Eminem

After winning 2nd place at the Rap Olympics in LA and 2nd place at the freestyle competition Eminem was heard by the legendary producer Dr Dre, performing live on an L.A based radio station.  Impressed by the rappers ability, he was tracked down by Dre who then signed him to his label Aftermath.

His success is another rags to riches tale, born in Kansas city Eminem moved to Detroit aged 12, moving from school to school every few months.  Initially Eminem was not taken seriously because he was white but the controversy that this caused eventually helped him reach height that were previously inaccessible to rap artists.  In 1999 his debut Slim Shady Lp became a best seller obtaining triple platinum sales.

In 2000 his follow up album the Marshall Mathers LP became the fastest selling rap album of all time.  In its first week the record sold close to two million copies.  As record sales grew so did his the newspaper headlines, verbal battles with fellow artists like Christina Aguilera and Everlast.  Controversial lyrics ensured his records were not in the collections of any gay rights and women’s lib campaigners.

At the 2001 Grammy’s the rapper attempted to silence his critics and performed with Elton John, later that year he reformed D-12 with his fellow rappers from Detroit.  Their album ‘Devils night’ went multi platinum.  His next project was the movie 8-Mile which was based loosely around the rappers life, the film which was a successful hit at the box office earnt him an Oscar nomination for his performance and an Oscar for ‘Lose Yourself’ the movies title track.

On his latest album the rapper returns back to verbal assaults, this time focusing on Moby and Lip Bizkit.  Recently the controversial rapper has been hitting headlines with the rap music press, in November early work by Eminem which contained offensive lyrics about black women was discovered by the Source Magazine.

Encore:                          Interscope/2004
The Eminem Show:         Aftermath/2002
Marshall Mathers:           Aftermath/2000
Slim Shady:                   Aftermath/1998