eminem aka slim shape aka Marshall who's madness the third he
is a survival rap star father actor felon media mogul the voice of a
generation he is immerses raps most controversial
performance storyteller an artist whose provocative imagery and dark rhymes have
resonated with America's increasingly disenfranchised youth and it was
multiple personas have enchanted and hypnotized audiences worldwide born into
a broken home he is drawn deeply from the well of his own life which provides
the fuel for vision and artistic will
his lyrics are his life his legend his alter ego and his therapy to understand
his music we must first understand his life in a world he grew up in
I was born in Highland Kansas and my mother left my father when I was
probably about nine months old and brought me to st. Joseph Missouri and
left me with my abusive alcoholic grandmother st. Joseph's Missouri is a
quiet working-class town it is a town Marshalls grandmother Betty grew up in a
town his mother Debbie grew up there a place tarnished with the effects of
alcoholism abuse and instability the challenges in Marshalls family life will
be set in motion long before his birth the residual effects of generations of
abuse was passed on by his great grandmother even as she lay dying she
died a hell of a death at 93 and I was so glad and she called for me on her
deathbed and I told her I said you know I'm glad you're dying she says can you
forgive me and I says no I can't forgive you the way you beaten induced a little
child a little child innocent child I said you know you're going to hell don't
you and she looked up at me and I said god help you despite the years of abuse
Betty dreamt of a better life well as a young girl I wanted to just be a mother
I wanted a great big family you know I was going to have this house with a
white picket fence like everybody has women and I was just gonna feel good to
my children bake for me you know just love them to death that when everything
went wrong should I married mr. Nelson on his 14th
soon after young maverick Betty gave birth to the first of several children
Debbie Marshalls mother Oh Debbie was so tiny I
was embarrassed I've being so young I had a hard labor and my daughter weighed
probably about four pounds fewer to do a drawing of the Mathers Nelson family
relations are like we look like cats in a bag this is a clan it's hard square
country folk who are close to each other except when they're fighting each other
she could not wait to have a baby brother not long after a baby brother
Rob Betty realized Debbie was unwilling to share the attention of her mother put
him down for a nap one time so I walk him to the bedroom and she's got her
father's ranch big wrench just about to hit him in the head I had to watch
Debbie from then on continuously Betty's Mavericks ended and the children
had a succession of would-be stepfathers I cannot remember a time ever when there
was not a man in the house ever really get close to my stuff did they were
pretty much alcoholics there was a lot of drama
no growing up for our family there was a lot of police called I was sexually
assaulted by my one stepdad when I was 12 he didn't get the job complete
because he was arrested I remember my mother coming home the police taking him
out and her telling me you've got her hope I can get him on to Joe I don't
believe you I ran away it's like I'm not facing him after get him on a job I'm
not telling him I'm sorry because I'm not sorry because of something he does
she want to get out of house so bad Debbie Debbie just was tired
Debbie searched for a way out one day she thought she finally found it and a
quiet boy who lived on a block and played in a local band Marshall ruse mad
is the second not Bruce and he was my knight in shining armor
my name was 14 Debbie comes in from school about Jesus Bruce and I are
getting married teller Bruce yeah he says I love Debbie and Debbie loves me
and we're getting married Debbie and Marshall Bruce Mathers the second were
married in 1970 am average Debbie Haute would take her away from the troubles of
home it wasn't that I didn't want to be
around my brothers and sisters anymore just I wanted my own life on one of my
own child and I wanted to get away from all that and next thing I know she
finally got pregnant I was pregnant with Ronnie when she got pregnant on October
17th 1972 Debbie gave birth to Marshall Bruce Mathers the third I mean it's like
you know it's gonna have everything he's not gonna want for anything he's going
to be so sheltered so well protected gonna be the best mother in the world
and I made a promise with God alcohol the drugs the drinking the pot on any of
that stuff they would never go through that the fighting none of it finally
happy with the whole family Debbie left for
North Dakota but Bruce would take over his father's job in a hotel the couple
made their home in the basement of Bruce's parents house Debbie said things
begin to get bad she'd go down to coffee shop in the hotel and Bruce would be
playing around the girls naturally she'd be jealous he tell her take the kid and
go home she have a lot of lonely time on her hands and then he begun to beat the
heck out of Marshall Bruce Mathers second was a knife thrower he threw
knives he used to always like to see how close
he get to your foot without hitting it and I remember her calling me and saying
that she's coming home she left on a train when he was maybe 1 or 2 years old
just she says he took their clothes he was wearing they got on a train they
headed for Saint Joe and I think that was sort of the beginning of what was
gonna be many many moves throughout his life
Debbie running again from abuse and the effects of alcoholism left Bruce and
returned home the st. Joseph with Marshall his dad never wanted anything
to do with him Marshall tried to contact him Debbie
tried to contact him he went to California never was seen again Bruce
Mathers then disappeared from his son's life forever
like Betty his grandmother and Debbie his mother Marshall now was caught in
the same cycle of parental abandonment Marshall would never know his father but
he would never forget
we first left his dad and moved back to Missouri I learned a 1-room efficiency
apartment Debbie tried to make ends meet bouncing
from job to job and house to house always trying to make a better life for
a child not realizing the effects such constant change will have on him
Debbie and Marshall moved back and forth from st. Joseph Missouri
to the Detroit area as many as 20 times in his childhood he did move around a
lot but it was always to better herself because I could not stay with my birth
mother at all I mean we were there a couple of days and that was like an
eternity and every time it would be like a dream in a house it's all it right out
from under me Debbie may have tried her best and most parents do trying your
best though doesn't mean that that's exactly what your child needs soon
Debbie and her mother began a class on how to raise Marshall
I don't think he was an angry child I think he would just got his feelings
hurt a lot and I think his mother controlled him a
lot he was a very big mama's boy Marshalls a loner he did not really want
to get out to play with other kids had to kind of coax him he wanted to be with
mommy all the time he never could speak up for himself but
he just go pout and go color his color books you know or go get on his bean bag
and just watch TV kinda look puppy in a corner you know just go back to my
corner he had a disruption and attachment early
on and that his father left him there are people like his uncle Todd who may
be the closest to a consistent father figure you know I was a protector you
know and I was taking fish in art I'd try to teach him what a man was supposed
to be I'd get on him about homosexuality and make sure he knew that you know boys
go with girls and you know vice versa you know things like that they moved
around a lot so he didn't have a lot of stability so those are some of the early
things that may have begun to make him think is the world a trustworthy place
is it okay
in the middle of the chaos young Marsha began to find expression in music Marsha
was surrounded 24/7 with music why he was in my stomach I was saying to him
you know and take the speakers and put all through the house rooms we just
always said it's a while and just be like he hung himself and just bounce
back and forth constantly bounce off the back seat of the car the couch there's
music playing he did this teachers have told me this kid is retarded
you know he's bouncing in his bouncing he has to sit stop he like this all the
time he's real hyper and he have to have him on ritalin and he keep going like
this and keep going like this he bounced off the back seat the first eight years
of his life rocked to the music growing older Marcia will find escape in a
fantastical world of superheroes and comic books I was wanting to act out
cartoon characters and so I would want him you can open the door in his room
and you have Castle Grayskull going okay he'd have his cartoons on he'd have a
whatever he wanted but he he entertained himself a lot he was all he had for
years he liked it that way now you played with friends but he liked you
know entertaining him stuff and creating his own little world
he was an to Batman and he was Batman so everywhere we went with them he had to
wear that outfit yeah most kids they'll go yeah Batman and jump off with
something big yep the lines down he had the moves down a lot of times kids when
they feel like they're external world is impoverished or they feel neglected they
need to feel big and powerful and strong and they can feel big and powerful
sturdy and strong by associating with x-man by associating with Batman and
Superman because they have superpowers then so it really helps them feel like
okay maybe I'm not so small maybe I'm not being as abused as much maybe the
world can be okay because I can be he-man Marshalls blossoming artistic
abilities provided a quiet retreat from the chaos of his surroundings
Marshall loved to draw and get into a lot of arguments and squabbles with
teachers saying he did not draw this free handed so I would say to them okay
well what's having brought something so now and rock-climb what you'd like him
to draw because he could draw anything Debbie and Marshall continued to move
with Marshall changes schools as often as every two or three months he was
always a new kid and if he did return to some place he'd been before he was
usually behind and so those kids didn't know him from before so he's always
starting over somewhere he talks a lot about about this nomadic upbringing in
his music this sort of peripatetic life where you're jumping from one place to
the other
Ronnie Betty's son Debbie's brother was only two months older than Marshall
while Betty and Debbie class on how to raise them the two boys will continually
bond their little carrier sit side-by-side and they make their little
baby talk Guth you know and there was a bombing already there it went over
together you shoulda seen him we knew you couldn't really tell it to apart and
they both had the same color hair got same height and when they talk they
sound just about the same I encouraged him to to laugh and dance and be happy
the two of them are quite a team did not want my mother around mercial earnest
that was just me I had to be there Marshall had been told so many lies I
didn't trust her around town and the dysfunction the yelling the screaming
the fighting they drinking that I stuck deaths could have been doing I didn't
want him subjected to it didn't get too much time together as I started getting
older Debbie we kept pulling Marshall to Michigan and Ronnie to Missouri as
Marshall approached the end of his grade school years Debbie and Marshall was
settled permanently in a Detroit area a city still reeling from the race riots
and major destruction only a few years earlier
there were a lot of tensions at that time a lot of racial tension the city
was in such chaos that the National Guard was mobilized in the streets of
Detroit a racial war zone have been created by the 67 riots marshal will
find himself in the middle of all of it they always lived in neighborhoods
barely a step above the ghetto and in Detroit
Marshall consistently found himself one of the few white kids and predominantly
black schools the neighborhood Eminem grew up in is particularly interesting
because there still houses there and people still live in them but they're
just across the street from the suburbs what you end up with there is a
neighborhood where people have sort of filled in the gaps it's almost like
hermit crabs you know they found a shell that suited them they could afford they
moved in there and they finally became homeowners and just across the street
not too far away from there the people who moved out who feel like they didn't
move out they didn't make a choice in what they
were driven out and so there's a lot of bitterness and there's a lot of tension
that that eight-mile divide as an annual at door Elementary in Roseville Michigan
Marshall was bullied for months by an older student named D'Angelo Bailey
these beatings came to a head in January 1982 my belly cornet Marshall and a
restroom and floor them with a snowball pack with a heavy object no one reported
him missing from class and he was found unconscious and bleeding hours later it
was a nightmare when my son did not come out of the school in the school tonight
it they do that they denied anything about my baby laying in the pool on the
bathroom and I found him laying there and running out to my van with him with
you know the teachers and principals you know well we had a skeletal crew we
didn't notice them missing no one knew how long he'd been there my
name concern was to get him in all medical treatment and because he was
like when I found my son he was in the floor and he was having a seizure
the attack left Marshall in a coma for ten days I want to beg God to spare my
son it was an only child and told him there was anything ever I did wrong in
my life to take me not my child they told me if they give up on my son
for doctors or court in four days twenty one doctors once awake from the coma
Marshalls recovery would be long having to relearn all his basic motor functions
he also suffer from headaches loss of vision and hearing nightmares and nausea
my medical bills were in excess of over 150,000 I had to quit my job to take
care of him and I mean it just it was overwhelming any time you have any kind
of head injury it can be life-changing so when you have an injury to the brain
