Marshall Bruce Mathers III

Marshall Mathers is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter, and actor.  He typically goes by his stage name Eminem and occasionally his stage alter ego name Slim Shady.  Eminem has been listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by magazines like the Rolling Stones and is listed as a best selling artist around the world and in the 2000's.  Eminem's first three albums won Grammy Awards along with his other albums Relapse and Recovery.  He has won 13 Grammy Awards to date.  His seventh studio album Recovery was named best selling album world-wide in 2010.  In 2002 he starred in the hip-hop film 8-mile, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song making him the first rap artist to ever win that award.

Mathers was raised by his mother after his father left them.  They moved around a lot but eventually settled down in Detroit when Mathers was a teenager.  At 11 years old Mathers was introduced to the rap/hip-hop genre by his uncle and began performing amateur rap songs at age 14 under the stage name M&M (Marshall Mathers).  Although the rap genre is predominantly led my people of African American origin, Mathers was accepted and liked.  As he grew older and gained more life experiences, Mathers became well known for incorporating his life struggles and his family into his music.  People he has included in his songs include his daughter Hailie, his uncle Ronnie who introduced him to rap, his mother Debbie, and his ex-wife Kim.

Controversy and skepticism have always followed Mathers and his music but he always manages to create top-selling albums.  He has written songs about taking his infant daughter to dispose of his wife's body, and even insults numerous artists, actors, and actresses.  When Eminem created the alternate persona Slim Shady the music that he came out with were ridden with drug, alcohol, sexual, mental instability and violent lyrics.  It is at this time that he wrote a song encouraging a man to kill his wife and her lover.

Although he has been ridden by countless legal issues, drug problems, and mental-instability along with many other problems, he is still managing to make top-selling records and is loved world-wide for his rap artistry other talents.