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27 Fascinating Facts You Didn't Already Know About Eminem
Vote up the things you didn't know about Marshall Mathers.
- 1
Elton John Is His Unofficial Sobriety Sponsor
Eminem told Rolling Stone in 2011 that Elton John, who had struggled himself in the past with substance abuse, helped the rapper out when when he was getting sober:
I speak to Elton [John]. He's like my sponsor. He usually calls me once a week to check on me, just to make sure I'm on the up-and-up. He was actually one of the first people I called when I wanted to get clean. He was hipping me to things, like, 'You're going to see nature that you never noticed before.' Sh*t you'd normally think was corny but that you haven't seen in so long that you just go, 'Wow! Look at that f*cking rainbow!' Or even little things - trees, the color of leaves. I f*cking love leaves now, man. I feel like I've been neglecting leaves for a long time.
Surprising fact? - 2
He Squatted In His Old Apartment The Night Before He Was Discovered By Dre
Eminem experienced what every musician dreams of... happenstance discovery. He was at the Rap Olympics in Los Angeles and was noticed by someone in the mail room at Interscope, who then managed to get his mixtape to Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. The two loved it (and mixtapes rarely ever turn into much).
What's even crazier is that the night before, he had to break into his own place, from which he'd just been evicted. "I had to break in," he said. “I didn't have anywhere else to go. There was no heat, no water, no electricity. I slept on the floor, woke up, went to LA. I was so pissed.”
Surprising fact? - 3
His Favorite Movie Is 'Superbad'
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Eminem befriended Jonah Hill on the set of Funny People and told the actor that Hill's 2007 movie Superbad was his favorite film. Hill told MTV:
Eminem says his favorite movie is Superbad, ever of all time. And he said to me, I’m not kidding - this is not like me being, “I’m cool” - he said if there was an award for best movie ever, he thinks Superbad should win. He quotes all the scenes to me.
Surprising fact? - 4
Intrusive Fans Forced Him To Sell His First Home
According to eminem.net, in 2002, Eminem told MTV the first really expensive thing he bought for himself was a house:
At the time I bought it, I had no idea how famous I really was. It was across the street from a trailer park and we had kids coming across all day knocking on the door. We had a pool in the backyard, kids were jumping in the pool. It was crazy. The house was on a main road so we had people whipping in my driveway like, "Em, what up?" I literally couldn't go outside my house. So we deaded that real quick, sold the house, lost money and bought a new house. That's probably the best investment I've made, my new house.
Surprising fact? - 5
He Wrote 'Lose Yourself' On The Set Of '8 Mile'
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“Lose Yourself” is not just considered one of Eminem's best songs... it's considered one of the best rap songs in history. Apparently, he cranked it out in one take, cutting the song during a brief break from filming. “He came in and laid down all three verses in one take,” engineer Steven King told Rolling Stone. “Jaws dropped - we were like, 'Oh, my God!' This story had been building up in him.”
Surprising fact? - 6
The Director Of 'Training Day' Wanted Him For The Ethan Hawke Part
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Before director Antoine Fuqua cast Ethan Hawke in the intense leading role in the 2001 film Training Day, Marshall Mathers was a probable contender for the role. After the success of 8 Mile (which showed Eminem's surprisingly great acting skills), he was was on a lot of directors' radars.
Things didn't work out on that film, but years later Fuqua directed Southpaw, a film loosely based on Eminem's life (which years earlier Eminem was in talks to star in as well).
Surprising fact? - 7
He Said In 2010 He Didn't Know How To Use A Computer
Eminem told Spin magazine in 2010 that not only did he not know how to work a computer, but refused to learn:
If I learn how to work a computer, I'm going to be on that b*tch all day looking at comments about me, and it's going to drive me crazy.
Surprising fact? - 8
A 2015 Study Found He Had The Biggest Vocabulary On The Pop Charts
After looking at the songs of 93 top artists in over 25 genres of music, a 2015 study found that Eminem had the widest vocabulary. Coming in hot at a whopping 8,818 unique words used, Eminem topped Jay Z (6,899 unique words), Tupac (6,569 unique words), Kanye (5,069 unique words), and Bob Dylan (4,883 unique words). The study also looked for lyrical density and new word interval.
