Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in hip-hop history, easily the
biggest crossover success the rap
During all this, Em
did some minor studio work, but soon he dropped off the radar
completely, retreating to his Detroit home. He popped up here and there,
most notably debuting the hip-hop channel Shade 45 for Sirius Satellite
Radio in September 2008, but it wasn't until early 2009 that he mounted
a comeback
with Relapse, an album whose very title alluded to some of Mathers' struggles with prescription drugs, but it also announced that after an extended absence, Slim Shady was back. While not quite a blockbuster, the album went platinum, and Eminem followed it at the end of the year with an expanded version of Relapse (dubbed Relapse: Refill) that added outtakes and new recordings.
Recovery,
initially titled Relapse 2, was issued in June 2010. The album debuted
on top of the
Billboard 200 chart, where it remained for five
consecutive weeks, while its leadoff single, "Not Afraid," debuted on
top of the magazine's Hot 1The year 2010 also brought Eminem back together with Royce da 5'9" under the Bad Meets Evil moniker. In turn, June 2011's Hell: The Sequel
marked the release of their first EP as a duo and -- barring the
previous month's release of key EP track "Fastlane" as a single -- was
their first batch of new material since a 1999 double A-side. After an
intense period of recording, Eminem announced in August 2013 that his next solo album would be a nostalgically themed set of new material entitled The Marshall Mathers LP 2,
which landed in early November. The album featured the singles
"Berzerk," "Rap God," and "Survival," plus the chart-topping hit "The
Monster" with Rihanna. In 2014, new tracks landed on the double-disc set Shady XV, which celebrated the Shady label's 15th birthday. The singles "Phenomenal" and "Kings Never Die" featuring Gwen Stefani arrived a year later, both of them sourced from the Southpaw soundtrack.genre has seen in years. Rapid,
fluid, dexterous, and unpredictable, and thanks to his mentor Dr. Dre,
heTo call Eminem hip-hop's Elvis is correct to a degree, but it's largely inaccurate. Certainly, Eminem was the first white rapper since the Beastie Boys to garner both sales and critical respect, but his impact exceeded this confining distinction. On sheer verbal skills, Eminem
was one of the greatest MCs of his generation -- rapid, fluid,
dexterous,
and unpredictable, as capable of pulling off long-form
narrative as he was delivering a withering aside -- and thanks to his
mentor Dr. Dre, he had music to match: thick, muscular loops that evoked the terror and paranoia Em's music conjured. And, to be certain, a great deal of the controversy Eminem courted -- and during the turn of the millennium, there was no greater pop cultural bogeyman than Marshall Mathers
-- came through in how his violent fantasias, often directed at his
mother or his wife, intertwined with flights of absurdity that appealed
to listeners too young to absorb the psychodramas Eminem explored on his hit albums, The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP.
With hits "My Name Is" and "The Real Slim Shady," he ruled the
airwaves, but it wasn't long before some detractors acknowledged his
depth, helped in part by singles like the mournful "Stan," written from
the perspective of an obsessed fan. Eminem
capitalized on this forward momentum by crossing over onto the big
screen with 8 Mile, earning acclaim for his performance and an Oscar for
the film's anthem "Lose Yourself," but a number of demons led him to
shut down for the second half of the decade, an absence that proved life
is indeed empty without Em, before he returned in 2009 with Relapse.
Born Marshall Mathers in the Kansas City suburb St. Joseph, Eminem
spent his childhood between Missouri and Michigan, settling in Detroit
by his teens. At the age of 14, he began rapping with a high-school
friend, the two adopting the names "Manix" and "M&M," which soon
morphed into Eminem. Under this name, Mathers
entered battle rapping, a struggle dramatized in the fictionalized 8
Mile. Initially, the predominantly African-American audience didn't
embrace Eminem,
but soon his skills gained him a reputation, and he was recruited to
join several rap groups. The first of these was the New Jacks, and after
they disbanded, he joined Soul Intent, who released a single in 1995.
This single also featured Proof, and the two rappers broke off on their own to form D-12, a six-member crew that functioned more as a Wu-Tang-styled collective than a regularly performing group.
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