Eminem

Eminem, born Marshall Mathers III in 1972, is the most unlikely figure on the rock countdowns and one of the most gripping, a rapper with the snarl and the shock value rock had been missing. He came up through groups like Soul Intent and Outsidaz, put out Infinite in 1996 and the Slim Shady EP in 1997, and that was enough to get him signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment.

The Slim Shady LP, in 1999, made him a star with "My Name Is". The Marshall Mathers LP, in 2000, and The Eminem Show, in 2002, each sold more than a million copies in a single week; the second was the world's best-selling album of 2002. "The Real Slim Shady" is the prankster at full tilt, "Stan" and "The Way I Am" darker and more bitter, and "Without Me" and "Cleanin' Out My Closet" pile on the rage and the jokes with a flow so nimble it feels like he's outrunning the beat. Plenty of his early material courted outrage, and got it, but the political jabs and social commentary cut deeper than the headlines let on, and he became a voice for the frustrations of lower-income America.

In 2002 he played a dramatized version of himself in the film 8 Mile, and "Lose Yourself", from the soundtrack, spent 12 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the first time a hip-hop act took that prize. He also ran with D12, teamed with Royce da 5'9" as Bad Meets Evil, and co-founded Shady Records.

After Encore in 2004 he stepped away, fighting an addiction to prescription drugs and mourning his longtime friend Proof, then came back with Relapse and Recovery, the latter the best-selling album in the world in 2010. He is the best-selling rapper there has ever been, with 15 Grammys and 11 number-one albums, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him in 2022, his first year of eligibility. Rock radio took to him long before the Hall of Fame did.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.