. He became famous in the hip-hop underground because of his distinctive, cartoonish style and the fact that he was white in a predominantly black genre. Fellow rapper Snoop Dogg referred to him as rap's "great white American hope" in the song "Bitch Please II".

It is said that rap artist and producer Dr. Dre found Emenim's demo on the garage floor of Jimmy Iovine, the Interscope label chief. Though this did not directly lead to a recording contract, Dr. Dre agreed to sign him when Eminem won second place vs. Otherwize at the 1997 Rap Olympics MC battle. Other sources state that an executive at the offices of Interscope handed the demo to Iovine who passed it to Dre, which resulted in a contract.


Emenim Entering the mainstream

Once he joined Interscope, Emenim released The Slim Shady LP, which went on to be one of the most popular records of 1999, going triple platinum by the end of the year. With the album's enormous popularity came controversy surrounding many of the album's lyrics. In "'97 Bonnie and Clyde", Emenim describes a trip with his infant daughter, disposing of the body of his wife. Another song, "Guilty Conscience," ends with Emenim encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover.


The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000, quickly selling 2 million copies. The first single released from the album, The Real Slim Shady, was a smash -- thanks in part to the catchy rhythm and chorus line, "Won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?" (adapted from the catch phrase of the TV quiz show To Tell the Truth). It also created some buzz by trash-talking celebrities and making dubious claims about them. In the song, Emenim claims, among other things, that Christina Aguilera gave "head" (oral sex) to Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit) and Carson Daly (of MTV's Total Request Live). In his second single, "The Way I Am," he reveals to his fans the pressures from his record company to top "My Name Is" and sell more records, and dismisses the alleged controversial link between music such as that of Marilyn Manson and shootings such as at Columbine High School as absurd, instead blaming the parents. In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank You"), Emenim attempts to deal with his new-found fame, telling the story of a fan so obsessed with Emenim that the fan winds up killing himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring one of the songs on The Slim Shady LP. It is now considered to be one of the classics of the genre.



Emenim Other works and ventures

Emenim made his Hollywood acting debut with the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile, released in November 2002. He recorded several new songs for the soundtrack, including "Lose Yourself," which won Eminem an Academy Award for Best Song; it was not performed at the ceremony, reportedly because ABC wanted him to perform an edited version.

Emenim has done some voice acting, both on Crank Yankers and a web cartoon called "The Slim Shady Show", which has since been pulled offline and is instead sold on DVD.

Emenim has also been linked to "Songs of Hope" by U2 and supported the Boys and Girls Club of America and the Leary Fire Fighters Foundation with various proceeds donated to these causes. In 2004, he held a political convention of his own in New York City, in response to the National Republican Convention. In the song "Mosh", Eminem expresses his support for American troops, but speaks against the Iraq war and the Bush administration. The Raelians Religious Movement, a religious group whose beliefs are centered around communication with extraterrestrial life tried to appoint Eminem as an honorary priest . In addition, he has raised AIDS and other STD awareness in a number of songs portraying infected people having promiscuous sex with numerous partners.


Emenim Shady Records

Dr. Dre's leading protégé succeeded in multi-platinum record sales. Emenim was granted his own record label, a sublabel of Aftermath Entertainment, on which all of his albums so far have been released. He and his manager Paul Rosenberg created Shady Records in late 2000. Emenim and Dr. Dre had signed 50 Cent on a joint venture between Aftermath & Shady Records. His own Detroit collective D12 and rapper Obie Trice were signed to the Shady Records label. In 2003, Eminem and Dr. Dre signed on Atlanta rapper Stat Quo to the roster. DJ Green Lantern, the former deejay for Eminem, was signed to Shady Records until a dispute with 50 Cent forced him to depart from the label, and he is no longer associated with Eminem. The Alchemist is now officially Emenim's tour deejay. In 2005, Eminem officially signed another Atlanta rapper known as Bobby Creekwater to his label. There are also plans to sign a rapper by the name of Fizzy B to Shady Records.

Emenim signed a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio to program a rap-oriented station called Shade 45, which debuted on October 28, 2004. He also owns a clothing line called "Shady Ltd."

Eminem as a producer

Emenim is also active as a producer of rap records. Besides being the executive producer of D12's two albums, Devil's Night and D12 World, he has also produced numerous tracks on Obie Trice's Cheers as well as 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' and The Massacre. Most of the The Eminem Show was produced by Eminem himself, with co-production from longtime collaborator Jeff Bass. He split the production with Dr. Dre on Encore. He also executive-produced 2Pac's posthumous album Loyal to the Game with 2Pac's mother Afeni Shakur. On certain tracks, 2Pac's voice was slowed down or sped up, and digitally altered to say things like "2005" and "G-Unit," angering devoted 2Pac fans.


