The Story of Eminem - Full Documentary

[Music] eminem ak8 slim shape AKA Marshall who's Madison third he is a survival rap star father actor felon media mogul the voice of a generation he is immerses raps most controversial performance storyteller an artist whose provocative imagery and dark rhymes have resonated with America's increasingly disenfranchised youth and it was multiple personas have enchanted and hypnotized audiences worldwide born into a broken home he is drawn deeply from the well of his own life which provides the fuel for vision and artistic will his lyrics are his life his legend his alter ego and his therapy to understand his music we must first understand his life in a world he grew up in I was born in Highland Kansas and my mother left my father when I was probably about nine months old and brought me to st. Joseph Missouri and left me with my abusive alcoholic grandmother st. Joseph's Missouri is a quiet working-class town it is a town Marshalls grandmother Betty grew up in a town his mother Debbie grew up in a place tarnished with the effects of alcoholism abuse and instability the challenges in Marshalls family life will be set in motion long before his birth the residual effects of generations of abuse was passed on by his great-grandmother even as she lay dying she died a hell of a death at 93 and I was so glad and she called for me on her deathbed and I told her I said you know I'm glad you're dying she says can you forgive me and I says no I can't forgive you the way you beaten induced a little child a little child innocent child I said you know you're going to hell don't you and she looked up at me and I said god help you despite the years of abuse Betty dreamt of a better life well as a young girl I want to just be a mother I want a great big family you know I was going to have this house with a white picket fence like everybody has women and I was just gonna feel good to my children bake for me you know just love them to death that when everything went wrong should I married mr. Nelson I was 14 soon after young maverick Betty gave birth to the first of several children Debbie Marshalls mother Oh Danny was so tiny I was embarrassed I've being so young I had a hard labor and my daughter weighed probably about 4 pounds if you were to do a drawing of the Mathers Nelson family relations are like we look like cats in a bag this is a clan it's hardscrabble country folk who are close to each other except when they're fighting each other she could not wait to have a baby brother not long after a baby brother Rob Betty realized Debbie was unwilling to share the attention of her mother put him down for a nap one time so I walked into the bedroom and she's got her father's ranch big wrench just about to hit him in the head I had to watch Debbie from then on continuously Betty's marriage ended and the children had a succession of would-be stepfathers I cannot remember a time ever when there was not a man in the house ever really get close to my stuff days they were pretty much alcoholics there was a lot of drama you know growing up in our family there was a lot of police called I was sexually assaulted by my one stepdad when I was 12 he didn't get the job complete because he was arrested I remember my mother coming home and the police taking him out and her telling me he's got her hope I can get him on to Joe I don't believe you I ran away it's like I'm not facing him if you get him on a job I'm not telling him I'm sorry because I'm not sorry because of something he does she want to get out of house so bad Debbie Debbie just was tired Debbie searched for a way out one day she thought she finally found it and a quiet boy who lived on a block and played in a local band Marshall rules Matt is the second nut Bruce and he was my knight in shining armor 19 when I was 14 Debbie comes in from school about Jesus Bruce and our hidden Mary teller Bruce yeah he says I love Debbie and Debbie loves me and we're getting married Debbie and Marshall Bruce matters the second were married in 1970 am average Debbie hope would take her away from the troubles of home it wasn't that I didn't want to be around my brothers and sisters anymore it's just I wanted my own life of one of my own child and I wanted to get away from all that and next thing I know she finally got pregnant I was pregnant with Ronnie when she got pregnant on October 17th 1972 Debbie gave birth to Marshall Bruce Mathers the third I mean it's like this such a nail you know it's gonna have everything he's not gonna want for anything he's gonna be so sheltered soul also protected gonna be the best mother in the world and I made a promise with God alcohol the drugs the drinking the pot any of that stuff they would never go through that the fighting none of it finally happy with our own family Debbie left for North Dakota but Bruce would take over his father's job in a hotel the couple made their home in the basement of Bruce's parents house Debbie said things begin to get bad she'd go down to coffee shop or the hotel and Bruce would be playing around the girls naturally she you tell her take the kid and go home she have a lot of lonely time on her hands and then he begun to beat the heck out her martial Bruce Mathers ii was a knife thrower he threw knives he used to always like to see how close he'd get to your foot without hitting it and i remember her calling me and think that she's coming home she left on a train when he was maybe 1 or 2 years old just she says he took the clothes he was wearing they got a train they headed for Saint Joe and I think that was sort of the beginning of what was going to be many many moves throughout his life Debbie running again from abuse and the effects of alcoholism left Bruce and returned home the st. Joseph with Marshall his dad never wanted anything to do with him Marshall tried to contact him Debbie tried to contact him he went to California never was seen again Bruce Mathers then disappeared from his son's life forever like Betty his grandmother and Debbie his mother Marshall now was caught in the same cycle of parental abandonment Marshall would never know his father but he would never forget [Music] when we first left his dad and moved back to Missouri I learned a 1-room efficiency apartment Debbie tried to make ends meet bouncing from job to job and house to house always trying to make a better life for a child not realizing the effects such constant change would have on him Debbie and Marshall moved back and forth from st. Joseph Missouri to the Detroit area as many as 20 times in his childhood he did move around a lot but it was always to better herself because I could not stay with my Brooke loader at all I mean we were there a couple of days and I was like an eternity and every time it would be like a dream in a house it's all it right out from under me Debbie may have tried her best and most parents do trying your best though doesn't mean that that's exactly what your child needs soon Debbie and her mother began a class on how to raise Marshall I don't think he was an angry child I think he would just got his feelings hurt a lot and I think his mother controlled him a lot he was a very big mama's boy Marshall is a loner he did not really want to get out to play with other kids had to kind of coax him he wanted to be with mommy all the time he never could speak up for himself but he just go pout and go color his color books you know or go get on his beanbag and just watch TV