Introduction WeLL HeLLo !

Mr1up1 · May 23, 2019

My name is slim shady, I was born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri, the only child of Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. and Deborah Rae "Debbie". I am of English, Scottish, German, Swiss, Polish and Luxembourgian ancestry. My mother nearly died during her 73-hour labor with me. My parents were in a band called Daddy Warbucks, playing in Ramada Inns along the Dakotas–Montana border before their separation. My father, referred to by his middle name Bruce, left the family, moving to California and having two other children: Michael and Sarah. Debbie later had son Nathan "Nate" Kane Samara. During my childhood, i and Debbie shuttled between Michigan and Missouri, rarely staying in one house for more than a year or two and living primarily with family members. In Missouri, they lived in several places, including St. Joseph, Savannah, and Kansas City.

As a teenager, I wrote letters to his father, which Debbie stated all came back marked "return to sender". Friends and family remember me as a happy child, but "a bit of a loner" who was often bullied. One bully, D'Angelo Bailey, severely injured Eminem's head in an assault (mentioned in his song "Brain Damage"); Debbie filed a lawsuit against the school in 1982, which was dismissed the following year because the Macomb County (Mich.) judge said the schools were immune from lawsuits. I spent much of my youth in a working-class, primarily black, Detroit neighborhood. I and Debbie were one of three white households on their block, and I was beaten by black youths several times. As a child I was interested in storytelling, aspiring to be a comic-book artist before discovering hip hop. I heard his first rap song ("Reckless", featuring Ice-T) on the Breakin' soundtrack, a gift from Debbie's half-brother Ronnie Polkinghorn, who was close to me and later became a musical mentor. When Polkinghorn committed suicide in 1991, I stopped speaking for days and did not attend his funeral.

My home life was seldom stable; I frequently fought with my mother, whom a social worker described as having a "very suspicious, almost paranoid personality". When i became famous, Debbie was unimpressed by suggestions that she was a less-than-ideal mother, contending that she sheltered him and was responsible for my success. In 1987, Debbie allowed runaway Kimberly Ann "Kim" Scott to stay at their home; several years later, I began an on-and-off relationship with Scott. After spending three years in ninth grade due to truancy and poor grades, I dropped out of Lincoln High School at age 17. Although I was interested in English, i never really explored literature (preferring comic books) and disliked math and social studies. I worked at several jobs to help my mother pay the bills, later maintaining that she often threw me out of the house anyway, often after taking most of my paycheck. When she left to play bingo, i would blast the stereo and write songs.

At age 14, i began rapping with high-school friend Mike Ruby; they adopted the names "Manix" and "M&M", the latter of which evolved into "shady". I sneaked into neighboring Osborn High School with friend and fellow rapper Proof for lunchroom freestyle rap battles. On Saturdays, they attended open mic contests at the Hip-Hop Shop on West 7 Mile, considered "ground zero" for the Detroit rap scene. Struggling to succeed in a predominantly black industry, Eminem was appreciated by underground hip hopaudiences. When i wrote verses, he wanted most of the words to rhyme; he wrote long words or phrases on paper and, underneath, worked on rhymes for each syllable. Although the words often made little sense, the drill helped me practice sounds and rhymes.