Looking Back
Snakkle Celebrates the Real Slim Shady, Eminem, for His Big 4-0
Back during Eminem’s epic freestyle mixtape battles with Benzino, he wasted no opportunity to take digs at the rapper’s age (40) as a reason he shouldn’t be rapping in the first place. But these days, Eminem is that age himself and just entering into another chapter in his own hip-hop career. After taking on multiple alter egos, trying his hand at acting, battling gun charges, family lawsuits, addiction, the death of his best friend, and raising three little girls as a single father, Eminem certainly has more to say as himself at 40 than Slim Shady fictionalized when he debuted in 1996. While we wait to see what he comes up with next, let’s take a look back at where he’s been. By Danielle Turchiano
Seth Poppel/Yearbook Library
Eminem, Freshman Yearbook Photo at Lincoln High, 1989
As a skinny white kid growing up in Detroit, Marshall Mathers had a tough time in school and ended up repeating at least one grade before ultimately dropping out. He used his experiences to fuel early lyrics, like in “Brain Damage,” where he rapped, “Way before my baby daughter Hailie/ I was harassed daily by this fat kid named D'Angelo Bailey/ An eighth grader who acted obnoxious, cause his father boxes/ so everyday he'd shove me in the lockers.” But because he was a quiet, unassuming kid who withdrew into his writing, he started performing early too, becoming a fixture at rap battles in his city.
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