kind like a little puppy in a corner you know just go back to my corner he had a disruption in attachment early on in that his father left him there people like his uncle Todd who may be the closest to a consistent father figure you know I was a protector you know and I was taking fish in our attention try to teach him what a man was supposed to be I'd get on him about homosexuality and make sure he knew that you know boys go with girls and you know vice versa and you know things like that they moved around a lot so he didn't have a lot of stability so those are some of the early things that may have begun to make him think is the world a trustworthy place is it okay in the middle of the chaos young Marsha began to find expression in music Marsha was surrounded 24/7 with music why he was in my stomach I was saved at home you know and take the speakers and put all through the house rooms we just always said it's a while and just be like he'd hung himself and just bounce back and forth constantly bounced off the back seat of the car the couch there's music playing he did this teachers had told me this kid has [ __ ] you know he's bouncing his bouncing he has to sit still he's like this all the time he's real hyper and you have to have him on Ritalin and he'd keep going like this and keep going like this he bounced off the back seat the first eight years of his life rocked to the music growing old Oh Marsha will find escape in a fantastical world of superheroes and comic books I was wanting to act out cartoon characters and so I wouldn't want him you could open the door in his room you have Castle Grayskull going okay he'd have his cartoons on he'd have a whatever he wanted but he he entertained himself a lot he was all he had for years he liked it that way I mean now he played with friends but he liked you know entertaining him stuff and creating his own little world he was an to Batman and he was Batman so everywhere we went with them he had to wear that outfit yeah most kids they'll go yeah Batman and jump off of something big yep the lines down he never moves down a lot of times kids when they feel like their external world is impoverished or they feel neglected they need to feel big and powerful and strong and they can feel big and powerful sturdy and strong by associating with x-man by associating with Batman and Superman because they have superpowers then so it really helps them feel like okay maybe I'm not some small maybe I'm not being as abused as much maybe the world can be okay because I can be he-man Marshalls blossoming artistic abilities provided a quiet retreat from the chaos of his surroundings Marshall loved to draw and get into a lot of arguments and squabbles with teachers saying he did not draw this free handed so I would say to them okay well what's having drop something's it's an island drop climb what you'd like in the draw because he could draw anything Debbie and Marshall continued to move with Marshall changing schools as often as every two or three months he was always the new kid and if he did return to someplace he'd been before he was usually behind and so those kids didn't know him from before so he's always starting over somewhere he talks a lot about about this nomadic upbringing in his music this sort of peripatetic life were you jumping from one place to the other [Music] Ronnie Betty's son Debbie's brother was only two months older than Marshall while Betty and Debbie classes on how to raise them the two boys will continually bond their little carrier sit side by side and they make their little baby talk Goo's you know and it was a bombing already there it went over together you should have seen him I mean you couldn't really tell it to apart and they both had the same color hair got same height and when they talk they sound just about the same I encouraged him to to laugh and dance and be happy the two of them are quite a team did not want my mother around Marshall earnest that was just me I had to be there Marshall had been told so many lies I didn't trust her on time and the dysfunction the yelling the screaming the fighting they drinking that I stepdads could've been doing I didn't want him subjected to it didn't get too much time together as I started getting older Debbie we kept pulling Marshall to Michigan and Ronnie to Missouri as Marshall approached the end of his grade school years Debbie and Marshall was settled permanently in a Detroit area a city still reeling from the race riots and major destruction only a few years earlier [Music] there were a lot of tensions at that time a lot of racial tension the city was in such chaos that the National Guard was mobilized in the streets of Detroit a racial war zone have been created by the 67 riots marshal will find himself in the middle of all of it they always lived in neighborhoods barely a step above the ghetto and in Detroit Marshall consistently found himself one of the few white kids and predominantly black schools the neighborhood Eminem grew up in is particularly interesting because there still houses there and people still live in them but they're just across the street from the suburbs what you end up with there is a neighborhood where people have sort of filled in the gaps it's almost like hermit crabs you know they found a shell that suited them they could afford they moved in there and they finally became homeowners and just across the street not too far away from there the people who moved out who feel like they didn't move out they didn't make it choice to me what they were driven out and so there's a lot of bitterness and there's a lot of tension that that 8 mile divided as an annual at door elementary in Roseville Michigan Marshall was bullied for months by an older student named D'Angelo Bailey these beatings came to a head in January 1982 when Bailey cornered Marshall in a restaurant and floored him with a snowball pack with a heavy object no one reported him missing from class and he was found unconscious and bleeding hours later it was a nightmare when my son did not come out of a school in the school tonight it they do that they denied anything about my baby laying in a pool of blood in the bathroom and I found him laying there and running out to my van with him with you know the teachers and principals you know well we had a skeletal crew we didn't notice him missing no one knew how long he'd been there my main concern was to getting you know medical treatment and because he was like when I found my son he was in the floor and he was having a seizure the attack left Marshall in a coma for ten days I want to beg God to spare my son it was an only child and told him if there was anything ever I did wrong in my life to take me not my child they told me they give up on my son four doctors are four and four days twenty-one doctors once awake from the coma Marshalls recovery would be long having to relearn all his basic motor functions he also suffer from headaches loss of vision and hammering nightmares and nausea my medical bills were in excess of over 150,000 I had to quit my job to take care of him and I mean it just it was overwhelming anytime you have any kind of head injury it can be life-changing so when you have an injury to the brain the effects can be really long-lasting I had a patient many years ago who had a head injury was meek and mild before turned very angry and aggressive afterwards took a year from Marshall Thomas yeah it has worked with him every day teaching him