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Marshall Mathers III / Eminem / Slim Shady

Marshall was born October 17, 1972, St. Joseph, MO from an unsecure home of poverty with only his mother to raise him. By the age of 14, Marshall would adopt the Slim Shady surname and perform as a member of the duo Soul Intent.

With money borrowed, Shady would release his debut 1996 independent release Infinite. A year later it would be Dr. Dre who discovered the Slim's demo tape on the floor of Interscope label chief Jimmy Iovine's garage. Iovine, more famed for his successful work with the likes of Blondie, passed Slim Shady off as another Vanilla Ice and completely not interested. Dr. Dre on the other hand now named Eminem, he would take second place in the freestyle category at 1997's Rap Olympics MC battle in Los Angeles. Impressed, Dr. Dre signed the white rapper and the #1 release, Slim Shady LP would follow in early 1999. Selling over a million copies before year's end and landing at #1, Eminem's future was set.

The Marshall Mathers LP came in late summer of 2000, moving close to two million copies in its first week and eventually going on to sell 10 million made it clear that Marshall was no longer a passing fad. By the Summer of 2002, the third release, The Eminem Show debuted at #1 making the single most successful rap album in rock history.

Although the success is fluent, the controversy is close behind. The rapper, known for putting down homosexuals, raps about killing his child's mother and his own mother, Marshall clearly states that his subjects are mostly for entertainment purposes as evident by the #1 track "Stan" in late 2000. Eminem would later perform the song with well-known self-proclaimed male diva, the legendary Sir Elton John on the MTV Video Music Awards program in 2001. Followed by a hug after the performance of "Stan". However, the appearance caused a bt of a stir in the Los Angeles community of homosexuals as they gathers for a protest outside the auditorium as the performance played on live national television.