Recovery was the best-selling album worldwide of 2010, making it Eminem's second album, after The Eminem Show in 2002, to be the best-selling album of the year worldwide. He returned to the music industry four years later with the release of Relapse (2009) and Recovery was released the following year. After the release of his next album, Encore (2004), Eminem went on hiatus in 2005, largely due to a prescription drug addiction. His next two releases, The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) and The Eminem Show (2002), were worldwide successes and were both nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment and subsequently achieved mainstream popularity in 1999 with The Slim Shady LP. While much of his transgressive work during the late 1990s and early 2000s made him widely controversial, he came to be a representation of popular angst of the American underclass, and has been cited as an influence for many artists of various genres.Īfter his debut album Infinite (1996) and the extended play Slim Shady EP (1997), Eminem signed with Dr. Eminem's global success and acclaimed works are widely regarded as having broken racial barriers for the acceptance of white rappers in popular music. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclaimed as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Eminem is among the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated worldwide sales of over 220 million records. Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem ( / ˌ ɛ m ɪ ˈ n ɛ m/ formerly stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer.