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Eminem

Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage names Eminem and Slim Shady, is an Oscar and multiple Grammy Award winning rapper, record producer, and actor from Detroit, Michigan. Having sold over seventy million albums worldwide, Eminem is one of the highest-selling musicians of the early 2000s thus, making him one of the highest-selling rap artists of all time and is widely regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Eminem was discovered by rapper and producer, Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre later signed Eminem to his record label, Aftermath Entertainment.

After being signed to Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records, Eminem 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. With the album's 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 his 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 collaborate on a line of hit songs, including "Forgot About Dre" and "What's the Difference" from Dr. Dre's album 2001, "Bitch Please II" from the Marshall Mathers LP, "Say What You Say" from The Eminem Show and "Encore/Curtains Down" from Encore.

The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000, and quickly sold two million copies. It was Eminem's fastest selling album to date. The first single released from the album, "The Real Slim Shady", was a success and 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). 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. Although Eminem had parodied shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the video "My Name Is", the artists are now on good terms. They have performed a remix of the song "The Way I Am" together in concert. 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. It was named as the third greatest rap song of all time in a list compiled by Q Magazine, and came 10th in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com. The song has since become highly acclaimed and was ranked 290th in Rolling Stone Magazine's "500 Greatest Songs Of All Time".

Mathers' third major album, The Eminem Show, was released in summer 2002 and proved to be another hit for the rapper reaching number one on the charts and selling well over 1 million copies in its first 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.

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

Eminem often said that one of his most influential rappers in his career was Tupac Shakur, during an interview for the Tupac: Resurrection documentary.

In September, Eminem called into New York radio station Hot 97 during a 50 Cent interview and confirmed he is hard at work on his first studio album in three years. He said, "I'm always working -- I'm always in the studio. It feels good right now, the energy of the label. For a while, I didn't want to go back to the studio ... I went through some personal things. I'm coming out of those personal things [and] it feels good." And though he jokingly said he'd release the new CD "tomorrow", there is no official release date, according to Interscope. Dr. Dre told the Los Angeles Times that he will now devote two months to work on Eminem's new highly-anticipated album, saying "We'll be trying to get his thing done and work on a few things on my own project".

In October, a DJ Whoo Kid untitled track was leaked but there is no information on when it was recorded. It was announced that on November 13 he is going to release a new DVD, Live in New York City; the 2005 Madison Square Garden concert was originally aired on the Showtime network in December 2005. The concert was shown on a few occasions on MTV in Europe. It features D12, Obie Trice and Stat Quo. During an interview, D12 member Bizarre said that Interscope doesn't want D12's third album to be released until after Eminem's next album. He also said Eminem isn't featured on Blue Cheese & Coney Island because "he's busy doing his thing". 50 Cent confirmed that on the new G-Unit album, Shoot to Kill, that will be released in December, there will be a track with Eminem. Lil Wayne stated that he has the craziest song for Eminem on his new album, Tha Carter III, but that he hasn't "sent it over yet".

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