Eminem is a multi-platinum selling American rapper, producer and actor. Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born on October 17, 1972 in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Before settling in Warren, Michigan, he and his single mother spent his early years traveling about Missouri. His parents Marshall Sr. and Deborah "Debbie" Rae Nelson actually played in the band Daddy Warbucks, which played mostly at Ramada Inns in the mid-west until they got divorced.
After their divorce, Debbie and Marshall lived mostly with family members while bouncing back and forth between Michigan and Missouri. They never stayed in one spot for more than a year.
Marshall was a lonesome child who experienced bullying at school frequently. They were residents of a mostly black Detroit area when he was a teenager.
Originally, Eminem wanted to be a comic book illustrator, but after hearing his first rap song, Reckless - Featuring Ice-T, from the soundtrack to the film "Breakin'," his dreams changed. His half-brother Ronnie gave him the album as a present.
At age 14, he took on the rap moniker "M&M." (based off his initials). At the age of 17, he left high school. He performed in freestyle rap fights across the city and did a variety of odd jobs in addition to writing music.
Eminem's Net Worth
Eminem's net worth is $230 million. He consistently ranks among the world's highest-paid entertainers. Eminem earns about $20 million annually in a given year. That amount can easily get close to $30-50 million in years where he is actively travelling in promotion of an album.
Marshall finally earned the respect and appreciation of the Detroit-area hip-hop community. He joined an organization called Bassmint Productions, subsequently known as Soul Intent.
He worked as a cook and dishwasher for minimum salary while recording songs with Mashin' Duck Records and FBT Productions. Eminem released his debut album "Infinite" in 1996 via a record label named Web Entertainment.
Around this time, he started going by the name "Slim Shady," which is edgier and more violent. He rapped about drugs, sex, violence, rape, and murder under the alias Slim Shady. He recorded "the Slim Shady EP" in the spring of 1997, and Web Entertainment published it the following winter.
Eminem was discussed in the unsigned hype column of The Source magazine in March 1998. Shortly after, he was forced to leave his house and made the decision to go to Los Angeles to take part in the Rap Olympics.
He came in second, but more significantly, a member of the Interscope Records team was impressed and forwarded the Slim Shady EP to Jimmy Iovine, the CEO of the business.
Dr. Dre, who had just started his own record label, Aftermath Records, and was seeking for new artists to sign, listened to Eminem's performance of the album.
Eminem established Shady Records, his own imprint under Aftermath Records, in 1999. D12, a group of Detroit-based rappers who Eminem was familiar with, were the company's first act to sign.
Eminem met underground New York rapper 50 Cent in 2002 while they were both working on the movie "8 Mile." Eminem was keen to sign 50's to the company after listening to numerous of his mixtapes.
The first solo artist signed to Shady Records, 50 Cent, did so quickly. The soundtrack to 8 Mile was published by Shady Records that same year, and more than 11 million copies of it were sold worldwide.
The first album by 50 Cent, which was released in February 2003, eventually sold 14 million copies worldwide. 30 million albums have been sold by 50 Cent thus far in his career.
Eminem has a $230 million net worth. With more than 170 million recordings sold over his career, he is one of the best-selling performers of all time. His records and the albums of musicians that are signed to his company, Shady Records, have brought him millions of dollars.
He made at least $280 million in pre-tax income from 2004 to 2019 alone, excluding the years when he sold the most albums. His lifetime profits are probably close to $400 million.
