Eminem

Από τη Βικιπαίδεια, την ελεύθερη εγκυκλοπαίδεια

Eminem. (πραγμ. όνομα Marshall Bruce Mathers III). Γεννήθηκε στις 17 Οκτώβρη 1972 στο St. Joseph, στο Missouri, και μεγάλωσε στο Detroit. Έχει βραβευτεί από την ακαδημία Grammy για την πολυδιάστατη δράση του στην Αμερικανική show bizz (ως raper, παραγωγός μουσικής και περιστασιακός ηθοποιός).

Ο Eminem ανακαλύφθηκε από τον raper και παραγωγό Dr. Dre και υπέγραψε με την εταιρία του (Aftermath Entertainment). Άρχισε να γίνεται γνωστός από τα πρώτα του κιόλας βήματα στην δισκογραφία, με το CD single "My Name Is", καθώς κέρδιζε εύκολα τον σεβασμό των άλλων rapers με τα τεχνικά προσόντα και τις λυρικές ικανότητές του. --Saturn 14:00, 10 Νοεμβρίου 2006 (UTC)

Eminem is noted for his ability to change his vocal pace and style multiple times within one song without losing the beat, and has been praised for his skill in alliteration and assonance. He's also infamous for the controversy surrounding many of his lyrics. With the enormous success of his highly acclaimed album The Marshall Mathers LP and its subsequent nomination for four Grammy awards including Album of the Year, critics such as GLAAD denounced his lyrics as homophobic and misogynist, while others protested that it promoted violence.

Aftermath recently released a greatest hits album from Eminem called Curtain Call: The Hits, a compilation covering many of his previous commercial hit songs, in addition to three new tracks. Mathers has stated that he is taking a break from solo work, but is in no way retiring as he continues to produce and collaborate with his fellow Aftermath artists as well as G-Unit artists and rappers under his Shady Records label.

To date, Eminem has sold around 50 million albums worldwide.[1] He's also, according to the Guinness World Records, the fastest-selling rap artist as "The Marshall Mathers LP" went to sell over 1.7 million domestic copies in its first week. [2]

[Επεξεργασία] Early life

By most accounts, the Mathers family was poor, which was the primary reason for their constant moves, during which Marshall and his mother would often find themselves living in trailers, mobile homes, and under the care of relatives. From time to time they would also live in their car (this is where Eminem's little brother was born. During this time, Debbie Mathers was legally taking the illegal drugs Marijauna and Valium; Marshall Mathers later claimed in numerous interviews and songs that his mother was abusing the drugs,[1] to which she retaliated with a lawsuit pressing defamation charges (see below). In the song "Cleaning Out My Closet" (The Eminem Show, 2002), Mathers also accuses his mother of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy, adding that "my whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn't." This was not the first time someone had suggested she had the disorder; a social worker had made similar comments following a 1996 investigation of her mistreatment of her second child, Nathan Samra-Mathers.

Mathers was especially close to his uncle, Ronald Mcdonald "Ronnie" Polkingharn, who was born just three months before him, on July 27, 1972. Polkingharn introduced Mathers to hip-hop and the two were best friends. On December 14, 1991, 19-year-old Polkingharn committed suicide, an event which Mathers has said was devastating, not just to him but to the entire extended family. Ronnie Nelson's older brother Steven suffered a stroke as a result of the stress. Mathers was so distraught he abandoned his musical career for a year. References to Ronnie's death appear in several songs, including "Stan", "Cleaning Out My Closet", "Mockingbird," and "My Dad's Gone Crazy." Mathers has a tattoo on his upper left arm that says "Ronnie R.I.P."

Before dropping out of Lincoln High School in Warren at the age of 17 (after failing ninth grade three times), Mathers made a number of significant acquaintances at the school one of them included Evan Perks a 3 time chess champion that got shot in a drive by and also included the late rapper Proof, who was to become one of his closest friends, and future wife Kimberly Ann "Kim" Scott, with whom he soon developed a long-term relationship. When she became pregnant, Mathers started working on getting a record deal to support his new family; He discusses this in "Never 2 Far" (Infinite, 1996), saying "I got a baby on the way, I don't even got a car...I still stay with my moms...we gotta make some hit records or something [because] I'm tired of being broke..." When the Infinite album failed to generate the revenue and acclaim he had hoped for, she ended their relationship, preventing him from seeing his newborn child, a daughter named Hailie Jade Scott (born December 25, 1995); distraught, he attempted suicide with an overdose of Tylenol. After the attempt failed, he resumed his efforts to succeed in the music industry and reconcile with his ex-girlfriend.(Linda Swanna) [2] He ultimately succeeded in doing both, marrying her on June 14, 1999, in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Mathers would go on to mention his daughter extensively in some of his songs, including "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" (The Slim Shady LP, 1999), which takes the form of a one-sided dialogue with Hailie, as well as "Hailie's Song" (The Eminem Show, 2002), "Mockingbird" (‘‘Encore’’, 2004), and "When I'm Gone" (Curtain Call: The Hits, 2005), all of which are proclamations of his love and dedication to her. In addition, he samples her voice in the track "My Dad's Gone Crazy" (The Eminem Show, 2002). Μέσον:Παράδειγμα.mp3

[Επεξεργασία] Early career

Interested in rap from a young age, Mathers began performing as early as 13, later gaining some popularity with a group, Soul Intent. In 1996, he released an independent underground 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. It was after this, that stress, drama and negativity spread in his life. In 1997 he followed Infinite with The Slim Shady EP demo, which saw his lyrics take a decidedly darker turn, in songs like "No One's Iller" and "Murder Murder", the latter in which he talks about having to commit crimes to feed his daughter. 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 refers to him as rap's "great white American hope" in the song "Bitch Please II" off of Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP.