the effects can be really long-lasting I had a patient many years ago who had a
head injury was meek and mild before turned very angry and aggressive
afterwards took a year from Marshall Thomas yeah I just worked with him every
day teaching him how to tie his shoes he had become almost like an infant
like the medications they had in mind of a cane and a Latin maltose ooh I did not
when I given him medication I seen a zombie and I did not want him
zombie doll I didn't believe in it so the medication was going to go
it comes from my grandmother's side she wrapped all her life she called it
rhyming and she said when she was a little girl in Alabama growing up she
remembers her mama work in the fields cotton fields
you know whites work right alongside of blacks in the cotton fields and they
used to rhyme songs and make up things as they went to pass the time
Marshalls father was in the band and then when we went back to role Stern he
was in a band somewhat at the state line club and then I was in a band when we
back to Missouri which was called it was broad enough
satellites and Daddy Warbucks which I had sung a little bit of backup I played
guitar I play piano I write Marshall AM II love music um his first concert was a
talking hug Ronnie play drums and Marshall tried his hand at drums -
Ronnie was artistic but not near like my grandson Marshall Ronnie was always I
mean when even little I got him a toy drums and little boombox to call him and
he turned up full blast and boy he just danced all the time Eminem's uncle
Ronnie who was about the same age as Eminem is given a lot of credit for for
sort of infecting him with the rat bug in 1981 Ronnie played a song for
Marshall that would change his life it was reckless a song featuring ice-t from
the soundtrack to the movie breaking it was the first rap song Marshall hurt he
took the tape from his uncle Ronnie and played it over and over and over
he's there breakdancing along and we had me hold a sign up but he made a great
big card worth playing around my neck and said breakdancing $0.25 to watch and
I mean this kid could spell in his head for hours looks like I can remember him
sitting in his room for hours basically he's up there and play the same beats
over and over and over and right he would wake me up like at 3 o'clock my
mom is this award does this rhyme music just please help me find it so we did
the dictionary out yes that's a word you know and what's the definition of it and
how my brother Ronnie would do stupid tapes together
and you know like they were performing in front of people so when you got into
music it was like his natural sense of rhythm came right into his play with his
stuff the two of them I can just see them here becoming Ronnie with a figure
from this side and Marshall from this side meeting in the front they were
gonna be big fingers and rappers the two of them never gonna go far away and they
were going to be in movie pictures with the rapping and singing I mean I can
just I just see them and sometimes I famine you know it's wonderful other
times I break down and cry Marshalls iced tea influence would need to stay
strong to pull him through some serious life changes the latest in the line of
foster kids Debbie Mathers had taken in Kimberly Scott into Marshalls life in
1988 when she was just 13 I was on call in the state of Michigan every weekend
the kids were dropped off at the well pretty partly to pick up Marshall is
very jealous of other kids he uh we would sit in a circle and talk if
anybody had a prom here to discuss it and he'd jump up and run up because
you'd be like well you like them more than me
and it's like now premier I'd have to go after everything but he was he was a
it's like I want mom to myself or not at all Kym stepfather didn't want her mama
said Shango so Kim was staying anywhere she could and I remember going to
Michigan and I said what do you got here Oh mom now don't fan her I've got a
daughter now Debbie never had any little girls she took her home cleaned you up
and was so happy to have a girl Kim some settle into the Mathers household with
Debbie doting on every move Kim was very spoiled too because they always one of
the daughter it was tough trying to juggle everything
around I try to just come as much as there was as much as Marshall or anybody
else she was very insecure and she'd been
through a lot when she was young not no no father Jim was real
tight-lipped didn't have much to say him became jealous whenever Debbie would be
on the couch Kim would have to crawl in between you
they fought like brother and sisters you'd never believe that they was ever
going to become in Italy you know get together when you went up to Marshalls
room get the whole upstairs to herself they were always you know I'm resting
together okay I thought Marshall wasn't doing too bad
in the beginning you know she's kind of cute Debbie said one day she came home
and they were playing around so she ordered Kim out and Marshall said I'm
going to so they left they walked out on Debbie and Debbie couldn't stand it and
then they're like we're boyfriend and girlfriend now and you know Kevin told
me haha good time we were and you just doesn't even know it but I don't believe
that she helped him in the beginning established his manhood and know who he
was and Debbie was she almost was a relationship she tried to break him up a
lot of times and it worked there was fight then when the minute
they got in a fight Debbie would add fuels that flame she saw a lot of
problems when I got way out of hand oh no Debbie didn't want that but you know
she wanted just enough to keep him away so she had Marsha all to herself he got
kicked out of his mom's he came and started sleeping at our house
couchsurfing when he first moved in his mom had this big green boat he could
hear it like coming halfway down the street and he'd be like wreck wreck if
my mom comes up to the door I don't live here
why don't you want to talk to your mom your mom she screwed up Baba she'd come
driving by real slow he'd be up in the divisor peeking out looking out like
like what is she doing and she come up to the door no Marshall Byron Williams
is Eminem's former bodyguard and friend Kim is his mother reincarnated as his
mother all over again the middle of Busey took the hood all
the hitting she would hit him I watched her take her high heels off and beat the
kid in had with her shoes I mean and he didn't want to get her back so he
punches power or punch me she has the potential to be a nice
person man I just haven't seen that side of her yet you know but she shoved me
twice every day if they didn't fight it wasn't normal you know it was like they
constantly are at each other's back a lot of times she was very moody you
know I wouldn't let him do a lot of things and stuff and like I said she
whenever he'd have something big going on she'd screw it up they were probably
like I don't know dr. Jekyll meets mr. Hyde relationship you know it could turn
quick and they could right out she's also sort of like home for him she knew
him when nobody else did when he was suffering when he was trying to try to
climb when he was just not sure that it was worth it I'm in my room getting
ready to go to bed and Kym comes over I hear him out in the kitchen and they're
yelling at each other and all of a sudden I hear chairs moving
