CERTIFICATE OF COMPETENCE IN ENGLISHEMINEMThe rise of a genius

Student: Radu-George Manoiu Coordonator: Carmen Sardarescu

Colegiul National de Informatica Matei BasarabTable of Contents

INTRODUCTION 3EARLY LIFE 4BACKGROUND AND UPCOMING .. 5CAREER HEADLIGHTS 7CONCLUSION .... 10BIBLIOGRAPHY 11

Eminem after he received The Best Hip-Hop Album Of The Year award for The Marshall Mathers LP 2 and The Global Icon special award he received for his entire career EMA Awards 2013

Introduction

I have chosen to write this Certificate of Competence in English about Eminem because he represents my biggest inspiration and motivation in life. Eminem has been the only person who understood me many times. He taught me that family comes first, no matter what. He taught me to never give up because I can do anything I set my mind to, it depends on how bad I want it. I can relate to Eminems life story, I can relate to his songs and I can relate to his personal decisions and opinions. He startet from the bottom and he is now the most successful artist of 21st century. He earned everything he has now despite all criticisms of people whose imaginary perfect world has been disturbed by Eminems brutal honesty in revealing problems, issues that we all face at some point in life. Eminem taught me that life is hard, people judge and friends leave, but its only up to you to get back up and work hard to archieve your goals. Everybody has goals, aspirations or whatever, and everybody has been at a point in their life where nobody believed in themIf people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don't back down.

Early life

When Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem, made his album debut with The Slim Shady LP in the spring of 1999, he evoked an immediate and controversial response. Although album sales went platinum virtually overnight and his popularity soared among hip-hop fans of every color and race, the establishment lost no time in condemning him as threat to the moral fiber of society due to his violent themes and profanity laced lyrics. To add to the controversy, his mother immediately launched a $10 million lawsuit for slander and defamation of character, alleging his interviews and song lyrics portraying her as an abusive drug addict were untrue and had caused loss of self-esteem, humiliation, and mental distress. Such lawsuits soon became commonplace, leading Mathers to observe cynically "for every million I make, another relative sues" (Marshall Mathers, The Marshall Mathers LP).

Although Eminem was not the first white rapper, he was still an anomaly when his alter ego Slim Shady burst on the hip-hop scene in 1999. Thirteen years later, Eminem has become the biggest-selling artist of the past decade, with record sales topping 90 million albums worldwide. He has won hundreds of awards, including 13 Grammys and an Oscar, and has been acknowledged as a talented, highly influential artist and a powerful musical force of the past two decades. The November 2011 edition of GQ magazine featured a portfolio of 43 Gods of Rock, with Eminem, Keith Richards, and Lil Wayne on the cover. The rationale used in selecting those three artists was not just that they were incredibly influential, still relevant, and continuing to make mu- sicbut that they represented prime examples of musical perseverance. "We wanted to answer the question: Who are the living legends out there that have survived against all adversity?" adversity is perhaps Eminem's biggest draw. Whether you love his lyrics and consider them poetry, or despise them as profane and obscene; whether you love or hate rap music, Eminem's story is an extraordinary one. He is not simply a young man from the wrong side of the tracks with no more than a ninth grade education who found incredible success by doing something he loved. It is not simply a tale of the American Dream. Eminem also managed to find success in a field thought to belong to another culture, a white man excelling in a predominantly African-American art form. He did it by persevering through all adversity, always in pursuit of one thing: respect. .