Eminem had done a notable amount of work with fellow Detroit emcee Royce da 5'9" early in his career. They referred to themselves as Bad Meets Evil, with Eminem playing the evil and Royce playing the bad in the song of the same name on The Slim Shady LP. Royce da 5'9" and Eminem were considered to be two of the best underground emcees in Detroit and were both respected for their battling skills. The Jay-Z song "Renagade" uses Eminem's verses from a song originally done with Royce called "Renegade". The song's first verse ends with the words, "Royce, he's the king of Detroit..." which was replaced with Eminem making beat box noises for Jay-Z's Renagade (note that the two songs are spelled slightly differently). Eminem makes a reference to Jay-Z using his verses in a song when he claims "Go bring Jay-Z, tell him I'ma ghost-write for him on Dre's beats" from "Stir Crazy" that he recorded with The Madd Rapper.

While the two were great friends and had mutual respect for one another both personally and musically, they eventually had a falling out. Royce later had an altercation with D12 and made numerous songs defaming and disrespecting the group; however, very few lines were aimed at Eminem himself, none of which were direct attacks. The relationship between the two is unknown at the moment but no talks of a collaboration have surfaced. Recent rumors suggest that the argument was subdued prior to Proof's death.

It is said that rap artist and producer Dr. Dre found Mathers' demo on Interscope Records president Jimmy Iovine's garage floor. While this did not directly lead to a recording contract, Dr. Dre agreed to sign Mathers when he won second place versus Otherwize, (though some sources say it was, in fact, MC Juice who defeated him) at the 1997 Rap Olympics freestyle 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.

[Επεξεργασία] Success

At Aftermath/Interscope, Mathers released The Slim Shady LP, which went on to be one of the most popular albums of 1999, going triple platinum by the end of the year. It moved nearly 1.5 million units in it's opening week. With the album's enormous popularity came controversy surrounding many of the album's lyrics. In "'97 Bonnie and Clyde", he describes a trip with his infant daughter, disposing of the body of his wife. Another song, "Guilty Conscience," ends with him encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover. "Guilty Conscience" also marked the beginning of the powerful friendship and musical bond that Dr. Dre and Eminem would share. The two label-mates would later collab on a line of hit songs, including "Forgot About Dre" and "What's The Differrence" from Dr. Dre's highly acclaimed album 2001.

The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000, quickly selling two million copies. It was the fastest selling rap album of all time. The first single released from the album, the hit: The Real Slim Shady, was a huge hit, thanks in part to the catchy rhythm and chorus line, "Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?" (adapted from the catch phrase of the TV quiz show To Tell the Truth). It also created some buzz by insulting celebrities and making dubious claims about them; he implies, among other things, that Christina Aguilera performed oral sex on Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit) and Carson Daly (of MTV's Total Request Live). "The Real Slim Shady" is widely considered to be Eminem's "signature" and best commercial single. 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 Columbine High School as absurd, instead blaming the parents. In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank you"), Eminem attempts to deal with his new-found fame, taking on the perspective of a deranged fan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" on The Slim Shady LP. To this date, "The Marshall Mathers LP" is widely considered to be Eminem's greatest achievement, and a hip-hop classic.

Mathers' third major album, The Eminem Show, was released in summer 2002 and proved to be another smash hit for the rapper shooting to number one on the charts and selling well over 1 million copies in its firs week of release. It featured the single "Without Me", an apparent sequel to "The Real Slim Shady", in which he makes derogatory comments about boy bands, Limp Bizkit, Moby, and Lynne Cheney, among others. The album reflected on the impact of his rise to fame, his relationship with his wife and daughter, and his status in the hip-hop community. He also addresses the charges he faced over assaulting a bouncer he saw kissing his wife in 2000. While there is clear anger present on several tracks, this album was considerably less inflammatory than the previous, and as such did not face any protests of misogyny and homophobia that had plagued The Marshall Mathers LP.

2004 saw the release of Mathers' fourth major album, Encore. The album was another chart-topper for the rapper, driven by the formulaic single "Just Lose It", notable for its lampooning of Michael Jackson. Despite the comedic theme of the lead single, Encore also had its fair share of serious subject matter, including the poignant anti-war track "Mosh". By the end of 2005 Mathers was back with a new single, "When I'm Gone", recorded for the greatest-hits set Curtain Call: The Hits.

Mathers has achieved six UK #1 singles, more than any other rapper, and has also had the most #1 singles in the UK in the 21st century by an American artist and also it makes him the best selling music artist of the 21st Century so far.