on the floor and sounds like they're going at it and I'm like thinking to
myself oh my god what's going on you know so I jump out of my room and she's
just beating on him he's not swinging you know I'm just like in total shock oh
my god you know she's picking them up living a life with repeated violence and
abuse Marshall will continue to be tested
few months before that summer and my little brother looked at me and said
stuff look what I have and I'm thinking well this is nice because he opens the
closet and shows me all these quotes and he turns to me and says this is material
you know what I'm missing and it's 100 love I have no love there's no love here
on December 14th 1991 Ronnie Polkinghorne killed himself with a
gunshot to the head Ronnie was despondent over a breakup
with a girlfriend distraught over Ronnie's death Marshall did not attend
his funeral Betty videotaped her son's funeral and
mailed a copy to marshal the bit of you between Betty and her daughter still
confuses what the possible intention of the tape may have been it's really been
bitter about that it just starts the organ music and it's the you know a
bitter area you know and they say I'm and it just shows him in the casket
there because it was open casket and all the flowers and all I thought you've
never been to his family you need to deal with it you know this is reality
but he said I tried to kill him when he got the tape and the pictures he
collapses I was not trying to hurt him when I was told that she sent a video I
really don't think that he really thought too much of it because he can
serve as a source my daughter lied to him and she said
Ronnie would be alive today but you didn't you weren't home to take a phone
call that Ronnie called and asked to speak to Marshall and she said Marshall
wasn't home Marshall needs to know Ronnie did not call him and the guilt
that was put on Marshall thank you my god is my fault
with the loss of his uncle and partner Marv
so would now be left alone the struggle
a bad performance in school will make his chances for success even tougher he
flunked the ninth grade three times daddy was you know Marshall what are you
gonna do it what are you gonna do for a living she was really concerned for him
because he had no one she was scared for the kids future undeterred by his
mother's concerns Marshall will begin focusing intently on his and Ronnie's
dream and develop his skills as a rap artist at the time rap lyrics proclaimed
an anti Authority message of racial politics and the realities of life in
the ghetto early rap artists such as Public Enemy ice-t and NWA were
beginning to influence and inspire Marshall and his crew Eminem had decided
that he wanted to be a rapper but as a white rapper he really had no role model
there was really nobody else out there Marshall began making tapes in the
basement of his mother's house with Deshawn Holton a Lincoln High School
classmate who called himself poof
probably eighteen seventeen to retune was very very very polite mr. Mathers do
you need me to do anything for you or anyone say please and thank you or the
other kids we were just like get me this or do that or no I'm not taking out the
garbage she was using the basement all the time to practice and scratch records
but I found out they were my albums that they used to scratch Marshall and proof
would come out of the basement with a tape they persistently shop to local
record stores including record time run by Harvey Bunner mmm and his crew that
he hung out with they were the basement production crew all his cats that he
used to hang out with and they'd come in and they'd buy all the new hip-hop to
come out it didn't matter who it was if it was something new and cool especially
on New York they bought it so all this stuff's coming in and
they're buying all this stuff and everything but anytime anybody locally
come out they hated them especially Marshall Marshalls like these guys suck
these guys don't have no talent ICP who are they they suck then he started
getting down kid rock and stuff and I happen to have
a shirt on that Dana's like you like Kid Rock and everything I'm like yeah I like
Kid Rock I support local hip-hop and he's like well he sucks I go you're
telling me all these bands that suck but I haven't heard a damn thing come out of
your mouth yet he didn't really make a name for himself until there was a kid
Rock in store that we had he had just released his album on jive records and
he just started getting a buzz so there's all these kids are coming in for
Kid Rock stuff and all of a sudden here comes this little skinny little kid with
blue eyes I'll challenge you to a rap right now yo you want a battle yo yo yo
kind of in Kid Rock's face everybody's like well who is this asshole
oh it's just that Marshall there's an Eminem guy that he calls himself he's
just thought whatever happened he thinks he's going somewhere enology oh you know
every other words that this app that everybody was looking around like who is
this kid because he's coming in the store he buggin Kid Rock you know you
want a battle is there like Kid Rock don't battle you know Kid Rock's like
you know got his own thing going on it was really cool about it he said listen
he goes today is my day your day may come he goes but this is my in-store
right now I've heard some of your stuff and you go way too fast you need to
enunciate when you enunciate people understand you then maybe you can have
an in-store like me so then he became Eminem and that was really when he began
to market himself what him you know he learned the art of business he learned
the art of networking as well as working on his craft and getting better and
better and and in doing that he was able to meet people and get people to listen
to him that maybe were outside of his normal circle of Detroit which helped
him get discovered Eminem began to hone his craft in
earnest attending open mikes and freestyle showcases around Detroit
however the greatest test of his young life was soon arrived Kim got pregnant
he came in and he was like wow man I just found out that Kim's pregnant and
I'm gonna be a dad you know and how am I gonna get a house
I got this job barely pays enough hailey Jade Scott was born Christmas Day
December 25th 1995 I know I think he was born and everything just seemed like it
went Hakan in my water the baby was used as a
weapon against Marshall when instead of following the actions of his father and
grandfather Hailey's birth brought a new sense of focus and determination to
Eminem he was going to succeed his family had failed
Marshall loved his daughter he stepped up to the plate and I mean if he didn't
take care of this imminent view fatherhood as a blessing he threw
himself into providing for his family while polishing his rap skills
Gilbert's Lodge is a down-home Roadhouse outside of st. Clair Shores Marshall
worked at Gilbert's on and off for three years Gilbert's Lodge was probably
Eminem's mainstay for a while I mean that was his steady gig when when the
tapes weren't selling when people weren't coming to his gigs he could
always count on going back to Gilbert's Lodge and flipping burgers and from what
I'm told he was a pretty good short-order cook he would quit there go
to a new job for like two weeks and then go back to Gilbert and put again do