Background and Upcoming

Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III on October 17, 1972, in Saint Joseph, Missouri. He is of mixed ancestry: English, Scottish, German, Swiss, Polish, and Luxembourgian. His mother is Deborah R. (Nelson) Mathers-Briggs and his father is Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. His mother was only 15 years old when he was born, and his father abandoned the family when Mathers was just six months old. By the time he was 12, Mathers and his mother had lived in several towns around Missouri, finally settling in Warren, Michigan. Mathers grew up largely along the rough side of Detroit's 8 Mile Road, the road dividing the white suburbs from the mostly black part of the city. He would later film a movie about his experiences, calling it 8 Mile. Throughout Mathers' childhood, his mother Deborah constantly moved them from one place to another, living hand to mouth, on and off welfare. Every few months he was in a new school, something he recalls as the toughest part of all. As a shy kid in the public school system he was bullied, "beat up in the bathroom, beat up in the hallways, shoved into lockers," mostly just because he was the new kid. Mathers was interested in storytelling as a child and wanted to be a comic book artist. He was fascinated with words and read the dictionary in his free time trying to expand his vocabulary. Even though he did poorly in school, he always did well in English class. When he was 11 his uncle, Ronald "Ronnie" Nelson, who was just a year older and a close friend, introduced him to rap, giving him a copy of Ice-T's single Reckless. Rap soon became a passion for Mathers, and by age 14 he was giving performances using the pseudonym M&M. With the group Bassmint Productions he recorded an EP and later released a single. While enrolled at Lincoln High School in Warren, Mathers participated in rap freestyle battles, verbal fights in which the goal was to create the smartest rhymes and the best insults. It was here that Mathers found his voice and was able to express his pent-up rage. The fact that rap was predominantly black music and people kept telling him he didn't belong fuelled a desire to show people that he could succeed, in spite of his color, in an ironic reversal of racial inequality. Although he had to struggle with the anti-white prejudices of the African-American rap industry, Mathers eventually built an underground hip-hop following. After failing ninth grade twice, largely because he never showed up to class, Mathers finally dropped out of high school in 1989 at age 17. During high school, Mathers met Kimberley Ann Scott. She and her sister Dawn had run away from home as teenagers and moved in with Mathers and his mother when he was 15. The relationship between Mathers and Kim was on-and-off from that point forward. In 1991, his uncle Ronnie shot himself at the age of 19. The loss profoundly affected Mathers, and he tattooed Ronnie RIP on his upper left arm. Mathers had developed relationships with many Detroit-area rappers, and in 1992 he was able to share studio time with one of them, Champtown, and made his first music video appearance. Mathers continued developing his rapping skills while working for minimum wage as a cook and dishwasher. His life took a new direction when his daughter, Hailie Jade Mathers, was born on December 25, 1995. Mathers had also accepted the role of father to Kim's sister's two-year-old daughter, Alaina "Lainie" Mathers. Family responsibilities, a dead-end job, and a burning dream to escape from a lifetime of endless drudgery all motivated Mathers toward the goal of recording his first album. In 1996, with the help of the Bass Brothers, he recorded Infinite at their Bassmint studio, and released it under the independent label Web Entertainment. The album addressed themes of love for Kim and his financial struggles in raising his newborn daughter Hailie. It featured members of D12, Mr. Porter, Proof, Eye-Kyu, and rapper Three. Up until this point Mathers had been using the stage name M&M, but with the debut of Infinite, he officially adopted the name Eminem. The album was limited to 1 000 cassettes and 100 vinyl records, most of which sold. Infinite was an attempt to produce radio-friendly content and garner air time on Detroit's WJLB radio station, so its content was relatively inoffensive. The hip-hop community criticized the album, claiming Eminem was copying other rappers, and he himself admits that he was still trying to figure out how he wanted to sound. Mathers had struggled with drug and alcohol abuse since he was young. Overwhelmed with responsibility and despairing at the negative reception his work received, he attempted suicide by overdosing. He would later describe his feelings at that time very eloquently in the track "Rock Bottom" on The Slim Shady LP: My life is full of empty promises and broken dreams/ I'm hoping things will look up, but there ain't no job openings./ I feel discouraged, hungry and malnourished/ Living in this house with no furnace, unfurnished/ And I'm sick of working dead end jobs with lame pay/ And I'm tired of being hired and fired the same day/ But **** it, if you know the rules to the game, play!/ Cause when we die we know were all going the same way./ It's cool to be player, but it sucks to be the fan/ When all you need is bucks to be the man. Mathers recovered and continued to persevere. This time he drew on more negative sources of inspiration and created The Slim Shady EP in 1997, an extended play single that introduced the Slim Shady persona. After a 1997 Rap Olympics perfor-mance, Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine handed a copy of the tape to Dr. Dre, who was sufficiently impressed to seek Mathers out. They began work on The Slim Shady LP, which expanded the Slim Shady alter ego and used a storytelling technique. The album featured constant references to drugs, sex, mental instability, and extreme acts of violence, while exploring themes of poverty and family difficulties. It was .released in 1999 to immediate success, going triple platinum before the end of the year. Finally enjoying a measure of fame after his struggles and hard work, Marshall and Kim were married for the first time on June 14, 1999.

