Eminem's persona has changed significantly over his career. His early albums like The Slim Shady LP featured a wild and aggressive style that dealt with his struggles with addiction and personal life. Later albums like Recovery showed a calmer Eminem who had overcome his drug problems. Eminem also attracted younger fans through collaborations, changing his fan base from primarily older hip hop fans to a broader audience. While successful, some feel his newer music lacks the soul of his earlier albums when he more directly drew from his life experiences.

1. HOW HAVE ARTISTS
CHANGED THEIR
PERSONA OVER TIME
By Itamar Blauer

2. Eminem
• Marshall Mathers aka. Eminem was born on October 17,
1972. He released The Slim Shady LP in early 1999, and
the album went multi-platinum, winning Eminem two
Grammy Awards and four MTV Video Music Awards. In
2000, he released The Marshall Mathers LP, which was
the fastest-selling album in rap history. More recently, in
2010, Eminem released the Grammy-winning
album Recovery, a highly autobiographical attempt to
come to terms with his struggles with addiction and
experience with rehabilitation. Eminem then released his
eighth album, MMLP2, in 2013.

3. His first album
• Eminem’s first album was called Infinite, which was
released in 1996. The cover features Eminem’s
aspirations to be a classical and ‘infinite’ within the music
industry. The songs in this album consist of well
rehearsed rhymes and beats which allowed Eminem to
receive very successful feedback on his first album.

4. How his music changed
• Eminem is widely known for having great songs from all of
his albums, however it is noticeable that his music and
tone changes depending on the album. His albums have
specific meanings and connotations, and the majority of
Eminem’s songs are related to his personal life story.

5. Drug taking
• Eminem’s career has been shifty to say the least, and this
is evident in a few of his albums, which include the
Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show, where some
of his songs relate to how he used to take drugs and
almost overdosed. Eminem has had a few drug problems
over his career, but has seemed to overcome his
problems in later albums.

6. Recovery
• Eminem’s 7th album, Recovery, was made
in order for Eminem to prove to his fans
that he has sobered and is off drugs. The
previous album, Relapse, features Eminem
admitting to have taken drugs again, and
having serious health issues. Recovery,
however, led to him explaining in his songs
that he’s off drugs, such as ‘Going through
changes’ and ‘Not afraid’, which show
Eminem fighting off his drug problems
successfully.

7. His fan base and its changes
• Eminem’s old albums attracted
teenagers and older people, mainly
due to the hip-hop culture that was
more attractive to older members of
society. During his album ‘Recovery’
and ‘MMLP2’, Eminem had released
songs with other artists including
Rihanna and Sia. This lead to
Eminem obtaining younger fans,
who were also fans of the other
artists, and this had led to Eminem
obtaining younger fans, even
though he has grown older.

8. How has his icon changed
• Eminem’s old songs would be
based on his early life and in my
opinion he put more soul into
his lyrics than he does now,
which is mainly because of the
different range of fans he has
acquired, and how he is over 40
years of age. I believe that
Eminem’s persona has changed
from being a very wild and
aggressive rapper, to a calmer
and more general singer.
Different people have different
opinions about whether or not
these changes are good or not,
but personally I preferred
Eminem’s old songs and
albums, as I believe their lyrics
spoke more than the ones of his
newer songs.