another job and then go back to Gilbert working double shifts for minimum wage
Gilbert's became more home van home when Marshall first started working at
Gilbert's he swore those really baggy baggy pants I'm looking at him going may
have pulled those pants off buddy how can you work and not trip over them
whenever he worked is constantly rapping rapping honing his skills
when he would get a food order for example he'd started rhyme based on what
the food order was you know he would bring in tapes for people and say listen
this where you think about this he try and get people to come out to his
performances and a lot of the people did go I mean they didn't like rap
they might be at a rough Club somewhere in Detroit they wouldn't have gone to
otherwise but they liked him and so they would go to show the support very very
steely focused that's one thing I noticed about him he was very intent you
could see in his eyes everything would just come off the tops of their heads
and I just sit there in amazement but yet I'd be going okay where's my cheese
balls let's go I got people waiting for their food and they're just going out
and out of mind you know and it they did wonderful is it was quite entertaining
when he wasn't working at Gilbert's Lodge he was working on his career
Marshall would usually write either on the little notebook on the back of a
ticket and whatever he could write on he would write on if it was his hand or
he'd always be writing something down he would want to zone its
I can't even explain and when they were going to zone he would be completely
sober man and put his little headphones on and he
would take his finger like this he will actually write the rhymes in his head
and writing them out in the air and he would have like most people have like
one notepad but do you have like five six different pieces of paper it's
almost like he sees the world in a Hall of Mirrors and he takes those distorted
images and he puts them in his music there was no school of hip-hop to where
you could walk in and they you know you got to do it like this he would take
whole page front and back with just small writing I mean you do have to get
a magnifying glass to actually see what he was writing because he'd write so
small you write all these words and like three columns and it would go down all
these words were wine and all the words that didn't completely rhyme with them
but he could make a ROM he would write him in the next column and he would go
in and pick each one of these words and like match him up
it's like decoding it he'd sit down at the table with a track that he liked
he'd play it through and rewind rewind again keep right and keep right and
you're going to booth and he'll sit there and he'll write and you listen to
it and you have the sounds just blaring it's pretty much like the same sample
over and over and over until he get it completely written he's going around the
hip-hop shops all these other places he's getting into these battles downtown
I walk out of the step off the steps of st. Andrews and it's an alleyway in
between st. Andrews in this other club and it was a big circle out there I'm
like oh man they've got to fight and then I'm like I'll get closer to the
circle might know they got a battle going on you know
to establish his reputation as a rapper Eminem began participating in rap
battles at various Detroit hip-hop clubs
st. Andrews Hall is a converted Church and a popular hip-hop club in downtown
Detroit the basement is called the shelter one of the most important
proving grounds in the city being in the shelter is like being in the basement of
your mom's house and you having a big block party everybody that comes in
knows everybody music is pumping and the MCS up there rapid and everybody is
attentive to what they're saying hanging on every word that they said Eminem
would now have to bear out his talents in front of all black audiences like the
song lose yourself from the 8 mile soundtrack the stage is st. Andrews gave
Eminem his first shot even when M will go up there you always have the people
who just like didn't get in to him you still had two other people that
really got into him he really had no role model there was really nobody else
out there and in Detroit at the time there was a place called hip hop shop
Saturdays at the hip hop shop I think they started around 12:00 noon and proof
would usually host and DJ head would usually spend the records I mean it was
pretty much based on the audience ruling who who got burned the hardest and who
was most triumphant the rap battles were that were deep you know you might dig
into somebody's personal lives but you know it was whoever could put their
lyrics to the other the best you know and week after week you could tell when
somebody went home and they would practice in and they lived and breathe
it that's to think about you know going to the rap battles the guys that were
rapping were just some guys who decided yesterday that they want to rap and they
was decided they were gonna write some stuff know these guys lived and breathed
hip-hop but Eminem's early battles were hard for it and never easily won you
just come out start rhyming and was done and leave the stage people are like yeah
he's really good he was putting like a hundred and ten percent and of
everything with any rap battle and anywhere he could be noticed he was
dedicated he was trying to make it he was trying to explain the Kim look you
know this could be our big break let me do it she was always had a word and
about him doing it why are you doing this you need to go out and buy your
debt you know your daughter diapers teaming up with proof and local Detroit
producers Jeff and Mark Bass Eminem made his first record and two song EP called
backstabber backstabber which was inspired by this fight that he
had with Kim his girlfriend at the time I think that was the first time he
really let rip with his emotions on recording he took his tax money and
pressed it up he pressed like 500 to a thousand copies sock did okay I mean he
didn't do massive amounts of numbers I think he's sold like 200 of them mark
Kemp with Eminem's first manager mark founded underground sounds magazine a
national hip hop publication based in Detroit unlike other hip hop magazines
at the time underground sound paid attention to up-and-coming artists
especially if they were from the same hometown of Detroit my original meeting
with Eminem was a phone conversation he called asked me how does he submit his
tape he's he likes a magazine he's interested in getting some type of
coverage in the magazine sent in a tape I liked it I reviewed it did hear that
there was some talent here you can just hear that something's got to happen here
it's it's too good not to happen nothing happened he said a lot of people took
him as a joke and he went to a lot of reverse racism and proof kind of gave
him pretty much the ghetto pass when he first put the tapes out you know people
are like you know not really feeling it you didn't even finish school now you
want to rap you gonna be a white rap it's not gonna work and everybody from
his school from you know guys in the neighborhood the nightclubs people
laughed at him when he was in the suburbs the white
kids didn't want to listen to this kid singing black music then when he was in
