Legend has it… nothing rhymes with the word “orange” and while sitting across from Anderson Cooper, rapper Eminem proceeded that to debunk this lyrical myth. When it comes to word play and rhymes, the man can do the impossible. Hitting it big as an anti-pop star, going after all the top charting artists but this MC soon became so successful that he accidentally became a top charting pop star himself. But of course, this legendary musician tried to fight off the demons of fame and fortune when they manifested in the form of substance abuse and depression. He would over come them, then relapse and recover again… but where he is at in his monster career now? Is he still rapping it up in da streets? Still topping the charts? Still spitting super fly fresh lyrics from his angry little mouth, which now has a weird beard?
So yeah WTF Happened to…EMINEM?
But to truly understand what the f*ck happened to Eminem, we go back to the beginning. And the beginning began when she was born on October 17th, 1972 in St. Joseph, MO as, yes, Marshall Mathers. After his father abandoned him, he was left with mom Debbie, bouncing around the Detroit ‘burbs, getting beaten and bullied by neighbors–some of whom would be verbal targets later on.
In the fourth grade, Marshall Maters was taking a piss in the school bathroom…which proved to be a bad move, as sixth-grader DeAngelo Bailey entered and beat it all out of him. The assaults carried over into the schoolyard, with one instance sending him to the hospital. But Marshall would retaliate like only he could…through his music and throughout his career, Marshall aka Slim aka Eminem would get his revenge–on bullies, on family, on life–by living through his music
At 14, Em started rapping with a friend under M&M, attending open mics in high school and engaging in rap battles. Here, he played with and crafted rhythm and style, studying the field of Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Mane and more. Around this scene, he formed D12, a group he’d later help get a spotlight.
By 1996, it was time for his debut, Infinite, selling cassettes out of his trunk. It was poorly received, far from refined. At the same time, he was raising his daughter, Haillie, living with her and Kim in his mom’s trailer. Pressures to break out and drug/alcohol problems led to a suicide attempt. But he would be reborn instead…on the toilet of all places, concocting the name Slim Shady while…you know. The next year, he released the Slim Shady EP, named after his alter ego. There were darker lyrics playing–sometimes humorously–off his troubles. At the Rap Olympics, Em stuck his landing and got the attention of Interscope’s Jimmy Lovine and pioneering rapper Dr. Dre, who signed him despite skepticism from some that he was a white boy in a traditionally Black game.
1999 brought The Slim Shady LP and the dude was far from Vanilla Ice. He was angry and funny and talented, with themes of murder, drugs, revenge, and bullying tearing through the tracks. This was Eminem. The album went triple platinum in its first year, going on to win the Best Rap Album Grammy (his first of a record six) and “My Name Is” individually being honored. He next founded Shady Records and married Kim (uh, did she not hear the album?!), although they’d divorce in 2001, giving Em plenty of material.
The next year saw the more autobiographical The Marshall Mathers LP, with songs about family issues, his abuses and coping with sudden fame (“Stan”). As would be a recurring theme, he’d face accusations of misogyny and homophobia – his lyrics damn near got him banned from Canada–partly squashed by a Grammy duet with Elton John, that same night becoming the first back-to-back Best Rap Album winner. But it wasn’t all celebration, as Em also had his first major run-in with the law for a concealed weapon and assault.
2002 brought The Eminem Show, with Em getting political by openly criticizing the Bush administration. Still, it was more mature, with the rapper trying to ditch what many criticized him for. And yes, it also was the best-selling album of the year (nearly 8 million copies) and won a third Best Rap Album. And Em wasn’t done yet, starring in 8 Mile, one of the most admirable music biopics ever. He would earn major praise for his performance, later proving a draw as he was also supposed to play the lead boxer in Southpaw and was tied to Jumper, Training Day, Elysium and even Mad Max Fury Road. Of historic note, anthem “Lose Yourself” later becoming the first rap song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. Perhaps not surprisingly, mounting fame pushed Em into a pill addiction, at one point hitting 40-60 Valiums and 30 Vicodins a day.
2004 brought Encore and more disdain for Bush, with “Mosh” leading to a Secret Service investigation. Encore was looser, finding Em almost goofing around and blasting comedic lyrics. Maybe as a partial result of this–and the rise of the likes of Kanye, Encore was the first Grammy loss for Em. It was also around this time he had his first stint in rehab. He even considered retirement, which almost seems as crazy as remarrying Kim, which he did in 2006, the same year of the murder of longtime friend Proof. This would push Em near the edge, overdosing 2007 on methadone equivalent to what doctors said was four bags of heroin.
The appropriately titled Relapse came in 2009. Sales were not great and even Em would later diss it on his next album, saying it made him cringe due to the overuse of accents. And then came Recovery (2010), another aptly titled album that returned him to Grammy glory. It had a more positive outlook on dealing with his, yes, recovery, with less focus on Slim Shady and
ditching skits entirely. The return to greatness was the best-selling album of the year, with 19 weeks at #1. After a three-year break we got The Marshal Mathers LP 2, winning his sixth Best Rap Album Grammy, a record that stands today.
2017 brought Revival and even more trouble–in more ways than one. Em was outspokenly anti-Trump, even later being questioned by the Secret Service. But this didn’t really point to any major success, and it is widely considered his worst album. The next year, Kamikaze dropped, appropriately enough, without warning. It, like Revival, was not well received, with Em being slammed for returning to homophobic slurs despite trying to show maturity in later years. It’s the worst-reviewed album of his entire career.
Anger built into 2020’s Music to be Murdered By, with the politically-driven “Darkness” (channeling the Las Vegas shooting), “Unaccommodating” (a video which evoked the Manchester Arena bombing that same year) and more. It all lacked taste and just felt like Mathers trying to be provocative, far more than his earlier albums.
Still, Eminem continues to do good, no matter what his haters–and there are a lot through his timeline, ranging from ICP and Christina Aguilera to Machine Gun Kelly and his own mom (she’s the only one who sued him for $10 million, though…)–say. And all of his good deeds stem back to his past, whether through pain or pleasure. There’s the Marshall Mathers Foundation, which supports what he once was: at at-risk youth. There’s restaurant Mom’s Spaghetti, named after a meme-worthy “Lose Yourself” lyric. And he got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a guy who is one of the most influential musicians ever, one that’s sold more than 220 million records and been compared to Shakespeare and Dylan, prose-wise.
Em once said, “Whenever something good happens, the bad always follows. That’s the story of my life since the day I was born.” And it’s fitting that, for Em, it went as follows: RELAPSE, RECOVERY, REVIVAL. He, like the title of his first album, remains infinite. So nobody should give a fuck about what the fuck happened to Eminem, cuz he’s doing just fine.
