Eminem: His life and times, letter by letter

[yoda you can call me]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment ... d=11200782

He's the superstar rapper coming to New Zealand for the first time on Saturday to headline a hip-hop show that will draw more than 50,000 fans to Western Springs. Chris Schulz goes through the life and career of Eminem, letter by letter ...

A is for acting, Eminem's second-most-successful career choice. His small but accomplished filmography is led by his role as Jimmy 'B-Rabbit' Smith in 8 Mile, the film based on the story of his life. He was recently offered the lead in sci-fi flick Elysium but turned it down. Matt Damon was chosen instead.

B is for Bruce, Eminem's middle name. His full name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III.

C is for Cleanin' Out My Closet, his vitriolic 2004 single that slammed both of his parents. He later apologised to his mother for the abuse on last year's song Headlights.

D is for Dr Dre, the Aftermath label boss who first signed Eminem in 1998 and helped produce The Slim Shady LP. Em also guested on Dre's 2001 album, most notably on the single Forgot About Dre

E is for Elton John, Eminem's surprise guest at the 2006 Grammy Awards for a live version of Stan.
It helped settle accusations of homophobia levelled at the rapper. And had Twitter been around at the time, Elton's pink polka-dot jacket would have broken it.

F is for Fred Durst, the Limp Bizkit frontman who Eminem sparked beef with after referencing an alleged relationship with Christina Aguilera in his comic hit The Real Slim Shady. Despite their shared love of baseball caps, Durst and Em have never made up.

G is for Grammy Awards. Eminem has won 13 of them.

H is for Hailie Jade Scott Mathers, Em's 17-year-old daughter.

I is for Infinite, Eminem's little-heard, laid-back, Nas-inspired debut album from 1996. Only 1000 copies were made and Eminem has dismissed it as "a demo that just got pressed up". He also admitted it "didn't get great feedback". You can decide: the whole thing's on YouTube.

J is for J. Cole, one of Eminem's guest stars on the support bill for Rapture.

K is for Kimberly Anne "Kim" Scott, Eminem's on-again, off-again ex-wife and subject of several songs, including the harrowingly spiteful Kim from 2000. It ends with the lyrics "bleed, bitch, bleed" and details how he would slit her throat.

L is for Lose Yourself, Eminem's Oscar-winning single from the 8 Mile soundtrack. The song, about a rapper's rise to the top, became the first rap song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song. In his typically confrontational style, he refused to attend the ceremony because he felt "out of my element".

M is for Marshall Mathers, one of Eminem's three main guises under which he has released two albums: his 2000 opus, The Marshall Mathers LP, that featured some of his biggest moments (Stan, The Real Slim Shady, The Way I Am) and last year's sprawling sequel, The Marshall Mathers LP 2.

N is for Net Worth. Eminem was named the seventh richest rapper in the world in 2013 by celebritynetworth.com, with assets of US$140 million ($168m).

O is for Odd Future, Eminem's tour buddies who replaced Kendrick Lamar on the bill at the last minute.

P is for Proof, Eminem's D12 bandmate and best friend who died after a shootout in front of a Detroit nightclub. "Proof and I were brothers," said Eminem afterwards. He has said that without Proof he wouldn't have become a rapper.

Q is for quitting, which many thought had happened when Em took several years off between 2004's Encore and 2009's Relapse. During that time he became addicted to drugs, kicked his habit and became addicted to exercise and Coca-Cola instead (he reportedly has Coke on tap in his Michigan mansion).

R is for Relapse and Recovery, Eminem's post-hiatus albums. Even Eminem admitted 2009's Relapse was a little "ehhh" but 2010's Recovery - with Not Afraid, Won't Back Down and Love the Way You Lie - is much better.

S is for Stan, Eminem's signature song from 2000 featuring a serenading Dido that detailed a murderous revenge plot by an overzealous fan. The sequel - Bad Guy, about Stan's brother - came out last year.

T is for Twitter. Eminem has 17 million followers but mostly tweets links to buy albums, watches and T-shirts.

U is for Up in Smoke, an infamous West Coast hip-hop tour (named after a Cheech & Chong movie) starring Eminem, Dr Dre, Xzibit, Warren G and Nate Dogg that ran for three months in 2000 and was immortalised on an extremely popular DVD.

V is for Vibe, the hip-hop magazine that named Eminem the best rapper alive in 2008. "I don't think that there is any one rapper that is simply the best though," he said after receiving the award. But then: "Hell yeah, I'll accept!"

W is for Weird Al Yankovic, the prankster who asked for permission to film a video parody of Eminem's Lose Yourself for his song Couch Potato, but was turned down. "It's very disappointing. This could have been my best video ever," said Weird Al at the time.

X is for The X-Factor, the American talent show that Em would like to be a guest judge on. It's yet to happen.

Y is for YouTube. In 2011, Eminem became the first hip-hop star to gain more than one billion combined views on the video-sharing platform.

Z is for Zane Lowe, the London-based Kiwi DJ for BBC Radio One who carried out a revealing interview with Em in 2013. "I just peed myself," joked a wide-eyed Eminem at one point

[csw621]

pretty good read, but I facedesked at the recovery > relapse part especially with the "superior" tracks they reference lol

[RSoares]

Cleanin' Out My Closet 2004 single?
Elton John on 2006 Grammy Awards?
Hailie's 17?

C'mon, do some fuckin' research before writing something.

[yoda you can call me]

I didnt even read it. Just a quick skim and posted it thinking some of y'all may be interested lol. Will thoroughly read them from now on though. Frickin amateurs

[Excita]

Felt like a 13 year-old wrote this.

even they are smarter tbh.

[SajN]

Lol at the rules at the bottom of that page:

Rules: You can take a one-litre water bottle with you, as long as it's sealed. Moshing, stage diving, crowd-surfing and umbrellas are banned. There are no pass-outs. Bring cash if you want to buy anything. Lastly, don't try and rap along with Eminem - he's too fast and you'll just annoy the people around you. Don't be that guy.

[Marco44]

"C is for Cleanin' Out My Closet, his vitriolic 2004 single that slammed both of his parents. He later apologised to his mother for the abuse on last year's song Headlights."

"R is for Relapse and Recovery, Eminem's post-hiatus albums. Even Eminem admitted 2009's Relapse was a little "ehhh" but 2010's Recovery - with Not Afraid, Won't Back Down and Love the Way You Lie - is much better."

[Excita]

"C is for Cleanin' Out My Closet, his vitriolic 2004 single that slammed both of his parents. He later apologised to his mother for the abuse on last year's song Headlights."

"R is for Relapse and Recovery, Eminem's post-hiatus albums. Even Eminem admitted 2009's Relapse was a little "ehhh" but 2010's Recovery - with Not Afraid, Won't Back Down and Love the Way You Lie - is much better."

holy shit this ^

[Elision]

[StanBase]

X is for The X-Factor, the American talent show that Em would like to be a guest judge on. It's yet to happen

[HotDawg]

X is for The X-Factor, the American talent show that Em would like to be a guest judge on. It's yet to happen

I watched the first season of xfactor it was alright better than American idol imo. If Em was a judge I'd def watch.

[StanBase]

^yea but the point was Em never said he wanna be on the show and that's a huge reach cause the 10yo writing it couldn't find nothing else starting with X. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[slims]

I can forgive the hailie thing but everything else is like really?