how to tie his shoes he had become almost like an infant like the medications they had in mind of a king and a Latin mall presser I did not when I give him the medication I seen a zombie and I did not want him zombie doll I didn't believe in it so the medication was going to go [Music] it comes from my grandmother's side she wrapped all her life she called it rhyming and she said when she was a little girl in Alabama growing up she remembers her mama work in the fields cotton fields you know whites work right alongside of blacks and cotton fields and they used to rhyme songs and make up things as they went to pass the time Marshalls father was in a band and then when we went back to Lowell Stern he was in a band somewhat at the Stateline club and then I was gonna be Emily back to Missouri which was called it was running the satellites in Daddy Warbucks which I had sung a little bit of backup I played guitar play piano I write Marshall hey any love music um his first concert was a talking hug Ronnie play drums and Marshall tried his hand at drums - Ronnie was artistic but not near like my grandson Marshall Ronnie was always I mean would even little I got him a toy drums and little boombox to call him and he'd turned up full blast and boy he just danced all the time Eminem's uncle Ronnie who was about the same age as Eminem is given a lot of credit for for sort of infecting him with the rat bug in 1981 Ronnie played a song for Marshall that would change his life it was reckless a song featuring ice-t from the soundtrack to the movie breaking it was the first rap song Marshall heard he took the tape from his uncle Ronnie and played it over and over and over he's dancing along and we had me hold a sign up but he made a great big card worth sign around my neck and some breakdancing 25 cents to watch and I mean this kid could spill in a touch for hours looks like I can remember I'm sitting in his room for hours basically heats up there and play the same beats over and over and over and right he would wake me up like at 3 o'clock my mom is this award does this rhyme music just please help me find it so we did the dictionary out yes that's a word you know and what's the definition of it and how my brother Ronnie would do stupid tapes together and you know like they were performing in front of people so when you got into music it was like his natural sense of rhythm came right into his play with his stuff the two of them I can just see them here becoming Ronnie with a figure from this side and Marshall from this side meeting in the front they were gonna be big fingers and rappers the two of them never going to go far away and they were going to be in movie pictures with the rapping and singing I mean I can just I just see them and sometimes I salmon you know it's wonderful other times I break down and cry Marshalls ice-t influence would need to stay strong to pull him through some serious life changes the latest in the line of foster kids Debbie Mathers had taken in Kimberly Scott into Marshalls life in 1988 she was just 13 I was on call for the state of Michigan every weekend the kids were dropped off at the well pretty part went to pick up Marshall is very jealous of the kids he uh we would sit in a circle and talk if anybody had a problem here to discuss it and he'd jump up and run off because you'd be like well you like them more than me and it's like now come here they'd have to go after everything but he was he was a it was like I want mom to myself or not at all Kim stepfather didn't want her mama said Shanna go so Kim was staying anywhere she could and I remember going to Mission and I said well you got here Oh mom now don't fan her I've got a daughter now Debbie never had any little girls she took her home cleaned you up and was so happy to have a girl Kim some settle into the mathers household with Debbie doting on every move Kim was very spoiled too because they always wanted a daughter it was tough trying to juggle everything around I try to just come as much as there was as much as Marshall or anybody else she was very insecure and she'd been through a lot when she was younger did not know no father Jim was real tight-lipped didn't have much to say Kim became jealous whenever Debbie would be on the couch Kim would have to crawl in between you they fought like brother and sisters you'd never believe that they was ever going to become enemy you know get together when you went up to Marshalls room get the whole upstairs to himself they were always you knowing rusting together Hey I thought Marshall wasn't doing too bad in the beginning you know she's kind of cute Oh Debbie said one day she came home and they were playing around so she ordered Kim out and Marshall said I'm going to so they left they walked down on Debbie and Debbie couldn't stand it and then they're like we're boyfriend and girlfriend now and you know Kevin told me haha the time we were and you just didn't even know it but I don't believe that she helped him in the beginning establish this manhood and know who he was and Debbie was she also is a relationship she tried to break him up a lot of times and it worked they would fight then when the minute they got in a fight Debbie would add fuels that flame she saw a lot of problems when I got it way out of hand oh no Debbie didn't want that but you know she wanted just enough to keep him away so she had Marshall all to herself he got kicked out of his mom's he came and started sleeping at our house couchsurfing when he first moved in his mom had this big green boat he could hear it like coming halfway down the street and he'd be like wreck wreck wreck if my mom comes up to the door I don't live here why don't you want to talk to your mom your mom she screwed up Baba she'd come driving by real slow he'd be up in the visor peeking out looking out like like what is she doing and she come up to the doors Marshall no Marshall Byron Williams is Eminem's former bodyguard and friend Kim is his mother reincarnated that's his mother all over again the middle of Busey took with her all they're getting she would hit him I watch her take her heels off and beat the kid ahead with her shoes I mean and he didn't want to hit her back so he punches tire or punch me she has the potential to be a nice person man I just haven't seen that side of her yet you know but she shoved me twice every day if they didn't fight it wasn't normal you know it was like they constantly were at each other's back a lot of time she was very moody you know what let him do a lot of things and stuff and like I said she whenever he'd have something big going on she'd screw it up they were probably like I don't know dr. Jekyll meets mr. Hyde relationship you know it could turn quick and they could right out she's also sort of like home for him she knew him when nobody else did when he was suffering when he was trying to try to climb when he was just not sure that it was worth it I'm in my room getting ready to go to bed and Kim comes over I hear him out in the kitchen and they're yelling at each other and all of a sudden I hear chairs moving on the floor and sounds like they're going at it and I'm like thinking to myself oh my god what's going on you know so I jump out of my room and she's just beating on him he's not swinging you know I'm just like in total shock oh my god you know she's picking them up living a life with repeated violence and abuse Marshall will continue to be tested [Music] few months before that summer