the city the black kids didn't want to hear this white kid playing black music
and trying to perform black music somebody at the end of the show passing
something out and the guy took it said this is a joke throws it out and there's
this like some altercation all I saw was this massive amount of people into this
little swarm and he's in the middle of it settled everything tempers you know
settle down and stuff that's when I knew that there was something else behind
this guy that he was very serious about what he wanted to do and he took offense
with what people said to him here he did all this work and put all this stuff out
and people were throwing the trash you weren't even giving it a listen even
through a stormy relationship with Kim the continual struggles of raising a
daughter and the grind of working a minimum-wage job
Eminem relentlessly pursued his music career working once again with Jeff and
Mark II bass the producers who have been mentoring him since he was 15
Eminem was able to complete and release his second recording infinite infinite
comes out I thought it was a really good album all the way through he was out on
cassette it was out on vinyl I remember hearing it listening to it
thinking god this guy's really good I walked into this club to see some groups
I want to see proof group five Ella I wasn't expecting Eminem who was like
you've heard the new Eminem stuff I was like no but this dude over there just
brought me his new new album I was like I want to meet Eminem
where's Eminem at he was like that dude I was like wait a minute the white dude
that just brought this up to me that's Eminem I was floored cuz I got that tape
and a couple others and that was all I listened to wondered why he was still
rapping in tiny clubs ten people for local artists getting on the air of
hip-hop radio station WJLB is a gateway to success in Detroit and beyond
DJ Bushman has followed the scene for years hearing all the potential hopefuls
he was cool with Bush man but Bushman didn't have to say of what went on the
air again there you had to be black to be on the air and
if you weren't then you didn't get it you got tossed aside today's hit music
93 1 Eminem made another important radio connection
DJ Lisa Lisa sponsored open mic nights during her program Eminem called
persistently to audition Lisa Lisa was impressed with his drive
and lyrical expertise so she invited him on he became a station favorite and
wonderful Regulus one of the first couple of wraps he did I'm writing it
was that he was locked in a psycho Ward or something but it was it was almost
like a joke it was like a comedy but then you listened to it it had such a
dark undertone when he jumped out of the mic he turned all of that anger that he
felt in the room teasing him into a strength and he ended up winning I just
remember sitting there watching this little blond white kid like what are you
doing now are you turning this around on these guys for me for him being white I
didn't care I would listen to it I always try to give any feedback to
anybody I could about their music though the album made people in the Detroit
music scene aware of Eminem's talent and abilities infinite was a commercial flop
Eminem and the bass brothers got stuck with the bill he was respected but not
respected I think there was more talk behind his back he used to come home
discouraged a lot there's days he'd be like man I just want to give this up I
want to forget it I'm gonna be done with it I'm gonna just keep working do what I
got to do to get by when he realized he was gonna have to work for a living
Marshall and my sister would compete over who had the most pills yeah they
would fight over who had the most not who had the bills who had the most pills
the black community said no it won't he was sort of the white zebra you're not
black we don't want you here he was out of place this point he wanted to die
recovering from the commercial failure of infinite the rest of Eminem's life
was crumbling beneath him he was fired from Gilbert's he was constantly
fighting with him and he couldn't support his daughter haily he was fed up
pissed off and at the end of his rope in a moment of desperation clinging to the
memory of his uncle Ronnie Eminem tried to kill himself
by swallowing a handful of pills
out of the darkness of M&M suicide attempt came a renewed inspiration the
fond of voice he would need to succeed as an artist
you
there's a story that I've been told where he was talking to Buddha full of
Rhymes he was another Detroit rapper and he was telling him you know I'm just not
getting anywhere with this and so I'm thinking of trying something different
we were telling them that he needed a gimmick an image and his identity was
mask because he didn't know who to be he got fed up his ego totally flip they
don't like the good stuff you know I'm gonna just start screwing around and
writing some stuff and said hey I'm gonna start writing the craziest stuff
that you could possibly imagine he had this alter ego called Slim Shady
they're just like wow wow he's got a totally different sound it's great when
he really started getting looked at mark Kemp Eminem's first manager arranged for
proof and another Detroit area rapper named bizarre to attend some meetings
with music executives in New York bizarre new Aminu from the Detroit rap
scene and invited him to go along bizarre played his stuff and Eminem
played his stuff and I think bizarre told me Eminem got a little bit better
response I remember when he called me and got my feedback on a new record he
was making and he rapped just the two of us to me blew my mind I was like whoa
Wow and it was the Slim Shady EP oh my god this is so good murder murder you
know went up to Eastland when you hear Slim Shady rapping if you
listen to his music it's really distinctive which are the Eminem tracks
and which are the Slim Shady tracks the Slim Shady tracks are the harder edge
they're the more bitter the more vindictive tracks
none of those he'd been the kid that was being picked on or Bowie or told he
wasn't gonna match anything that was his dark and evil side that basically was
coming out start saying all these things about different people gay bashing the
homophobic stuff lesbians potheads doing drugs anything associated
with violence The Slim Shady EP was released in 1997
when this came out this was no joke I mean with people putting aside infinite
and stuff because he sounded like somebody house when he did this EP there
was Slim Shady was born and it got a positive response and it allowed him to
take out a lot of his frustrations we're getting successes we're selling tapes
out of different stores and we were getting shows and we kept selling I'm
getting him and stuff we knew he had something here steady sales of The Slim
Shady EP proved that Eminem was ready for the next level
scribble Jam is an urban arts festival that celebrates the hip-hop lifestyle
the annual summer event is a convergence of expiring MCS graffiti artists DJs and
b-boys even with the forward progress of his music
Eminem's family life was still remain in a state of turmoil I really had to talk
Eminem into it I mean he was like I'm broke I was like don't worry about it
I'll cover you you should just make some time and go down there he had a show the
night before so it was like it was probably three eight three or four a.m.
