Eminem is one of the most famous rappers working today, and he’s had an exceptionally long career that’s still going. Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, he began rapping when he was fourteen and dropped out of school when he was seventeen. Despite having a rough upbringing, Eminem went on to find unexpected success that brought him where he is today.
His first album was released in 1996, and was, by all accounts, a commercial flop. By then, he’d been rapping throughout the nineties and was raising his newborn daughter, Hailee, and trying to make ends meet. His real rise to success, though, came with the development of his alter ego, Slim Shady.
He put out the Slim Shady EP, which eventually led to his career taking off when Dr. Dre heard it. He said, “In my entire career in the music industry, I have never found anything from a demo tape or a CD. When Jimmy played this, I said, ‘Find him. Now.'” And when his critics had something to say about him bringing on a white rapper, he simply said, “I don’t give a fuck if you’re purple; if you can kick it, I’m working with you.” And the rest, as they say, was history. He released the The Slim Shady LP, home to some of his most memorable tracks like ‘My Name Is’ and ‘Guilty Conscience’ (the latter of which stirred quite a bit of controversy).
After the success of Slim Shady, he continued to put out even more music, with his record label executives pressuring him to top the success of songs like ‘My Name Is’. He released The Marshall Mathers LP next, featuring songs like ‘Stan’ and of course, ‘The Real Slim Shady’, which was another commercial success for the rapper. He then released The Eminem Show immediately following, with hits like ‘Without Me’ and ‘Till I Collapse’, marking his prolific status within the industry—and it’s one he’s maintained well. Not only has he kept making a variety of hits, but he does so in rapid succession.
His most recent album was released in 2020, titled Music To Be Murdered By, with his previous album before that coming out in 2018. If we take his track record into account, it seems that we might be due for another Eminem album any day now.
If you want to listen to the full, complete Eminem playlist, you can listen to it right here.