and my little brother looked at me and said stuff look what I have and I'm thinking well this is nice because he opens the closet and shows me all these quotes and he turns to me and says this is material you know what I'm missing and I said what honey said love I have no love there's no love here on December 14th 1991 Ronnie poke and horn killed himself with a gunshot to the head Ronnie was despondent over a breakup with a girlfriend distraught over Ronnie's death Marshall did not attend his funeral Betty videotaped her son's funeral and mailed a copy to marshal the bit of you between Betty and her daughter still confuses what the possible intention of the tape may have been it really been bitter about that it just starts the organ music and it's the you know a bitter area and they say I'm and it just shows him in the casket there because it was open casket you know all the flowers and all I thought you've never been to recenter you need to deal with it you know this is reality but he said I tried to kill him when he got the tape and the pictures he collapses I was not trying to hurt him when I was told she's on the video I really don't think that he really thought too much of it because he can serve as a source my daughter lied to him and she said Ronnie would be alive today but you didn't you weren't home to take a phone call that Ronnie called and asked to speak to Marshall and she said Marshall wasn't home Marshall needs to know Ronnie did not call him and the guilt that was put on Marshall thank you my god is my fault with the loss of his uncle partner Marshall would now be left alone the struggle [Music] [Music] a bad performance in school would make his chances for success even tougher he flunked the ninth grade three times Debbie was you know Marcia what are you gonna do what are you gonna do for a living if she was really concerned for him because he had no one she was scared for the kids future undeterred by his mother's concerns Marshall will begin focusing intently on his and Ronnie's dream and develop his skills as a rap artist at the time rap lyrics proclaimed an anti Authority message of racial politics and the realities of life in the ghetto early rap artists such as Public Enemy ice-t and NWA were beginning to influence and inspire Marshall and his crew Eminem had decided that he wanted to be a rapper but as a white rapper he really had no role model there was really nobody else out there Marshall began making tapes in the basement of his mother's house with Deshawn Holton a Lincoln High School classmate who called himself poof probably 18 17 or 18 very very very polite mr. Mathers do you need me to do anything for you or anybody say please and thank you or the other kids were just like get me this or do that or no I'm not taking out the garbage G words using the basement all the time to practice and scratch records but I found out they were my albums okay that they used to scratch Marshall and proof would come out of the basement with a tape they persistently shop to local record stores including record time run by Harvey Bunner mmm and his crew that he hung out with they were the basement production crew all his cats that he used to hang out with and they come in and they buy all the new hip-hop that come out it didn't matter who it was if it was something new and cool especially out of New York they bought it so all this stuff's coming in and they're buying all this stuff and everything but anytime anybody locally come out they hated them especially Marshall Marshalls like these guys suck these guys don't have no talent ICP who are they they suck then he started getting down kid rock and stuff and I happen to have a shirt on that dangers like you like Kid Rock and everything I'm like yeah I like Kid Rock I support local hip-hop and he's like well he sucks I go you're telling me all these bands that suck but I haven't heard a damn thing come out of your mouth yet he didn't really make a name for himself until I was a kid rock in store that we had he had just released his album on jive records and he just started getting a buzz so there's all these kids are coming in for Kid Rock stop and all of a sudden here comes this little skinny little kid with blue eyes I'll challenge you to a rap right now yo you want a battle yo yo yo kind of in Kid Rock's face everybody's like well who is this [ __ ] oh it's just that Marshall there's an Eminem guy that he calls himself he's just thought whatever happened he thinks he's going somewhere and all oh you know every other words that this after that everybody was looking around like who is this kid because he's coming in the store he bugging Kid Rock you know you want a battle is like Kid Rock don't battle you know Kid Rock's like you know got his own thing going on it was really cool about it he said listen he goes today is my day your day may come he goes but this is my in store right now I've heard some of your stuff and you go way too fast you need to enunciate when you enunciate people understand you then maybe you can have an in-store like me so then he became Eminem and that was really when he began to market himself what him you know he learned the art of business he learned the art of networking as well as working on his craft and getting better and better and and in doing that he was able to meet people and get people to listen to him that maybe were outside of his normal circle of Detroit which helped him get discovered Eminem began to hone his craft in earnest attending open mikes and freestyle showcases around Detroit however the greatest test of his young life was soon arrived Jim got pregnant he came in and he was like wow man I just found out that Kim's pregnant and I'm gonna be a dad you know and how am I gonna get a house I got this job barely pays enough hailey Jade Scott was born Christmas Day December 25th 1995 I know I think he was born and everything just seemed like it went huh can I water the baby was used as a weapon against Marshall but instead of following the actions of his father and grandfather Haley's birth brought a new sense of focus and determination to Eminem he was going to succeed his family had failed Marshall loved his daughter he stuck with her plate and I mean if he did take care of this imminent view fatherhood as a blessing he threw himself into providing for his family while polishing his rap skills [Music] Gilbert's Lodge is a down-home Roadhouse outside of st. Clair Shores Marshall worked at Gilbert's on and off for three years Gilbert's Lodge was probably Eminem's mainstay for a while I mean that was his steady gig when when the tapes weren't selling when people weren't coming to his gigs he could always count on going back to Gilbert's Lodge and flipping burgers and from what I'm told he was a pretty good short-order cook he would quit there go to a new job for like two weeks and then go back to Gilbert's and put again do another job and then go back to Gilbert working double shifts for minimum wage Gilbert's became more home van home when Marshall first started working at Gilbert's he sware those really baggy baggy pants I'm looking at him going man pull those pants up buddy how can you work and not trip over them whenever he worked is constantly rap and rap and honing your skills when he would get a food order for example he'd started rhyme based on what the food order was you know he would bring in tapes for people and say listen this where you think about this he'd try and get