His real name is Marshall Mathers, but you probably know him as Eminem. There is a dispute that Eminem is the last great artist of generation X or the first great artist of the millennial generation, and either assumption would be appropriate. He's 37 now, but his music first hit at a time when the music industry was dominated by the first wave of millennial glitz and glamour: boy bands, meaningless rap lyrics, and bling. He was the counter-culture in the early millennial generation, the answer to Britney Spears, N'sync, and the Backstreet Boys. He might belong to generation X age group if we apply a strict definition of that generation's age range, but his music became powerful at a time when millennials were growing up. In 1999, his first album "The Real Slim Shady" LP grabbed the attention of the music business and millennial generation upon its release. At a time when many rappers were stuck in the negating fashions of cliches like the hood life, Eminem pushed the limits of rap by abandoning the genre's familiar themes of sex, drugs, and money with more lyrical power and imagination than any of his contemporaries. As the wave of changes in the music industry fades, it is his lyrical skills and subtle mastery of music that brings a generation together and still resonates with fans today. Eminem is a living proof that hip-hop can break intolerance and racism allowing people from different ethnic backgrounds to work together. His music has done what no others have; he built an unbreakable bond between whites and blacks.
Ever since Eminem broke out from the underground world of unknown musicians and into the mainstream of the music industry in 1999, he's amazed audiences and critics alike with his ability to tell stories through music and rapid-fire wordplay.