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Eminem
 He is the most recognised face in Hip Hop, he's respected, he's revered and he's white. There's only one man who fits all these catagories, Eminem AKA Slim Shady AKA Marshall Bruce Mathers III.
For those of you who've seen
8 mile, his life story seems pretty clear, but there are some differences. Mathers spent his early years moving regularly with his mother, before settling in Detroit in 8 mile, the equivalent of the Bronx - a tough area where he found a voice in the battle format in hip hop festivals. Like a lot of MCs from the wrong side of the tracks Mathers had a lot of family issues, violence, drug and alcohol problems before he hit the big time.
Though he recorded a debut album Infinite, it was not a great success largely due to his lack of a personal style. His crazy rise to fame really started with his success as at the 1997 Rap Olympics in Atlanta where he came second. This result had the major labels starting to take notice, including Interscope's chief who passed his mixed tape on to a Dr. Dre of the ground breaking N.W.A. Dre was looking for a big act to produce and he found one in Shady. 
After attracting such attention and touring extensively before his second album, The Slim Shady EP smashed into the charts, and his profile was huge. He was on the cover of almost every major music magazine, and his album had huge sales. Along with this came the big Shady Attitude, and the beginnings of his outspoken persona. He went on to record his third album the Eminem Show - to rave reviews and more big tours. He followed this up with 8 mile, a fictious tale about a young white rapper from the poorest suburbs of Detroit trying to make it, containing some strong similarities to Eminem's own life. On top of this is Eminem's always controversial personal life, with his public split with his wife, his requests for privacy for his child and his fall out with his mother.
In 2003 we saw the rise of his protegee 50 cent and the biggest album of the year Get rich or die trying. Last year has seen him bring out a flaming track hassling George W Bush's campaign in Iraq on his newest album Encore. While some critics have been quick to dismiss this album as lacking the passion of some of his earlier work, it still packs that definitive Eminem sound and carries his signature in bold letters.
Of course no Foundations page is complete without links to other websites with even more info, so check out:
Eminem.com The Authorised Eminem website.
Eminemworld.com An old fashioned raw website.
And if you're interested in some new fresh hip hop stylings try Record Labels for all the hip hop you can shake a stick at.
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