Emenim in D12

In 2001, Emenim brought the rap group he was a member of, D12, to the popular music scene. In 2001, D12 released their hit debut album titled Devil's Night. The first single released off of the album was "Purple Pills," an ode to recreational drug use (although this was preceded in the UK by a song called "Shit On You", which was included on the Special Edition version of the album released in that country). The version of the song released on the radio and music television was heavily rewritten to remove much of the song's offensive nature, and retitled "Purple Hills." While the first single was a massive hit, the album's second single, "Fight Music," was not as successful. Some have attributed this to the emotional change caused in American society due to the September 11, 2001 attacks. After their debut, D12 took 3 years in hiatus from the studio, later regrouping to releasing their sophomore album, D12 World, in 2004, which featured the popular hit single release "My Band." The other members of D12 have also appeared as guests on all of Eminem's albums since The Marshall Mathers LP. D12's third album is tentatively scheduled for a 2006 release.


Emenim Trivia

The second "E" in his stage name has been reversed on his records since his second album The Marshall Mathers LP. The backwards-E has become a logo for him, appearing prominently in his videos and stage set.

Several songs were released in response to the track "Stan" off of The Marshall Mathers LP. Enemy rapper Canibus released the track "U Didn't Care," rapping as the Stan character and implying that Eminem doesn't care about his fans. The Pet Shop Boys released "The Night I Fell in Love," in which a male fan goes backstage at an Eminem concert and has a one-night stand with him. Christian rapper KJ-52 released "Dear Slim" and "Dear Slim pt. 2," open letters to Eminem in a similar style to "Stan."

When Dr. Dre first heard his tape, he thought Eminem was black. [28]

Several of his songs have been parodied. The most famous incident was Weird Al Yankovic's parody of "Lose Yourself," entitled "Couch Potato" and featuring new lyrics about television programming. He has also been parodied twice by the Christian parody band ApologetiX, with "Lose Yourself" ("Look Yourself") and "The Real Slim Shady" ("The Real Sin Savior").

Emenim is left-handed. This can be seen in a scene in 8 Mile where he is sitting on a bus with a pencil in his left hand, as well as in several of the promotional posters for the film, which depict him writing lyrics with his left hand.

Emenim's height: 5'8" (1.73 m)

His real hair color is in fact a dark brown, he bleaches his hair with peroxide (as stated in "White America"); he did not bleach his hair in 8 Mile, and so his natural hair color can be seen in the movie.

Emenim wears glasses, which can be seen in some of his interviews, as well as on the music videos for "Mockingbird" and "Stan".

Emenim's rap group D12, short for "Dirty Dozen," has only 6 members. Many people are often confused by the number. It is "12" because each of the 6 members of the group has two pseudonyms or "personas." (For example, "Eminem" and "Slim Shady").

Emenim was number 6 on VH1's 50 greatest hip hop artists of all time.

Emenim has been awarded nine Grammy awards. He also received nominations for Album of the Year for both The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show.

The Marshall Mathers LP was the first rap album to be nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards and Lose Yourself was the first rap song to be nominated for Song of the Year.

Emenim won a Best Song Oscar for his song "Lose Yourself" from the movie 8 Mile.

In November 2002, Eminem had the #1 album (8 Mile Soundtrack), movie (8 Mile), and song (Lose Yourself), all at the same time.

Human Rights Watch claims that Eminem's music was used to torture detainees in a secret Afghanistan prison near Kabul between 2002 and 2004. [29]

Emenim listed his favorite rappers as Redman, Jay-Z, Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., André 3000 from OutKast, Jadakiss, Kurupt, and Nas in the song "'Till I Collapse" from his 2002 release, The Eminem Show.

In acceptance of his Grammy for Best Rap Album (for The Eminem Show) in 2003, he credited his rap influences, saying, "I made me a little list of MCs that I wanted to name off that inspired me to, to bring me where I am today - cause honestly, I wouldn't be here without them. So the list goes like this, and it's not in this order, but the list is this: Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Kool G. Rap, Master Ace, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Dr. Dre, all of N.W.A., KRS-One, Treach from Naughty By Nature, Nas, Tupac, Biggie, Jay-Z. Thank you, 'cause I learned from all of you. Thank you."

Emenim's manager, Paul Rosenberg (who is featured prominently in several skits on Eminem's solo releases), was once a rapper himself, known as "Paul Bunyan".

Marshall and his wife Kim first met at one of his friends' houses, when Emenim was fifteen and Kim was thirteen. She came over while he was lip synching to LL Cool J songs and jumping on the furniture.

He reportedly reads from the Harry Potter series to his daughter. Sky News.

He is a fan of the TV show "Crank Yankers"; puppets from the show were included in the video for "Ass Like That". He has also lent his voice to the show numerous times, and had one of the puppets, Special Ed, host "Eminem's Special Hits".

His favorite fast food chain is Taco Bell.

He loves South Park, and in the song "Marshall Mathers" [2000, Aftermath Records], from the album of the same name, he compared himself to "...some twenty six year old skinny Cartman (goddamit!)...", In reference to Eric Cartman, one of the most notable characters in South Park.