Surprising fact? - 9
He's Read Only One Book From Start To Finish
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Eminem told Rolling Stone in 2011 that the one book he had read cover to cover, more than once, was LL Cool J's I Make My Own Rules. A big LL fan, Eminem said the 1998 autobiography is the only book he's read that wasn't just read to him as a child (The Little Engine That Could was a favorite in that category).
Surprising fact? - 10
Vanilla Ice's Popularity Almost Made Him Leave The Rap Game
Although the Beastie Boys' success inspired the young Marshall Mathers, the success of Vanilla Ice in the ‘90s nearly ended his rap aspirations. He told the Los Angeles Times in 2000 that hearing Vanilla Ice’s hit song “Ice Ice Baby” in 1991 “crushed” him:
At first, I felt like I didn't want to rap anymore. I was so mad because he was making it really [hard] for me... But then 3rd Bass restored some credibility, and I realized that it really depends on the individual. Vanilla Ice was just fake. 3rd Bass was real.
Surprising fact? - 11
Before He Cut His First Album, He Made $5.50 an Hour
Back in 1992, Eminem signed with FBT records after years of barely scraping by, trying to make ends meet. For a time, he worked as a cook and a dishwasher at Gilbert's Lodge, a small family restaurant in Michigan, making a mere $5.50 an hour.
Five days before Christmas, and soon after releasing Infinite in 1996, he was fired from the restaurant; it also happened to be his daughter's birthday. He wrote "Rock Bottom" right after that.
Surprising fact? - 12
He Had Comic Book Dreams Growing Up
Eminem drops comic references in nearly all of his albums. The Marshall Mathers LP 2 features a few, including a verse in "Rap God" that says, "Kneel before General Zod this planet's Krypton / no Asgard, Asgard so you'll be Thor and I'll be Odin you rodent / I'm omnipotent."
Another of his songs is actually called "Superman" (about not being able to be a girl's hero), so it's no surprise Eminem is a comic fan. He even wanted to be a comic book artist growing up.
Surprising fact? - 13
He Was Named SoundScan's Artist Of The '00s
Nielsen SoundScan, which crunches the numbers for Billboard music charts, announced in 2009 that Eminem was the company's best-selling artist, not just of the year, but of the decade. He'd sold more than 32 million albums during the first decade of the 2000s, topping even the Beatles.
Surprising fact? - 14
His Different Names Represent Different Personas
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Describing the meanings of his alter egos, Eminem told Spin magazine:
Slim Shady is the name for my temper or Anger. Eminem is just the rapper, Slim Shady is the attitude behind him, and Marshall Mathers is who I am at the end of the day.
Surprising fact? - 15
He Used To Write And Record Songs While High On Ecstasy
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While recording his first album, Dre and Eminem would often take ecstasy while writing and recording. This tradition continued through his second album (and eventually turned into an addiction). According to eminem.net, in a 2000 interview with Music 365, he discussed the drugs and The Marshall Mathers LP:
A couple of the songs on the new record were written on X. It exaggerates sh*t. Somebody will be just looking at me wrong and I'll just flip a table over, like, what the f*ck are you staring at?! If you're in a good mood you love everybody, but if you're in a bad mood and you got sh*t on your mind, you're gonna break down and sh*t. The hardest sh*t that I've f*cked with is X and 'shrooms.
Surprising fact? - 16
He's Obsessed With Diet Coke
Who doesn't have the occasional Diet Coke? Eminem, apparently, who is obsessed with it. He told Rolling Stone he even had a fountain that distributed Diet Coke in the lobby of his studio and drinks cup after cup every day. He's a self described chain-drinker (but avoids the cans due to aspartame and cancer worries).
Surprising fact? - 17
He Created The Slim Shady Alias While Sitting On The Toilet
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Eminem's rhymes grew angrier after the album Infinite was trashed, and he realized he needed an outlet. That's when Eminem created Slim Shady... while he was on the toilet. He told Rolling Stone:
Boom, the name hit me, and right away I thought of all these words to rhyme with it. So I wiped my a**, got up off the pot and, ah, went and called everybody I knew.
Slim allowed Marshall Mathers/Eminem to vent all of his angriest, most vile thoughts in another persona.
Surprising fact? - 18
He Won An Oscar For His Work On '8 Mile'
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Eminem not only acted in the 2002 film 8 Mile, based on his life, but also won an Oscar for the movie's theme song, “Lose Yourself.” It was the first rap song to ever win an Oscar. He shared the award with Luis Resto and Jeff Bass.