people who come out to his performances and a lot of the people did go I mean they didn't like rap they might be in a rough Club somewhere in Detroit they wouldn't have gone to otherwise but they liked him and so they would go to show the support very very steely focused that's one thing I noticed about him yeah he was very intent you could see in his eyes everything would just come off the tops of their heads and I just sit there in amazement but yet I'd be going okay where's my cheese balls let's go okay I got people waiting for their food and they're just going on and on and on you know and it they did wonderful is it was quite entertaining when he wasn't working at Gilbert's Lodge he was working on his career Marshall would usually write either on the little notebook on the back of a ticket and whatever he could write on he would write on if it was his hand or he'd always be writing something down he wants his own [Music] I can't even explain and when he was on his own he would be completely sober man he put his little headphones on and he would take his finger like this he will actually write the rhymes in his hair and writing him out in the air and he would have like most people have like one notepad but do you have like five six different pieces of paper it's almost like he sees the world in a Hall of Mirrors and he takes those distorted images and he puts him in his music there was no school of hip-hop to where you could walk in and they you know you got to do it like this he would take whole page front and back with the small writing I mean you do have to get a magnifying glass to actually see what he was writing because he'd write so small you write all these words and like three columns and it would go down all these words were wine and all the words that didn't completely rhyme with them but he could make them ROM he would write them in the next column and he would go in and pick each one of these words and like match him up it's like decoding it he'd sit down at the table with a track that he liked he'd play it through and rewind really can keep right and keep right and you're going to booth and he'll sit there and he'll write and you'll listen to it and you have the sounds just blaring it's pretty much like the same sample over and over and over until he get it completely written he's going around the hip-hop shops all these other places he's getting into these battles downtown I walk out of the step off the steps of st. Andrews and it's an alleyway in between st. Andrews and this other club and it was a big circle out there I'm like oh man they've got to fight and then I'm like I'll get closer to the circle might know they got a battle going on you know to establish his reputation as a rapper Eminem began participating in rap battles at various Detroit hip-hop clubs [Music] st. Andrews Hall is a converted Church and a popular hip-hop club in downtown Detroit the basement is called the shelter one of the most important proving grounds in the city being in the shelter is like being in the basement of your mom's house and you having a big block party everybody that comes in knows everybody music is pumping and the MCS up there rapping and everybody is attentive to what they're saying hanging on every word that they said Eminem would now have to bear out his talents in front of all black audiences like the song lose yourself from the 8 mile soundtrack the stage is st. Andrews gave Eminem its first shot even when M will go up there you always have the people who just like didn't get into him you still had that other people that really got into him he really had no role model there was really nobody else out there and in Detroit at the time there was a place called hip hop shop Saturdays at the hip hop shop I think they started around 12:00 noon and proof would usually host and DJ head would usually spin the records I mean it was pretty much based on the audience ruling who who got burned the hardest and who was most triumphant the rap battles were that were deep you know you might dig into somebody's personal lives but you know it was whoever could put their lyrics to the other the best you know and week after week you could tell when somebody went home and they would practice in and they lived and breathe it that's to think about you know going to the rap battles the guys that were rapping were just some guys who decided yesterday that they want to rap and they decided they were gonna write some stuff know these guys lived and breathed hip-hop but Eminem's early battles were hard for it and never easily won you just come up start rhyming and was done and leave the stage people are like yeah he's really good he was putting like a hundred and ten percent and of everything with any rap battle anywhere he could be noticed he was dedicated he was trying to make it he was trying to explain the Kim look you know this could be our big break let me do it she was always had a word and about him doing it why are you doing this you need to go out and buy your debt you know your daughter diapers teaming up with proof and local Detroit produces Jeff and Mark Bass Eminem made his first record and two song EP called backstabber backstabber which was inspired by this fight that he had with Kim his girlfriend at the time I think that was the first time he really let rip with his emotions on recording he took his tax money and pressed it up he pressed like 500 to a thousand copies sock did okay I mean he didn't do massive amounts of numbers I think he's sold like 200 of them mark kemp was Eminem's first manager mark founded underground sounds magazine a national hip hop publication based in Detroit unlike other hip hop magazines at the time underground sound paid attention to up-and-coming artists especially if they were from the same hometown of Detroit my original meeting with Eminem was a phone conversation he called asked me how does he submit his tape he's he likes a magazine he's interested in getting some type of coverage in a magazine sent in a tape I liked it I reviewed it did hear that there was some talent here you can just hear it something's got to happen here it's it's too good not to happen nothing happened he said a lot of people took him as a joke and he went to a lot of reverse racism and proof kind of gave him pretty much the ghetto pass when he first put the tapes out you know people are like you know not really feeling it you didn't finish school now you want to rap you're gonna be a white rap it's not gonna work you know everybody from his school from you know guys in the neighborhood the nightclubs people laughed at him when he was in the suburbs the white kids didn't want to listen to this kid singing black music then when he was in the city the black kids didn't want to hear this white kid playing black music and trying to perform black music somebody at the end of the show passing something out and a guy took it said this is a joke throws it out and there's this like some altercation all I saw was this massive amount of people into this little swarm and he's in the middle of it settled everything tempers you know settle down and stuff that's when I knew that there was something else behind this guy that he was very serious about what he wanted to do and he took offense with what people said to him here he did all this work and put all this stuff out and people were throwing the trash you weren't even giving it a listen even through a stormy relationship with Kim the