| Eminem faced the most devastating moment of his life in 1990 when he learned his Uncle Ronnie had committed suicide. Eminem was apparently so shaken by Ronnie's death that he couldn't bring himself to attend the funeral and he barely even talked to anyone for some time after the incident. Eminem has a tattoo on his left arm that reads "Ronnie R.I.P" to memoralize his late soulmate and he also wears a dogtag around his neck which used to belong to Ronnie. After Ronnie's death, Eminem decided to stop rapping for the time being. When Eminem decided to take up rapping again, he was part of several rap groups including the New Jacks and Soul Intent who released their first single "Biterphobia" in 1995 on Web Entertainment. A rapper named Proof, who had been best friends with Eminem since they were teens, was featured on the B-side of the single. That year, Proof decided to form a group of the best emcees in Detroit. The first three members were Eminem, Proof and another rapper named Kon Artis. The group was named D-12 which stands for the Dirty Dozen. Although his rap career was getting off to a good star, Eminem had a lot of financial problems. Making ends meet became even more difficult when Kim gave birth to her and Eminem's daughter Hailie Jade on December 25, 1995. Eminem took time off of his music career in order to raise money for his family. His former manager at Gilbert's Lodge remembers a six-month period shortly after Hailie's birth when Eminem worked 60 hours a week." In 1996, Eminem released his debut album Infinite. On the album, he rapped about love, unity and moving on in spite of hard times and his rhyme style was compared to that of Nas and Jay-Z. Eminem was discouraged by the negative response that his album received and his producers were starting to give up on him. At this point, Eminem started to become fed up with everything. He needed an outlet to dump all of his emotions in and finally during a toilet session in 1997, he came up with an idea. Every member of D-12 needed to have an alter ego and Eminem was having trouble thinking of a name a for his. While sitting on the pot, Eminem came up with the name Slim Shady, an evil side to himself that always spoke his mind no matter what. As Eminem prepared to record his second underground album, his personal life began to spiral downhill. His little brother Nathan was removed from their mother's custody in 1996 after St. Clair Shores school officials accused her of abusing him. They claimed that she "exhibits a very suspicious, almost paranoid personality" and suggested she might have had munchausen syndrome, where a parent injures a child to gain sympahty for herself. Debbie Mathers-Briggs pleaded no contest to charges that she was emotionally unstable and had failed her son by isolating him from other children; with that, she regained custody. By then, Nathan had been in foster homes for more than a year. Through it all, neighbors remember that Eminem was always there for Nate. "He was good to his brother," says Rose Slone, a former family friend who knew Marshall from when he visited his mother and brother in a rundown Warren trailer park. "He was always there for Nathan." Things started to become even more difficult for Eminem in 1997. Kim dumped him and he couldn't afford a place to stay. He was either staying with friends or living with his mother. While staying at his mom's house, Eminem wrote the first song for The Slim Shady EP which he called "Just Don't Give a Fuck." Many that knew him were surprised by the song because the subject matter was so different from what he usually rapped about. "I soon found myself doing things that I normally didn't do. Like getting into drugs and drinking. I was really fucked up. I was sick of everything," Eminem remembers. |