Surprising fact? - 19
The Beastie Boys Were A Huge Inspiration To Him
The Beastie Boys were a big influence on him, Eminem told Spin magazine:
That's what really did it for me. I was like, "This sh*t is so dope!" That's when I decided I wanted to rap. I'd hang out on the corner where kids would be rhyming, and when I tried to get in there, I'd get dissed. A little color issue developed, and as I got old enough to hit the clubs, it got really bad. I wasn't that dope yet, but I knew I could rhyme, so I'd get on the open mics and sh*t, and a couple of times I was booed off the stage.
Surprising fact? - 20
He's Been Clean Since 2009
After a long period of abusing pills (the worst period of which was 2002-2008) such as Ambien, Valium, and Vicoden, Em got clean in late 2009. He tried rehab in 2005, but that only made things worse once he got out. He'd also gained a lot of weight in this period. Then in 2007, he overdosed and nearly died from taking too much methadone, which landed him in the hospital. He's been clean ever since.
Surprising fact? - 21
He's A Classic Video Game Fiend
In addition to loving comic books, Eminem also has a soft spot for classic video games. His studio lobby is littered with full-size classic arcade machines, including Frogger, Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders. He became obsessed after watching the documentary King of Kong and even had two of his machines signed by the film's subject and game record holder, Steve Wiebe.
Surprising fact? - 22
Eminem's Mom Almost Didn't Make It Through Childbirth
Marshall Mathers's mother, Debbie Nelson, is well known to fans of Eminem. He's been rapping about her since his very first album. His hit single "My Name Is" even mentions her.
But did you know she almost didn't make it out of childbirth? Nelson wrote in her memoir, My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem, that she was in labor for 72 hours. At the time she was only 18 years old.
Surprising fact? - 23
His Mother Sued Him For $10 Million
The fall before The Slim Shady LP was released, Eminem's mother, Debbie Mathers-Briggs, sued the rapper for $10 million, citing defamation of character (and to this day, says everything Eminem said on his records was untrue, and that he grew up in a drug-free household). The court eventually settled on $250,000.
The rapper told the Los Angeles Times in 2000 when asked how it felt to be sued by his mother:
How does it feel? It feels like [expletive]. How would you feel? One thing I can tell you is that every single word I said about my mother and my upbringing was true."
Surprising fact? - 24
He Dropped Out Of High School In Ninth Grade
After failing ninth grade for the third time, Mathers had had it with school. He told Rolling Stone:
My mother was like, 'Get a f*cking job and help me with these bills, or your a** is out.' Then she would f*cking kick me out anyway, half the time right after she took most of my paycheck.
Surprising fact? - 25
He Usually Finds The Beat Before The Lyrics
Eminem talked to Rolling Stone in 2004 about his songwriting process:
I think the beat should talk to you and tell you what the hook is. The hook for "Just Lose It" I probably wrote in about 30 seconds once the beat came on. It was the last record we made for the album. We didn't feel like we had a single yet. That was a song that doesn't really mean anything. It's just what the beat was telling me to do.
Surprising fact? - 26
He And Kim Met When He Was 15 And She Was 13
Eminem met Kim, his future on-again, off-again wife, and mother of his child, Kim, when he was only 15. He told Rolling Stone he was "standing on their table with my shirt off, on top of their coffee table with a Kangol on, mocking the words to LL Cool J's 'I'm Bad.'" She was 13 at the time, but looked “at least 16.”
Surprising fact? - 27
He Indirectly Cured Ed Sheeran's Childhood Stutter
British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and Eminem have collaborated multiple times, becoming quite good friends in the process. Sheeran wrote the song “River,” which appears on Eminem's 2017 album Revival, and he also performed “Stan” alongside Em during the Detroit legend's induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
The singer's connection goes far deeper, though. Sheeran revealed while on The Howard Stern Show:
I was going through all sorts of speech therapy and when I was 9, my uncle bought me The Marshall Mathers LP, and he just said to my dad, “This guy’s the next Bob Dylan and you’ve gotta let him listen.” My dad didn’t really clock it. He was just like, “Okay, Ed’s going to go listen to that.” And by learning that record, and rapping back to back to back to back, it cured my stutter.
Surprising fact?