before we even got on the road to Cincinnati Slim Shady competed at
scribble Jam in 1997 it was an opportunity for his new persona to
showcase his freestyle and battle rap abilities he had been crafting on the
streets for broader audience outside of Detroit
there are 80 people that into the MC battle one of them was 80 MCS he battled
his way to number 2 he lost to a guy named juice
I remember him coming back and telling me that he finished in second place in
Cincinnati where they kind of had it fixed because the guy from the store at
one you know there was a few and everybody's like oh that white boy one
white boy one and he lost to this guy and he should have won he was frustrated
but he was excited cuz he knew he should have won but then again finished in
second place he just says well I'm just gonna do it one step more and no matter
where he did or where he worked or whatever he always told everybody he was
gonna be a star you just watch while the second-place finish the scribble Jam why
and Eminem and slim Shady's reputation beyond the streets of Detroit there was
no immediate financial benefit Eminem returned to an empty home Kim and Haley
following the family cycle left him to live with relatives in Warren Michigan a
suburb of Detroit the new Slim Shady went back to the old eminem couchsurfing
ways ultimately ending up in a place he had worked for years to avoid here's a
guy up until the time he made it when he was in his mid to late 20s he was still
in with his mom even when he had a girlfriend and a baby at a music
industry conference in Detroit mark Kemp approached windy day an influential
music industry power broker and gave her the Slim Shady EP I was like I'm gonna
give you something I really want you to pay attention to I'm gonna I'm gonna
give you this tape by the sky Eminem he's a white guy but he's gonna floor
you initially reluctant Wendy was 1 over Boz masterful handling of words rhythm
and his slim shady persona she was putting together an event with a
magazine called rap sheet in LA she was organizing an event within the event
called rap Olympics and they were the teams would battle in things such as
storytelling would be one battle or picking stuff out of a hat she was like
I'm putting together this team I want Eminem on the team I got Thurston Howell
the third I got juice she wanted him to finish it off I told him he should do it
I should definitely do it she flew him out I got a ticket I flew out at the rap
Olympics Eminem again his second to the same wrapper juice yet
the trip to our lay yielded much more important results whatever name went out
to LA he was basically someone who had beaten the local talent who had gotten a
little bit of a regional reputation but the rap Olympics was a chance for him to
showcase in a major forum at LA based radio station had Eminem on the air it
really lit up the airwaves mmm drop some verses that had people's wigs blown back
for real I met a guy from Interscope I gave him tape everything Eminem had
worked for the embodiment of his struggles determination perseverance and
tears for in that tape The Slim Shady EP and it was finally in the right hands
while Eminem's tape was circulating through Interscope he made a second
appearance on the same la radio show and not only did he do well but he caught
the ear of dr. Dre and dr. Dre basically by the time he went to Detroit was ready
to take him to the world dr. Dre is one of the most influential producers in rap
music in 1992 he founded Death Row Records with Suge Knight he also
engineered the careers of Snoop Dogg and Tupac among others
shortly after listening to the Slim Shady EP dr. Dre signed him to a
recording deal with his label aftermath records after months of recording The
Slim Shady LP was released by aftermath and Interscope Records
the result was instantaneous when the first single hit from his first album hi
my name is become a buzz clicked song we had an in-store and there was thousand
people here he was just signing finally they come out and they told him I said
look that's all you can sign you done you've been here for three four hours
signing stuff that's when you found out that this wasn't the guy that comes in
and talks to all the time that's the time you find out guys going off we may
never see this guy again when Eminem first started to make it was
you could still see on some of the telephone poles in town or on some of
the some of the walls near some of the music venues you could still see scraps
of an Eminem poster most of those posters were put up there by Eminem
himself Eminem's Fame came like a flash flood
it caught a lot of people by surprise even Eminem himself The Slim Shady LP
debuted at number 3 on the Billboard charts and will go on to sell 1 million
copies by the end of that year
On June 14th 1999 in the wake of Eminem's worldwide success as an artist
he and Kim got married but the relationship remained tumultuous I think
with Kim he always knows where she's coming from he doesn't always like it
but I think that's someone where he feels like she's with me for who I am in
July 2000 Kim attempted suicide by slashing her
wrist can recover though a month later the couple was separated they reunited
later that year for a few months but on March 1st 2001 they filed for divorce
weeks later Kim filed a $10,000,000 defamation lawsuit against her husband
he probably feels that you know why couldn't I have had a more traditional
upbringing and I can understand being upset about that but if he had had a
more traditional upbringing we wouldn't have M&M today because that is really
the raw fuel for what he is in September 1999 Debbie Mathers filed a ten million
dollar lawsuit against his son for defamation of character
the lawsuit cited numerous instances and lyrics and interviews in which Marshall
described his mother as abusive a drug user and an unfit parent I am who I say
I am he says in his music he talked about his mom suing everybody one of the
first things I started to do was to check the courthouses then lo and behold
going back 25 years she's been suing folks as a response to Eminem's lyrical
criticisms Debbie recorded a song called set the record straight
with a group called idx the song is available for purchase on the internet
for $3 in 2002 Eminem's mother settled a ten million dollar defamation lawsuit
against her son for only twenty five thousand dollars after considerable
legal cause Debbie received only $1,600
Eddie has been outspoken about her daughters lawsuit against her son she
too was capitalizing on his fame she is writing a tell-all book about her
daughter's relationship with the rap star in 2003 Kim was arrested and
charged with possession of over 25 grams of cocaine ordered to wear an electronic
device she skipped town only to be recaptured and jailed for testing
positive for cocaine use Marshall fought for joint custody of his daughter Haley
and won he continues to play a major part in her life people are on the ins
and outs at times with him you know depending on and who's feeling cranky
that day he's talking a part of the family and he's not talking to other
parts and they seem to take turn it's almost like a revolving door but they're
always still seems to be a fairly strong connection to the family Eminem has been
the target of other lawsuits for more unlikely sources D'Angelo Bailey the
bully who beat Marshall into a coma and later became the inspiration for the
song brain damage about a 1 million dollar defamation
