Eminem: the best rapper ever

Eminem's second major label studio album, the Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000 went on to sell 1.76 million copies in its first week, breaking the records set by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle as the fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears'...Baby One More Time as the fastest-selling solo album in United States history. The album has been ranked as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time by such magazines as Rolling Stone, Time, and XXL. Rolling Stone placed the album at number seven on its list of the best albums of the 2000s. In July 2000, Eminem became the first white person to be featured on the cover of The Source magazine. In 2002, he starred in the hip-hop drama film 8 Mile in which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first rap artist ever to win the award. In 2005, Eminem was ranked 79th on the VH1 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time. He was also named the Best Rapper Alive by Vibe magazine in 2008. In December 2009, Eminem was named the Artist of the Decade by Billboard magazine. His albums The Eminem Show, The Marshall Mathers LP, and Encore ranked as the 3rd, 7th, and 40th best-selling albums of the 2000–2009 decade respectively by Billboard magazine. In 2010, MTV Portugal ranked Eminem as the seventh biggest icon in pop music history. Black Entertainment Television (BET) also named Eminem the number one rapper of the 21st century. During 2010, Eminem's music generated 94 million streams, more than any other music artist. Also according to Billboard, Eminem has two of his albums among the top five highest selling albums of the 2000s. He is the best-selling artist of the 2000s decade on the US Nielsen SoundScan and has sold more than 86.5 million albums worldwide to date, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. He has totalled over 1 billion views on his music videos on his official Vevo page on YouTube. Eminem was ranked 82nd on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In the UK, Eminem has sold over 12.5 million records. Eminem has also sold more than 33 million track downloads and 40.9 million albums in the United States alone. Eminem has achieved ten No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200; Eminem has had 13 number one singles worldwide. In August 2011 Eminem was named "The King of Hip-hop" by Rolling Stone. The magazine looked at solo rappers who released music between 2009 and the first half of 2011 by analyzing their album sales, rankings on the R&B/hip-hop and rap charts, YouTube views, social media, concert grosses, industry awards and critics' ratings, and the data accumulated named Eminem the king of the time period.

The album's third single, "Stan", is one of Eminem's most critically acclaimed songs, having been ranked by About.com as Eminem's best song and referred to by Pitchfork Media as "a cultural milestone". Q magazine named "Stan" the third-greatest rap song of all time and the song came tenth in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show LP, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs.

No doubt, absolutely no doubt this is one of the greatest achievements ever in the hip-hop music industry for a rapper. It is amazing to know that Eminem who is a white man achieved all these in hip-hop knowing well that hip-hop which is of African-American origin has been and is still generally been dominated by blacks at least in the United States. Eminem can be classified as a "status quo changer" putting him in the class of achievers like Tiger Wood (a black man) who in the 2000s dominated the professional golf world which has always been has dominated by the whites and President Barak Obama who changed the status quo by becoming the first black president of the United State of America.

Marshall Bruce Mathers III better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, born on October 17, 1972 in Saint Joseph, Missouri who also is a record producer, songwriter and an actor made it to the top in a world where white rappers like 3rd Bass, Everlast, the Beastie Boys, among others struggled so hard just to make a name. For Eminem who is left handed and was influenced by Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others growing up was a struggle. His father abandoned the family when he was 18 months old, and he was raised solely by his mother. He dropped out of high school at age 17 after repeating the ninth grade twice due to truancy and near-failing grades. He frequently participated in underground shows and freestyle battles. While struggling to break into the hip-hop world Mathers did a lot of menial jobs. He held a minimum-wage job of cooking and dishwashing at the restaurant Gilbert's Lodge at St. Clair Shores for some time. Eminem's personal struggles with raising his newborn daughter Hailie Jade Mathers while on limited funds and abuse of drugs and alcohol culminated in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. At this point in his life Eminem had realized his musical ambitions were the only way to escape his unhappy life. But despite a well-documented struggle succeeding in a predominantly African-American industry, he was able to gain the approval of underground hip hop audiences. Eminem's breakthrough into limelight came when he won Wakeup Show's "Freestyle Performer of the Year" award, helping him acquire a record deal. His tape was played for record producer Dr. Dre, founder of Aftermath Entertainment. And when Eminen met Dre everything changed for good. Hip-hop came out of African-American culture, and chances are that the majority of important rappers will continue to be black (in the U.S., anyway) so for Eminem to have made it this big means he is so good at what he does. His success in hard-core rap is well deserved and should be acknowledged and applauded.