Eminem reveals the greatest thing to ever happen to him
Only a few rappers – or anyone in any craft, for that matter – have experienced a career as successful and genuinely iconic as Eminem. Known for his lightning speed delivery, unflinchingly raw lyrics, and incredible production, Marshall Bruce Mathers III is one of the definitive artists of the 21st century.
Ever since he dropped The Slim Shady LP in 1999 – and his accompanying alter ego, Slim Shady – Eminem has fused wicked humour and even satire to push boundaries in the hip-hop scene. Well, not only did the album win a Grammy Award, but it stirred up enough international interest in the young rapper for the following year’s The Marshall Mathers LP, which became not just one of the fastest-selling albums in rap history, but the best-selling hip-hop album of all time.
And that was just 2000. Since then, he’s gone from strength to strength. He was the first hip-hop artist to ever win the Grammy Award for Best Original Song for ‘Lose Yourself’, the stand-out single of his semi-autobiographical film 8 Mile in 2002; he was then awarded yet another Grammy Award for the critically acclaimed Recovery album in 2010.
His following albums – 2013’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2, 2017’s Kamikaze, 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By and 2024’s The Death of Slim Shady – have all debuted at No.1 on the US Billboard 200 Chart. Billboard itself recognised him as the Artist of the 2000s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
Yes, he has famously – if not notoriously – experienced more than his fair share of lows. But in a life so studded with the achievements most can only dream of, when Eminem states something is the best thing to ever have happened to him, it’s worth paying attention to.
In an interview with The New York Times for their 50 Rappers, 50 Stories feature in 2023, Eminem discussed the positive impact being a rapper has had on his wider life.
“Tuesday night I would go to the Ebony Showcase on Seven Mile. Wednesday night would be Alvin’s. Friday night would be Saint Andrew’s. And then Saturday would be the Hip Hop Shop,” he said, describing a part of his youth not dissimilar to the aforementioned 8 Mile. “Proof was hosting open mics at the Hip Hop Shop, and they started having battles.”
“The first one that I got in — it was actually the first battle there — I won. And then the second battle, I won it again. I realised maybe I should try to go out of state. So I would hop in the car with friends and drive down to Cincinnati for the Scribble Jam,” he continued.
“Coming up in the battle scene was the greatest thing to happen to me because I knew what lines were going to get a reaction from the crowd,” he explained. “That’s what I would focus on. So when I got signed with Dre, I was trying to translate that to record, to get that reaction. I would picture the listener sitting there and what lines they might react to. I just used that as a formula. Like, ‘How you gonna breastfeed, Mom?/ You ain’t got no tits.’”