continual struggles of raising a daughter and the grind of working a minimum-wage job Eminem relentlessly pursued his music career working once again with Jeff and Mark II bass the producers who have been mentoring him since he was 15 Eminem was able to complete and release his second recording Infini infinite comes out I thought it was a really good album all the way through he was out on cassette it was out on vinyl I remember hearing it listening to it thinking god this guy's really good I walked into this club to see some groups I want to see proof Group five Ella I wasn't expecting Eminem who was like you've heard the new Eminem stuff I was like no but this dude over there just brought me his new new album I was like I want to meet Eminem where's Eminem innit he was like that dude I was like wait a minute the white dude just brought this up to me that's Eminem I was floored cuz I got that tape and a couple others and that was all I listened to wondered why he was still rapping in tiny clubs ten people for local artists getting on the air of hip-hop radio station WJLB is a gateway to success in Detroit beyond DJ Bushman has followed the scene for years hearing all the potential hopefuls he was cool with Bushmen but Bushmen didn't have to say of what went on the air again there you had to be black to be on the air and if you weren't then he didn't get it you got tossed aside today's hit music 93 1 Eminem made another important radio connection deejay Lisa Lisa sponsored open mic nights during her program Eminem called persistently to audition Lisa Lisa was impressed with his Drive and lyrical expertise so she invited him on he became a station favorite and wonderful regulus one of the first couple of wraps he did I'm writing it was that he was locked in a psycho Ward or something but it was it was almost like a joke it was like a comedy but then you listened to it it had such a dark undertone when he jumped down the mic he turned all of that anger that he felt in the room teasing him into a strength and he ended up winning I just remember sitting there watching this little blond white kid like what are you doing now are you turning this around on these guys for me for him being white I didn't care I would listen to it I always try to give any feedback to anybody I could about their music though the album made people in the Detroit music scene a way of Eminem's talent and abilities infinite was a commercial flop Eminem and the bass brothers got stuck with the bill he was respected but not respected I think there was more talk behind his back he used to come home discouraged a lot there's days he'd be like man I just want to give this up I want to forget it I'm gonna be done with it I'm gonna just keep working do what I got to do to get by when he realized he was gonna have to work for a living Marshall and my sister would compete over who had the most pills yeah they would fight over who had the most not who had the pills who had the most pills the black community said no Don he was sort of the white zebra you're not black we don't want you here he was out of place this point he wanted to die recovering from the commercial failure of infinite the rest of Eminem's life was crumbling beneath him he was fired from Gilbert's he was constantly fighting with him and he couldn't support his daughter haily he was fed up pissed off and at the end of his rope in a moment of desperation clinging to the memory of his uncle Ronnie Eminem tried to kill himself by swallowing a handful of pills out of the darkness of M&M suicide attempt came a renewed inspiration the fond of voice he would need to succeed as an artist [Music] there's a story that I've been told where he was talking to Buddha full of rhymes he was another Detroit rapper and he was telling him you know I'm just not getting anywhere with this and so I'm thinking of trying something different we were telling them that he needed a gimmick an image and his identity was mask because he didn't know who to be he got fed up his ego totally flip they don't like the good stuff you know I'm gonna just start screwing around and writing some stuff and said hey I'm gonna start writing the craziest stuff that you could possibly imagine he had this alter ego called Slim Shady and we're just like wow wow he's got a totally different sound it's great when he really started getting looked at mark Kemp Eminem's first manager arranged for proof and another Detroit area rapper named bizarre to attend some meetings with music executives in New York bizarre new Aminu from the Detroit rap scene and invited him to go along bizarre played his stuff and Eminem played his stuff and I think bizarre told me Eminem got a little bit better response I remember when he called me and got my feedback on a new record he was making and he rapped just the two of us to me blew my mind I was like whoa Wow and it was the Slim Shady EP oh my god this is so good murder murder you know went up to Eastland shot a policeman when you hear Slim Shady rapping if you listen to his music it's really distinctive which are the Eminem tracks and which are the Slim Shady tracks the Slim Shady tracks are the harder edge they're the more bitter the more vindictive tracks normally was he'd been the kid that was being picked on or Bowie or told he wasn't gonna match anything that was his dark and evil side that basically was coming out I start saying all these things about different people gay bashing the homophobic stuff lesbians hotheads doing drugs anything associated with violence The Slim Shady EP was released in 1997 when this came out this was no joke I mean with people putting aside Infinite and stuff because he sounded like somebody else when he did this EP there was Slim Shady was born and it got a positive response and it allowed him to take out a lot of his frustrations we're getting successes we're selling tapes out of different stores and we were getting shows and we kept selling I'm getting him and stuff we knew we had something here steady sales of The Slim Shady EP proved that Eminem was ready for the next level scribble Jam is an urban arts festival that celebrates the hip-hop lifestyle the annual summer event is a convergence of expiring MCS graffiti artists DJs and b-boys even with the forward progress of his music Eminem's family life was still remain in a state of turmoil I really had to talk Eminem into it I mean he was like I broke I was like don't worry about it I'll cover you you should just make some time and go down there he had a show the night before so it was like it was probably three eight three or four a.m. before we even got on a road to Cincinnati Slim Shady competed at scribble Jam in 1997 it was an opportunity for his new persona to showcase his freestyle and battle rap abilities he had been crafting on the streets for a broader audience outside of Detroit [Music] [Music] there are 80 people that into the MC battle one of them was having a TMC's he battled his way to number two he lost to a guy named juice I remember him coming back and telling me that he finished in second place in Cincinnati where they kind of had it fixed because the guy from the store won you know there was a few and everybody's like oh that white boy one white boy won and he lost to this guy and he should have won he was frustrated but he was excited cuz he knew he should want but then again finished in second place he just says well I'm just gonna do it one step more and no matter where he