Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972, St. Joseph, Missouri, USA), better known by his stage name Eminem, is an American rapper and actor. Eminem is the best-selling artist of the 2000s in the United States. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #82 on its list of “The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time” and called him “The King of Hip Hop.” Including his work with the groups D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has ten #1 albums on the Billboard 200. He has sold over 170 million albums and singles worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. As of June 2014, he was the sixth best-selling artist in the United States and the best-selling hip-hop artist in the world, with 45,160,000 albums and 31 million digital singles sold.
After his debut album Infinite (1996), Eminem gained mainstream popularity in 1999 with his second album, The Slim Shady LP. The Slim Shady LP was a commercial success and earned him his first Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. His next two releases, The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) and The Eminem Show (2002), were also global successes, each earning a Diamond certification from the RIAA in the United States for sales. Both albums also won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, making Eminem the first artist to win this award for three consecutive LPs. These were followed by Encore in 2004, another commercially and critically successful album. After his 2005 tour, Eminem took a hiatus. He returned with Relapse in 2009 and Recovery in 2010, the latter being named the best-selling album in the world in 2010, a distinction he had previously achieved with The Eminem Show. Eminem won Grammys for both Relapse and Recovery, bringing his total to 13 Grammy Awards. His eighth studio album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, was released in November 2013. In his famous music video Just Lose It (2004), Eminem mocked several artists, including the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who responded in an interview saying he felt offended by Eminem’s portrayal but that it had caused him no real harm.
Eminem owns his own record label, Shady Records, alongside his manager Paul Rosenberg. He also owns a radio station, Shade 45, on Sirius XM Radio. In November 2002, Eminem starred in the drama film 8 Mile. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the film’s iconic track “Lose Yourself,” becoming the first rap artist ever to win this award. He has also made cameo appearances in The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009), and the TV series Entourage.
