How Has Eminem Risen to the Top?

How is it that a little white boy from Kansas City has become the most well known rapper in the world? Starting from nothing and eventually moving up to a multi-millionaire, Eminem over the past seven years has been in the eye of the public everywhere you look. He has essentially entered a black man's business and gone to the top over the course of a few years, but how?

On October 17, 1972 Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born in St. Joseph, MO by his 15 year old mother Debbie. Six months later his father was gone and this began the struggle for Marshall and his mother; one that was just the beginning. Throughout the course of his childhood Marshall and his mother moved numerous times into different houses from Kansas City to Detroit. The maximum time spent in one house was only 3 months, which caused Marshall to attend many different schools making it difficult to cope to the different surroundings and make friends. Every new school he attended he was bullied as he was the new kid. This was something that he could not change as he was never stationed in one school for a long period of time. At the age of 12 he and his mother finally settled in a house in Detroit. He would later use the bullying to his advantage fueling him to get back at all his bullies through songs.

By the age of 4 Marshall was already beginning to rap and put words together rhyming them. At school he was rather successful considering the circumstances, but it was lunchtime that he enjoyed as he often battled schoolmates through freestyles. At the age of 14 Marshall began to get serious about rapping and felt that he had a shot in the business. When he got to the ninth grade he failed it three times before eventually dropping out as he felt school was not for him.

When he turned 17 he came up with the name M&M for himself by combining the first letters of his first and last name, which later was changed to Eminem. Now that he didn't have school as a distraction, he focused solely on rapping with the goal of making it to the top. He faced constant struggle on the way to stardom as he was continuously rejected by most rappers because of his race, despite his true talent. This grew anger inside of him that he uses in his music today. Knowing that it wasn't going to be easy and that he would have to work, Marshall forced himself onto radio shows and freestyle battles to prove everybody wrong. He eventually got a first album titled "Infinite", but it only sold 1,000 copies. It wasn't until 1997 that Marshall would make a name for himself.

In 1997 he was married with a child trying to support his family with very little cash to do it with. He went to the Rap Olympics in Los Angeles hoping to win the cash prize of $1,500 for first place, but instead was spotted by a few sponsors from Interscope. Furious that he had come in second, he later found out about the sponsors and he gave them a copy of the "Infinite" tape, which was later sent to Dr. Dre. Dre was extremely impressed with the talent of Eminem and got contact of him, where the two recorded his second album; The Slim Shady LP. This album set the tone for his style of rap, as he lashed out on everyone that had bullied him throughout his life. It was a different style than anyone had ever heard, which brought him to stardom.

Eminem is by far the most popular rapper that is seen most in public. He has been seen in Rap Pages, VIBE, Rolling Stone, Spin, The Source, URB and Stress and continues to strive for more. He became the first white person to ever be on the cover of The Source. Throughout his life he has starred in the movie "8 Mile" based on his life growing up, has had over 20 guest appearances on TV, has featured on numerous different rappers CD's, and has recorded 5 CD's of his own. His second LP, "The Marshall Mathers LP", sold over 8 million records in the United States alone, 1.76 million copies in the first week setting a record for a solo artist. This album became the first rap album ever to be nominated for "Album of the Year" at the Grammies. He would go on to win 3 Grammies for the album that night. In the year 2002 he made $29 million in earnings of his fourth album "The Eminem Show LP" and touring for it. Then on March 23, 2003 the song "Lose Yourself" from his movie "8 Mile" became the first rap song to ever win an Academy Award.

While being known for his explicit behavior and horrendous lyrics on his albums and in the eye of the public, it is difficult to overlook all that he has achieved. Coming from where he did and rising to where he is currently, it is remarkable what he has done not only for himself, but the rap world as well. While it is hard for most to like him, there are not many that do not at least respect him for what he has achieved as of now, and what he may do in the future to come.

---

? Jeff Schuman II
http://www.best-mp3-music-downloads.com

Jeff Schuman II is the creator of Best-MP3-Music-Downloads.com where you can buy CD's and find all of the best free music downloads. http://www.best-mp3-music-downloads.com

---

Thomas Jefferson and the Chinese Gong

While Richard Nixon's diplomatic visit to China may have created a minor thaw in Sino-US relations, he was not the first President to try to get in sync with the Chinese. Thomas Jefferson... Read More

The Various Countries - A Rant About Country Music

It is no secret that over the past couple decades country music has struggled with it's identity far more than any other genre in the industry. At this point nobody can really claim... Read More

Piano Chords and New Age Music

There are basically two ways you can compose a piece of music. The first and most traditional way is to write out the melody and then harmonize it. Some call this working from... Read More

Music Making as Spiritual Experience

If you've been playing piano for some time, you may come upon periods where you forget yourself and only the music remains. You might even have had a spiritual experience. A phenomenon where... Read More

Buying A Guitar - Do You Know What To Look For?

