30 Interesting Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Eminem - The King Of Hip Hop

Marshall Bruce Mathers III, the American rapper, actor and record producer, who is considered as the best-selling artist of the 2000s, was born in St. Joseph, Missouri on October 17, 1972, to Marshall Bruce Mathers, Jr. and Deborah Rae “Debbie” Nelson. Here are 30 unknown facts about the rapper:

1. Eminem, the name adopted from his initials M(arshall) M(athers), initially pronounced as M&M, is the second best-selling male artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era, with a count of over 172 million albums sold globally.
2. Though he was a rap fan from his childhood, his initial interest as a kid was in storytelling and to become a comic book artist.
3. The first rap song he heard was “Reckless,” on the “Breakin’” soundtrack, which was a gift to him by his mother Debbie’s half-brother Ronnie Polkinghorn, who started mentoring him in music.
4. He holds the record for the most wins in the category Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, with a total of 15 Grammys to his name.
5. Eminem is the only rapper in the history to have two diamond certified albums - “The Marshall Mathers LP” and “The Eminem Show.”
6. The 2000 album “Marshall Mathers LP” that reportedly sold more than 7 million copies, is said to have sold over 1.76 million copies just in the first week of its release in the United States, which is a record number for a solo artist.
7. His song “Lose Yourself” from the 2002 film “8 Mile,” is the first ever rap song to win an Oscar. However, he was not able to accept the award in person as he was sure that another nominee would bag the Academy Award and did not even bother to attend the Oscar ceremony. It is said that he was sleeping at the time the announcement was made, while his daughter Hailie Jade Mathers was watching cartoons.
8. He has custody of his niece Alaina, after adopting her. He refers to Lainie and Hailie as his daughters, and both are being brought up together. He even mentioned about Lainie in the song “Mockingbird” on the “Encore” album.
9. His “The Marshall Mathers LP2” album debuted at number one on the U.K Albums Chart, making him the first American artist with seven consecutive UK number-one albums.
10. Eminem was 14 years old, when he started rapping with his friend Mike Ruby, in the names “M&M,” and “Manix,” respectively. He even sneaked into Osborn High School with Proof, for lunchroom freestyle rap battles.
    
11. His third single “Stan” from the album “The Real Slim Shady” was named the third-greatest rap song of all time, and has since been voted at 296th in the Rolling Stone’s list of “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
12. Eminem is the only white person to have ever been featured on the covers of the magazines “The Source,” and “XXL.”
13. For his role of Jimmy ‘B-Rabbit’ Smith in the movie “8 Mile,” he lost around 24 pounds. He was even asked to dye his hair back to its original color, as Director Curtis Hanson wanted to the audience to relate his character to as Jimmy Rabbit, rather that his famous persona as Eminem.
14. He is the first artist to win the Best Rap Album Grammy Award for three consecutive LPs – “The Slim Shady LP,” “The Marshall Mathers LP” and “The Eminem Show.” All the three albums “The Slim Shady LP,” “The Marshall Mathers LP” and “The Eminem Show,” were certified quadruple platinum and diamond, respectively by the Recording Industry Association of America.
15. Rolling Stone ranked him as the 82nd Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Artist of all time, and named him the 83rd Greatest Artist in its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
16. His debut 1996 album “Infinite,” with the Jeff and Mark Bass’s FBT Productions, was a commercial failure. His rhyming style in “Infinite,” lacked the comically violent slant, which he later developed and is also famous for. The feedback “Why don’t you go into rock and roll?” he received for the album, led him to craft angrier and moodier tracks.
17. He competed in the 1997 Rap Olympics and was placed second. It is said that Interscope Records staff who attended the Rap Olympics, sent a copy of his “Slim Shady EP,” to Jimmy Iovine, the company’s CEO, who in turn played to for the founder of Aftermath Entertainment and the hip-hop group N. W. A, the record producer, Dr. Dre. After listing to the copy, all Dr. Dre said was “Find him. Now.”
18. In the year 2005, he was ranked 58th in the Bernard Goldberg’s list of 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, citing a 2001 column from The New York Times that wrote “In Eminem’s world, all women are whores and he is eager to rape and murder them.”
19. His seventh album “Recovery,” was his sixth consecutive US number-one album, which for five consecutive weeks remained atop the Billboard 200 chart of a seven-week total.
20. It is reported that he composed the entire soundtrack of the movie “8 Mile,” by writing in a notebook between his takes during filming. In the scene where his character Jimmy writes in a sheet of paper, while in bus, is actually the real paper in which Eminem wrote the Academy Award winning song “Lose Yourself.” The paper was then sold for $10,000 on an eBay auction.
    
21. The lyrical subject of his debut album “Infinite” was about how he struggled to raise his new born daughter on little money. It is said that he worked for 60 hours a week after his daughter’s birth for around six months. He even cooked and washed dishes for a very minimum wage at Gilbert’s Lodge at St. Clair Shores.
22. He became the first artist in Nielsen SoundScan history with two year-end bestselling albums, after the release of his 2010 “Recovery.”
23. He appeared on “No Favors,” a track from the 2017 Big Sean’s “I Decided,” album, in which he calls the new President Donald Trump a “bitch.”
24. In an interview with Anderson Cooper on the “60 Minutes,” Eminem admitted that before he became sober, he would not even have imagined writing lyrics about helping others. He added the amount of profanity he uses in his lyrics is not something he allows in his house.
25. He believes that the only way for him to start his angry lyrics again will be if any rapper called out his daughter Hailie, which is highly unlikely.
26. He is the founder of the Marshall Mathers Foundation that works in conjunction with a charity to aid disadvantaged youth.
27. He was featured in two commercials for the Super Bowl XLV, out of which the two-minute ad for the Chrysler 200, is the longest in the history of Super Bowl. He is seen driving through Detroit to his show at the Fox Theatre, with “Lose Yourself,” as the soundtrack.
28. He has created his own fashion line named Shady Limited.
29. With the release of “The Marshall Mathers LP2,” he became the first artist since “The Beatles” to feature four singles within the top 20 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
30. “The Way I Am,” an autobiography of Eminem was release on October 21, 2008, which contains the stories of his struggling childhood, poverty, fame, depression, heartbreak, along with the original lyric sheets from “Stan” and “The Real Slim Shady.”