did or where he worked or whatever he always told everybody he was gonna be a star you just watch while the second-place finish a scribble Jam why and Eminem and slim Shady's reputation beyond the streets of Detroit there was no immediate financial benefit Eminem returned to an empty home Kim and Hayley following the family cycle left him to live with relatives in warm Michigan a suburb of Detroit the new Slim Shady went back to the old eminem couchsurfing ways ultimately ending up in a place he had worked for years to avoid here's a guy up until the time he made it when he was in his mid to late 20s he was still in with his mom even when he had a girlfriend and a baby at a music industry conference in Detroit mark Kemp approached windy day and influential music industry power broker and gave her the Slim Shady EP I was like I'm gonna give you something I really want you to pay attention to yeah I'll give you this tape by the sky mm he's a white guy but he's gonna floor you initially reluctant Wendy was 1 over Baz masterful handling of words rhythm and his Slim Shady pissant she was putting together an event with a magazine called rap sheet in LA she was organizing an event within the event called rap Olympics and they were the teams would battle in things such as storytelling would be one battle or picking stuff out of a hat she was like I'm putting together this team I want Eminem on the team I got Thurston Howell the third I got juice she wanted him to finish it off I told him he should do it I should definitely do it she flew him out I got a ticket I flew out at the rap Olympics Eminem again his second to the same wrapper juice yet the trip to our lay yielded much more important results whatever name went out to LA he was basically someone who had beaten the local talent who had gotten a little bit of a regional reputation but the rap Olympics was a chance for him to showcase in a major forum LA based radio station had mmm on the air they really lit up the airwaves Eminem dropped some verses that have people's wigs blown back for real I met a guy from Interscope I gave him a tape everything Eminem had worked for the embodiment of his struggles determination perseverance and tears for in that tape The Slim Shady EP and it was finally in the right hands Wow Eminem's tape was circulating through Interscope he made a second appearance on the same la radio show and not only did he do well but he caught the ear of dr. Dre and dr. Dre basically by the time he went to Detroit was ready to take him to the world dr. Dre is one of the most influential producers in rap music in 1992 he founded Death Row Records with Suge Knight he also engineered the careers of Snoop Dogg and Tupac among others shortly after listening to the Slim Shady EP dr. Dre sign Eminem to a record deal with his label aftermath records after months of recording The Slim Shady LP was released by aftermath and Interscope Records the result was instantaneous when the first single hit from his first album hi my name is become a buzz clip song we had an in-store and there was thousand people here he was just signing finally they come out there and he told him and said look that's all you can sign you've done you've been here for three four hours sign and stuff that's when you found out this wasn't the guy that comes in and talks to all the time that's the time you find out guys going off we may never see this guy again when Eminem first started to make it was you could still see on some of the telephone poles in town or on some of the some of the walls near some of the music venues you could still see scraps of an Eminem poster most of those posters were put up there by Eminem himself Eminem's Fame came like a flash flood it caught a lot of people by surprise even Eminem himself The Slim Shady LP debuted at number 3 on the Billboard charts and will go on to sell 1 million copies by the end of that year On June 14th 1999 in the wake of Eminem's worldwide success as an artist he and Kim got married but the relationship remained tumultuous I think with Kim he always knows where she's coming from he doesn't always like it but I think that's someone where he feels like she's with me for who I am in July 2000 Kim attempted suicide by slashing her wrist can recovered though a month later the couple was separated they reunited later that year for a few months but on March 1st 2001 they filed for divorce weeks later Kim filed a $10,000,000 defamation lawsuit against her husband he probably feels that you know why couldn't I have had a more traditional upbringing and I can understand being upset about that but if he had had a more traditional upbringing we wouldn't have Eminem today because that is really the raw fuel for what he is in September 1999 Debbie Mathers filed a 10 million dollar lawsuit against her son for defamation of character the lawsuit cited numerous instances and lyrics and interviews in which Marshall described his mother as abusive a drug user and an unfit parent I am who I say I am he says in his music he talked about his mom suing everybody one of the first things I started to do was to check the courthouses and lo and behold going back 25 years she's been suing folks as a response to Eminem's lyrical criticisms Debbie recorded a song called set the record straight with a group called IDX the song is available for purchase on the internet for $3 in 2002 Eminem's mother settled a 10 million dollar defamation lawsuit against her son for only $25,000 after considerable legal costs Debbie received only $1,600 though betty has been outspoken about her daughter's lawsuit against her son she too was capitalizing on his fame she is writing a tell-all book about her daughter's relationship with the rap star in 2003 Kim was arrested and charged with possession of over 25 grams of cocaine ordered to wear an electronic device she skipped town only to be recaptured and jailed for testing positive for cocaine use Marshall fought for joint custody of his daughter Haley and won he continues to play a major part in her life people are on the ins and outs at times with him you know depending on and who's feeling cranky that day he's talking a part of the family and he's not talking to other parts and they seem to take turn it's almost like a revolving door but they're always still seems to be a fairly strong connection to the family Eminem has been the target of other lawsuits for more unlikely sources D'Angelo barely the bully who beat Marshall into a coma and later became the inspiration for the song brain damage about a 1 million dollar defamation lawsuit against Eminem in 2001 barely a Roseville trash collector claims the Eminem did permanent damage to his musical career and calls him anger and embarrassment the suit was dismissed by Judge Deborah Savita her written opinion was issued in a form of a 36 line rap song cuz eminem used his name in vain mmm says barely used the dome around beetle off any judge up is facing the ground eminem contends that is rappers protected by the rights guaranteed by the person fit minutes eminem maintains that islam is true and that barely used to beat them black and blue and alternative e space that the story is phony and a reasonable person with pink is baloney the course must always balance the rights of a defendant in one place in a false light at the plaintiff present no question of fact to dismiss is the only acceptable act if the language uses anything but pleasing it must be highly objectionable