Buying a guitar is an important decision that my students have often asked me about. They want to know what they should be looking for. This is an important question because no two... Read More

Quick and Easy Violin Mute

One of the reasons I picked up the violin was because it was easier to travel with than a guitar (not that I haven't found some nice travel guitars, but that's another story).... Read More

Flaming Guitars! Minarik Fuels The Excitement Of A New Generation Of Musicians

Celebrating an endorsement between G-Man Music and the fiery axe-makers known as Minarik Guitars, Scott G (The G-Man) reviews the Minarik Inferno X-treme.From the Telecaster to the Flying V to the Iceman to... Read More

Form - Giving Shape to Your Music

Do you ramble on endlessly with your improvisations? If so, good. This has its place in music making and in new age piano playing in particularly. Just listen to Michael Jones's music to... Read More

Reasons to Ditch Your Guitar Pick

Lately, I haven't been using my guitar pick all that much. I got this tab book of some good ol' Gatemouth Brown finger picking blues. I've been enjoying myself so much trying to... Read More

Do you really need college to learn to play music?

Music courses are a great way to learn about virtually any area of music; history, theory, and musical instrument instruction -- you name it and somewhere music courses specialize in it. Though generally... Read More

How Piano Lessons Benefit Young Children

Piano lessons provide a wide range of benefits to young children. Here are my "Top Five."1. Piano lessons help preserve and develop children's natural creative abilities. The best analogy of how children learn... Read More

Piano Music - How to Begin and End a Piece

How do you begin a piece of music? That's a question I'm often asked. The answer I usually give is that you begin as soon as you start playing - that is, if... Read More

What is Guitar Tablature and Can I Find It Online?

The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments and the online guitar community probably the most popular of its kind. There are thousands of guitarists connected via online communities sharing guitar... Read More

Six Reasons to Play New Age Piano

Here are six very good reasons to learn how to play piano in the New Age style:1. It's easy. No months spent learning theory here. Just a few chords and you're off enjoying... Read More

Ouch, It Hurts When I Sing!

When I first set out to write this article about voice problems in singers, I was looking for two experts from contrasting fields of medicine ? "medical" and "holistic". What I found, instead,... Read More

A Guitar Lesson To Help You Test Your Note Knowledge

In this guitar lesson we look at a great way to test your note knowledge of the guitar fretboard. But before we look at that, why even bother learning the notes?Knowing the notes... Read More

Trusting Your Inner Voice - Key to Success at the Piano

We all have so many critical voices in our heads.Telling us what's good, what's not, and what should be. We must stop the criticism if we are to play the music that is... Read More

An Interview with Jon Bon Jovi ? 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Cant Be Wrong

The idea originated with singer Jon Bon Jovi. Jon kept upping the ante with his label and ultimately they consented to a four-CD set of essentially new material. Here, he talks about this... Read More

How To Play The Violin

This article gives the essential basics for how to play the violin. Generally violins are quite commonly available instruments and it is reasonably easy to rent or buy a violin. Children may need... Read More

Modal Theory for Guitar Players - Part 1

IntroductionThe fact that you are holding this in your hands suggests that you have got to the point in your explorations of, and curiosity about the guitar that the next step is the... Read More

Learn Piano the Easy Way!

There are essentially two ways to learn piano - note reading or chords. For those who want to spend years learning how to play other peoples music, note reading is the way to... Read More

The Top 10 Reasons Why You Suck At Playing Guitar

You don't 'need' to play guitar enough.If you desire to become a great guitarist, you have to want it badly enough to sacrifice other parts of your life to devote to practice.This doesn't... Read More

How To Dress Up Naked Music On The Piano

What in the world is "naked music?"You know it when you hear it, but the words that describe it sound strange, don't they? We've all heard of popular music and rock music and... Read More

Surf Waves With Jack Johnson

Lately I've been listening to some pretty cool music by some beach bum named Jack Johnson. The tunes he plays really touch a chord within me. They are just so honest and selfless,... Read More

5 Ways to Enjoy Your Music Files

OK, say you've got one thousand of your favorite MP3 songs sitting in your hard disk. What's the best way to enjoy those files? Most of us probably will use the Windows Media... Read More

How to Start Your Own Band

Every once in awhile a guitar student will express a desire to be in a band someday.If this is your ambition too, then read on. Whether you're a guitar player or not doesn't... Read More

Rickenbacker 4003 Electric Bass Guitar

The Rickenbacker 4003 electric bass guitar is one of the few electric basses to have earned the accolade "classic" as a title for itself. The Rickenbacker 4000 Series guitar is attributed for creating... Read More

Everything I Play Sounds the Same

Many students want to create music that has a certain emotional quality. For example, I once had a student ask me to show her how to play something that sounded happy.Of course, this... Read More

Music & Intelligence: Will Listening to Music Make You Smarter?

Will listening to music make you smarter? Will learning to play a musical instrument make your brain grow larger than normal?Questions like these ones have been popping up all over the place in... Read More