A LIFE IN RAP
Eminem
b. 1972 · Male Musician
Early Life
Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri. His father left the family when he was about a year and a half old, and his mother raised him largely on her own, moving frequently between Missouri and Michigan before the family settled in Detroit when he was 12. He grew up in poverty in tough, often majority-Black working-class neighborhoods, where he was bullied and, in one incident, beaten badly enough to suffer a serious head injury — an experience he later wrote about in his music.
At 14, Mathers began rapping with classmates under the name M&M, which evolved into Eminem, and cut his teeth in Detroit’s battle-rap scene, performing regularly at the Hip-Hop Shop on West 7 Mile Road through the late 1990s. He moved through several groups, including New Jacks, Soul Intent, Outsidaz, and D12, sharpening the rapid-fire, technically dense style that would define his career.
Rise to Fame
His 1996 debut album, Infinite, sold poorly and drew criticism, but the darker, more satirical Slim Shady EP released the following year began building underground buzz. An intern at Interscope Records picked up a copy at the 1997 Rap Olympics, where Eminem placed second, and passed it along to producer Dr. Dre, who signed him to Aftermath Entertainment in March 1998.
The Slim Shady LP, released in February 1999, was a commercial breakthrough, going quadruple platinum and introducing Eminem’s alter ego to a mass audience. His follow-up, The Marshall Mathers LP, shattered sales records in 2000, moving 1.76 million copies in its first week and cementing him as one of the biggest names in music.
Career Highlights
Eminem’s catalog since has included The Eminem Show (2002), the best-selling album of that year and later certified Diamond; Encore (2004); Recovery (2010), the world’s best-selling album of that year; The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013); Kamikaze (2018); Music to Be Murdered By (2020); and The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) in July 2024, which knocked Taylor Swift out of the top spot on the Billboard 200. He has sold more than 220 million records worldwide, become the first artist to notch ten consecutive number-one albums on the Billboard 200, and the first rapper with two Diamond-certified albums.
His accolades include 15 Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Lose Yourself,” from the 2002 film 8 Mile, which he also starred in. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 and performed at the Super Bowl LVI halftime show that same year alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige. More recently, he collaborated with LL Cool J on “Murdergram Deux” and appeared on Snoop Dogg’s “Gunz N Smoke” in 2024, teamed with JID on “Animals (Pt. I)” in 2025, won Favorite Hip Hop Artist and Favorite Hip Hop Album at the 2025 American Music Awards, and performed alongside Jack White at the Detroit Lions’ Thanksgiving halftime show in November 2025. A documentary on his career and fanbase, Stans, was announced in August 2025.
Personal Life
Eminem married Kimberly Anne Scott, his on-and-off partner since high school, in 1999; the couple divorced in 2001, remarried in January 2006, and divorced again later that same year. Together they share a daughter, Hailie Jade Scott Mathers, who has become a public figure in her own right, including through a podcast with her husband. Eminem has raised three children in total, including his niece Alaina and Kim’s daughter Whitney.
He has been open about a serious addiction to prescription medication, particularly sleep aids, that nearly killed him; he entered rehabilitation in 2005 and has spoken candidly about his recovery in interviews and in albums like Recovery. He has remained based in the Detroit area throughout his career and is known for keeping a low public profile outside of his music.
Net Worth & Legacy
Eminem’s net worth is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, built from record sales, touring, publishing, and business ventures including his Shady Records label and Mom’s Spaghetti restaurant in Detroit.
From a bullied kid in Detroit battle-rap circles to one of the best-selling recording artists in history and an Oscar winner, Eminem redefined mainstream hip-hop with his technical precision and confessional intensity, influencing a generation of rappers while remaining, decades into his career, one of music’s most consistently chart-topping and closely watched figures.