to a personal reason even if objectionable to the truth this is well known and Rinna's Belleek a substantially blown stories that no one can take us back an exaggeration of that the miracle only be hyperbola in his death for the whole team in positions that eminem is entitled to summary disposition one of the things about the people who knew eminem when he was just marshall mathers is that there's a genuine affection for him you know neighbors chefs waitresses at Gilbert's lodge at the other places he hung out people at record stores people who used to make rhymes and and record their own rap and their own music and beats there isn't this feeling that why him you know I'm as good as he is people seem to genuinely understand and recognize that this was a talent far beyond anything they had when you look at Marshall Mathers there's the little kid who's still there there's a slim shadey who got him to where he is today but then there's mm who says you know what slim isn't real you know let's let's enjoy what he does let's use this to get my demons out but also let's not take it too seriously because if you do you're gonna go crazy Eminem is the writer / rapper Marshall Mathers is the good father but also the person that was picked on as a kid that was bullied Eminem and Marshall Mathers got together and created Slim Shady who was the bully the hip hop bullied the hip hop juggernaut to me he's not seeing shady he's not him in him he's that little kid I know Marshall is a really good person he's a good father but there is I think the some shady guy is like the evil the evil person that you know if it wants to go out like right all these different things and say I've been there and done that and where the other one is trying to be super daddy and gonna be sweet and and you know do all these things with the kids and and it's like almost sometimes you feel like you're dealing with a chuckling hi he's a very complicated boy Eminem has stayed true to the city and Friends that nurtured him forming d2l with proof bizarre DJ craze Mannix and others from his early days one thing I like about him you know whenever you talk about hip-hop or you talk about film yo Lee here in New York and you hear LA and em still lives here he keeps things here he shoots videos here and he had the 8-mile DVD release party here which was great Eminem did two concerts in North America this year and both of them were in Detroit if you want to come see me you got to come to Detroit might be the only reason in your whole life you've ever said I got to come to Detroit but if you want to see Eminem you got to come to my hometown two shows sold out the mayor of Detroit welcomes them back as a conquering hero even appears in a video that they showed during the performance but when you come home and the people are welcoming you with open arms and hailing you then that's it you know that's a gold standard Detroit was here waiting for him and I think anytime he comes back he just has to say when and people are gonna come running The Slim Shady LP sold over three million copies the follow-up the Marshall Mathers LP released in May 2000 became the fastest selling rap album in history it was also the first rap album ever nominated for the album of the Year Grammy in November 2002 Eminem starred in a box office smash 8 mile the title track lose yourself won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Eminem aka Slim Shady aka Marshall Bruce Mathis the third has no skeletons in his closet instead he has turned his 12-minute pass into the world's most lucrative Public therapy session out of the ordinary do crazy stuff man I can call it one time you know a lot of things that he did wasn't funny right away when you look back to this guy's crazy mag one time we were in San Francisco where he's performing and this guy was heckling him on stage and he stops in the middle of the show so he starts heckling the guy back and him this guy's going back and forth this thing I know he jumps off the stage they hit this guy hit the wrong guy so the whole everybody in the whole front row just like mobs Eminem and it just they're beating him and they're beatin some serious man so I'm sitting there looking at this like wow they're gonna kill him so I jump in I jump in I get hit then I get hit I hit the guy that hit me I forget about Eminem the deejay jumps in the street team jumps and all these people backstage jump in and we pull him out of the crowd get him back on stage now the whole crowds about 3,500 people everybody want to kill us so I'm trying to get him back I'm trying to get him back to the tour bus so we're we're running we're getting everybody to run back to the tour bus in the tour bus the tour manager stops and say hey you gotta finish the show the show must go on my men are gonna kill us and you know that holler you know a few slang a few slam so he comes back out and he does just don't give a you know and and performs that and the crowd just go nuts man but that next morning man everybody had black eyes swollen jaws busted noses you know and he lived for that man I got a call that next morning from my mom was like don't you like the little white boy get you in trouble I said I'm gonna try to do what I can my how he found out what she knew about it you know he just always did crazy stuff man so unpredictable I think that's why I wanted to cool the stains of bottom man when Eminem was just Marshall Mathers he could barely afford to shop it came up and now he owns a house that was owned by the CEO of Kmart whenever name went out to LA he was basically someone who had beaten the local talent who had gotten a little bit of a regional reputation but the rap Olympics was a chance for him to showcase in a major forum and based on his performance out there he let me let me say that again what did I say before about that he did some good [ __ ] and Dre duh get rowdy okay he came over from Mother's Day she was so happy with the bouquet of flowers he bought her for Mother's Day it was the biggest most beautiful she's I said Devi that must have cost 200 ours oh my god no that must be $500 he must cost $600 I mean and she was taking care of and it was getting all brittle two weeks after Mother's Day the arrangement still sitting there Oh be careful my flowers look how beautiful it is and Haley made her a picture she painted you know happy Mother's Day grandmother and it was they had a big house on it with a sunshine and you know typical girl and it was a beautiful picture it was real big about like this she still hasn't took it off the wall though and is really neat about this long neck jacket I don't want to look like her I look like Reba McEntire four years four years I with her it's one of those things man you can't wait to see what he's gonna do next it's like watching a living soap opera man

Channel: Jamie Gos

Views: 2,626,193

Rating: 4.7167816 out of 5

Keywords: Eminem, Marshall, marshal, matters, mathers, eminem, documentary, full, bruce, debbie, interview, movie, childhood, child, school, growing, up, music, amazing, slim, shady, revival, recovery, relapse, movies, track, story, angry, old, skool, loner, boy, bullying, bullied, why, tod, father, mother, sister, kim, hayley, jade, whitney, alanna, lyrics, rap, hiphop, hip, hop, hip hop, proof, footage, family, interviews, comic, comics, detriot, 8 mile, mile, 2018, fight, diss

Id: kEfIiGiPJ6I

Length: 70min 15sec (4215 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 28 2018