Career Highlights

Eminem released his second studio album,The Marshall Mathers LP, in May 2000. The album showed off Eminem's poetic talents as well as his emotional and artistic range. His songs vary from manically funny ("The Real Slim Shady") to heartbreakingly poignant ("Stan") to explosively violent ("Kim") to disarmingly self-critical ("The Way I Am").The Marshall Mathers LPsold over 19 million copies worldwide, won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, received a nomination for Album of the Year and is widely considered among the greatest rap albums of all time.Nevertheless,The Marshall Mathers LPalso came under a firestorm of criticism for its excessive profanity, glorification of drugs and violence and its apparent homophobia and misogyny. While Eminem attempted to mitigate such criticism by maintaining that his raps simply use the rough language he has been surrounded by since childhood, and later by performing a duet with Elton John at the Grammy Awards to demonstrate his openness to the gay community, Eminem nevertheless remains widely reviled in some quarters for his offensive lyrical content.In 2001, Eminem reconnected with several of his friends from the Detroit underground rap scene to form the group D12, recording an album calledDevil's Nightfeaturing the popular single "Purple Pills." A year later, Eminem released a new solo album,The Eminem Show, another popular and critically acclaimed album highlighted by the tracks "Without Me," "Cleaning Out my Closet" and "Sing for the Moment." His next album, 2004'sEncore, was less successful than his previous efforts, but still featured popular songs such as "Like Toy Soldiers" and "Mockingbird."

For the next several years, Eminem recorded very little music and was largely consumed by personal problems. Eminem and Kim Mathers divorced in 2000 but continued to maintain a tumultuous off-and-on relationship until remarrying in 2006. Nevertheless, they divorced again several months later and began a protracted, ugly and highly public custody dispute over their daughter Hailie. Meanwhile, Eminem slipped further into alcoholism and addiction to sleeping pills and prescription painkillers. In December 2007, he overdosed and nearly died. "If I would have got to the hospital two hours later, that would have been it," he said.By early 2008, Eminem had managed to kick his addictions to drugs and alcohol and returned to recording music. He released his first album of new music in five years,Relapse, in 2009, featuring the singles "Crack a Bottle" and "Beautiful." In 2010, Eminem released another album,Recovery, a highly autobiographical attempt to come to terms with his struggles with addiction and experience with rehabilitation. His most acclaimed album in years,Recoverystruck a somewhat gentler and more inspirational tone than his previous music. Eminem said, "I don't want to go overboard with it but I do feel like that if I can help people that have been through a similar situation, then, you know, why not?" The revealing album won Eminem a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.Eminem is doubtlessly one of the most acclaimed rappers in the genre's brief history. As much as any other individual artist, he is responsible for rap's transformation into a mainstream music genre over the past decade. And after 10 years and seven albums, the rapper who shocked, appalled and fascinated the music world with the unbridled rage of his youthful music is reinventing himself as a mature artist."I started learning how to not be so angry about things, learning how to count my blessings instead. By doing that, I've become a happier person, instead of all this self-loathing I was doing for a while," Eminem said. "The music, I wouldn't say it's gotten happier, but it's definitely more upbeat. I feel like myself again."

