A Journey Out the Projects

The Story of Eminem’s rough ride to music’s peak.

John Jennings
Jul 24, 2017 · 5 min read

“If you had one shot, or one opportunity to seize everything you’ve ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip?” Most of us know, or at least have heard this quote before from the song “Lose Yourself.” It was said by the one and only Eminem, Slim Shady, Marshall Mathers, B-Rabbit, a man of many names. He didn’t just say these things, he lived it out in a life of passion for his music. Eminem did something different in his music that made millions flock to him, he made his music relatable with a passion and energy that ignited his listeners. Eminem talked about his life through his music and the story of a troubled and violent white kid who grew up in poverty and abuse was something the entire world was interested in.

Growing up on the rough side of Detroit with a single mother, life was not easy for the young Marshall. His father left when he was only 14 months old. Marshall and his dad have never been on good terms and, being that Eminem writes about what he has a passion for in his personal life, in his song “Rhyme or Reason” he says “Who’s your daddy? I don’t know him. Has he taken any time to show you what you need to live? NO! if he had he wouldn’t have ended up in these rhymes on my pad, I wouldn’t be so mad, my attitude wouldn’t be so bad, yeah, dad.” It was this broken relationship with his father that drove him to write these lines, and many more openly dissing his father.

“He’s a problem child, and what bothers him all comes out when he talks about his f****** dad walkin’ out.” -Sing for the Moment

“I used to be the type of kid that would always think the sky is falling. Why am I so differently wired? Am I a martian?” -Legacy

Eminem shooting the paintball gun in a scene from “8 Mile”

As a young adult Marshall struggled intensely trying to provide for him, his girlfriend, and his family. As a job, he would wash dishes for as much as 60 hours a week at a local restaurant for minimum wage. At the time, this was his only source of income, but he was soon fired as he would often miss work in pursuit of his rapping. One winter he was let go just before Christmas and it broke his heart that he wouldn’t have any money to get his daughter a present. He wrote about this in his song Mockingbird saying “I remember back one year when daddy had no money mommy wrapped the Christmas presents up and stuck ’em under the tree and said some of ’em were from me ’Cause daddy couldn’t buy ’em. I’ll never forget that Christmas I sat up the whole night crying, ’Cause daddy felt like a bum.” Due to this lack of money Marshall and his family would soon be evicted from their home and he would have to put everything on the line to save them.

“Your mom was saving money for you in a jar Tryna start a piggy bank for you so you could go to college Almost had a thousand dollars till someone broke in and stole it And I know it hurt so bad it broke your momma’s heart” -Mockingbird

Commit to Serve

2017 UGA Freshman College — Service Learning

John Jennings

Written by

Commit to Serve

2017 UGA Freshman College — Service Learning

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