lawsuit against Eminem in 2001 Bailey a Roseville trash collector claims the
Eminem did permanent damage to his musical career and calls him anger and
embarrassment the suit was dismissed by Judge Deborah Savita her written opinion
was issued in a form of a 36 line rap song use his name in vain Eminem says
barely used to tow him around it's facing the ground M&M content that
is rapids protected by the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment
imminent maintains that the story is true and that barely used to be them
black and blue and alternative II states that the sloppiest phony and a
reasonable person would think it's baloney of course must always balance
the rights of a defendant in one place in a false light if the plaintiff
presents no question of fact to dismiss is the only acceptable if the language
uses anything by fleecing it must be highly objectionable to a person even if
the title summary disposition one of the things about the people who knew Eminem
when he was just Marshall Mathers is that there's a genuine affection for him
you know neighbors chefs waitresses at Gilbert's Lodge of the other places he
hung out people at record stores people who used to make rhymes and and record
their own rap and their own music and beats there isn't this feeling that why
him you know I'm as good as he is people seem to genuinely understand and
recognize that this was a talent far beyond anything they had when you look
at Marshall Mathers there's the little kid who's still there
there's a slim shadey who got him to where he is today
but then there's mm who says you know what Slim Shady isn't real you know
let's let's enjoy what he does let's use this to get my demons out but
so let's not take it too seriously because if you do you're gonna go crazy
Eminem is the writer / rapper Marshall Mathers is the good father but also the
person that was picked on as a kid that was bullied and when Emma Marshall
Mathers got together and created Slim Shady
who was the bully the hip hop bullied the hip hop juggernaut to me he's not
slim shadey he's not him and him he's that little kid I know Marshall is a
really good person he's a good father but there is I think the some shady guy
is like the evil the evil person you know if it wants to go out and like
try all these different things and say I've been there and done that
and where the other one is trying to be super Daddy and be sweet and and you
know do all these things with the kids and and it's like almost sometimes you
feel like you're dealing with a Jekyll and Hyde
he's a very complicated boy Eminem has stayed true to the city and Friends that
nurtured him forming d12 with proof bizarre DJ craze Mannix and others from
his early days one thing I like about him you know whenever you talk about hip
hop or you talk about film you only here in New York and you hear LA and em still
lives here he keeps things here he shoots videos here and he had the a male
DVD release party here which was great Eminem did two concerts in North America
this year and both of them were in Detroit if you want to come see me you
got to come to Detroit might be the only reason in your whole life you've ever
said I got to come to Detroit but if you want to see Eminem you got to come to my
hometown two shows sold out the mayor of Detroit welcomes him back as a
conquering hero even appears in a video that they showed during the performance
but when you come home and the people are welcoming you with open arms and
hailing you then that's it you know that's the gold standard Detroit was
here waiting for him and I think anytime he comes back
he just has to say wedding people are gonna come running The Slim Shady LP
sold over three million copies the follow-up the Marshall Mathers LP
released in May 2000 became the fastest selling rap album in history it was also
the first rap album ever nominated for the album of the Year Grammy in November
2002 Eminem starred in a box-office smash eight mile
the title track lose yourself won the Academy Award for Best Original Song
Eminem aka Slim Shady aka Marshall Bruce Mathis the third has
no skeletons in his closet instead he has turned his 12-minute pass into the
world's most lucrative public therapy session
you
out of ordinary I do crazy stuff man I can call it one time you know a lot of
things that he did wasn't funny right away when you look back this guy's crazy
man one time we were in San Francisco where he's performing and this guy was
heckling him on stage and he stops in the middle of the show so he starts
heckling the guy back and him this guy's going back and forth this thing I know
he jumps off the stage to hit this guy hit the wrong guy
so the whole everybody in the whole front row just like mops and them and
they're just they're beating him and they're beaten some serious man so I'm
sitting there looking at this like wow they're gonna kill him so I jump in I
jump in I get hit then I thought you hit I hit the guy that hit me I forget about
Eminem the deejay jumps in the street team jumps and all these people
backstage jump in and we pulled him out of the crowd get him back on stage now
the whole crowds about 3,500 people everybody want to kill us so I'm trying
to get him back I'm trying to get him back to the tour bus so we're we're
running we getting everybody to run back to the tour bus in the tour bus the tour
manager stops and say hey you gotta finish the show the show must go on
my men are gonna kill us and you know they holler you know a few slow and a
few slam so he comes back out and he does just don't give a you know and and
performs that and the crowd just go nuts man but that next morning man everybody
had black eyes swollen jaws busted noses you know and he live for that man I got
a call that next morning for my mom was like don't you let the little white boy
get you in trouble I said how much I'll do what I care my
house she found out what she knew about it you know he just always did crazy
stuff man so unpredictable I think that's why I
wanted to cool the stage the bottom man
when M&M was just marshall mathers he could barely afford to shop at Kmart and
now he owns a house that was owned by the CEO of Kmart whatever name went out
to LA he was basically someone who had beaten the local talent who had gotten a
little bit of a regional reputation but the rap Olympics was a chance for him to
showcase in a major forum and based on his performance out there he let me let
me say that again what I say before about that he did some good shit and Dre
duh get rowdy okay he came over from Mother's Day she was so happy with the
bouquet of flowers he bought her for Mother's Day it was the biggest most
beautiful she's I said Debbie that must have cost 200 ours oh my god no that
must be $500 it must cost $600 I mean and she was taking care of and it was
getting all brittle two weeks after Mother's Day the
arrangements still sitting there Oh be careful my flowers look how beautiful it
is and Hayley made her a picture she painted you know
happy Mother's Day grandmother and it was they had a big house on it with a
sunshine and you know typical little girl and it was a beautiful picture it
was real big about like this she still hasn't took it off the wall though and
is really neat about this long neck do I need a jacket
I don't want to look like her I look like Reba McEntire four years four years
I with her it's one of those things man you can't wait to see what he's gonna do
next it's like watching a living soap opera
man
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