Eminem released his second studio album,The Marshall Mathers LP, in May 2000. The album showed off Eminem's poetic talents as well as his emotional and artistic range. His songs vary from manically funny ("The Real Slim Shady") to heartbreakingly poignant ("Stan") to explosively violent ("Kim") to disarmingly self-critical ("The Way I Am").The Marshall Mathers LPsold over 19 million copies worldwide, won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, received a nomination for Album of the Year and is widely considered among the greatest rap albums of all time.Nevertheless,The Marshall Mathers LPalso came under a firestorm of criticism for its excessive profanity, glorification of drugs and violence and its apparent homophobia and misogyny. While Eminem attempted to mitigate such criticism by maintaining that his raps simply use the rough language he has been surrounded by since childhood, and later by performing a duet with Elton John at the Grammy Awards to demonstrate his openness to the gay community, Eminem nevertheless remains widely reviled in some quarters for his offensive lyrical content.In 2001, Eminem reconnected with several of his friends from the Detroit underground rap scene to form the group D12, recording an album calledDevil's Nightfeaturing the popular single "Purple Pills." A year later, Eminem released a new solo album,The Eminem Show, another popular and critically acclaimed album highlighted by the tracks "Without Me," "Cleaning Out my Closet" and "Sing for the Moment." His next album, 2004'sEncore, was less successful than his previous efforts, but still featured popular songs such as "Like Toy Soldiers" and "Mockingbird."For the next several years, Eminem recorded very little music and was largely consumed by personal problems. Eminem and Kim Mathers divorced in 2000 but continued to maintain a tumultuous off-and-on relationship until remarrying in 2006. Nevertheless, they divorced again several months later and began a protracted, ugly and highly public custody dispute over their daughter Hailie. Meanwhile, Eminem slipped further into alcoholism and addiction to sleeping pills and prescription painkillers. In December 2007, he overdosed and nearly died. "If I would have got to the hospital two hours later, that would have been it," he said.By early 2008, Eminem had managed to kick his addictions to drugs and alcohol and returned to recording music. He released his first album of new music in five years,Relapse, in 2009, featuring the singles "Crack a Bottle" and "Beautiful." In 2010, Eminem released another album,Recovery, a highly autobiographical attempt to come to terms with his struggles with addiction and experience with rehabilitation. His most acclaimed album in years,Recoverystruck a somewhat gentler and more inspirational tone than his previous music. Eminem said, "I don't want to go overboard with it but I do feel like that if I can help people that have been through a similar situation, then, you know, why not?" The revealing album won Eminem a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.Eminem is doubtlessly one of the most acclaimed rappers in the genre's brief history. As much as any other individual artist, he is responsible for rap's transformation into a mainstream music genre over the past decade. And after 10 years and seven albums, the rapper who shocked, appalled and fascinated the music world with the unbridled rage of his youthful music is reinventing himself as a mature artist."I started learning how to not be so angry about things, learning how to count my blessings instead. By doing that, I've become a happier person, instead of all this self-loathing I was doing for a while," Eminem said. "The music, I wouldn't say it's gotten happier, but it's definitely more upbeat. I feel like myself again."Eminem released his eighth album,MMLP2, on November 5, 2013. The announcement for the future Grammy-winning album, formally titledThe Marshall Mathers LP 2, was made during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. On the awards show, Eminem leaked a snippet of the first single from his album, entitled "Berzerk." He went to reach of the top of charts with "The Monster," a track that also featured Rihanna and earned a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

In 2014, Eminem celebrated the 15th anniversary of his Shady Records label with a special two-CD set calledShadyXV. The collection features the label's most popular songs as well as some new material. The new single "Guts Over Fear" quickly rose up the charts after its late October debut.

This year, Eminem appeared on a two tracks, Yelawolfs Best Friend and Tech N9nes Speedom. He was also orking on Yelawolfs album Love Story which was released on April 21st.

Conclusion

Perhaps one of the reasons Eminem has earned such popularity is because people can relate to his mes-sages about daily life. He tells the unfortunate story lived by millions each and every day, a life filled with family violence and pain. In Stan, for example, he tells the story of a fan obsession gone to an extreme. Millions can identify with Stans daily life of despair, an existence that is only endurable by immersing oneself in the music and life of someone famous. The track Kim, a graphic description of a man driven over the edge of insanity by jealousy when faced with evidence of his wife's unfaithfulness, speaks to millions who experience spousal abuse on a regular basis. Eminems lyrics describe horrific life occurrences, the neglect, drug abuse, and family violence, thus validating the daily existence of millions, albeit in a disturbing way. Eminems lyrics also make a strong social statement against an environment that nurtures such an existence, and he addresses the underlying causes that create this culture of violence, drugs, and neglect. For this reason he has earned the respect of many fellow artists and critics who are able to see beyond the surface content of his lyrics. Although his first two albums, the ones that brought him fame, told the story of a ninth-grade loser who fought the odds to achieve his dream, Eminems latest three albums, Relapse, Recovery and The Marshall Mathers LP 2 chronicle his painfully honest journey out of drug addiction and despair brought on partly by the very success he had worked so hard for. Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, aka Slim Shady has earned a reputation for brutal honesty. He may have amassed millions of fans because he has achieved success in the face of all adversity, but they remain fans because he is honest with them and keeps inviting them to take the journey alongside him, fighting to earn and maintain one thing: respect. If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and dont back down. I didn't have nothin going for me until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything. - Eminem

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminemhttp://www.eminem.net/biographyhttp://www.mtv.com/artists/eminemhttp://www.cbsnews.com/news/eminem-anderson-cooper-behind-the-sceneshttp://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/eminem/biographyhttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004896/bio