Eminem

Infinite (1996) reportedly sold a few hundred copies and Detroit radio ignored it. So he created Slim Shady, an alter ego with no inhibitions, recorded a new EP while getting evicted, and placed second at the 1997 Rap Olympics in LA. Interscope staff found his tape that night and passed it to Jimmy Iovine, who played it for Dr. Dre, who said: "Find him. Now." The Slim Shady LP debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 1999. The three-persona structure, Marshall, Eminem, Slim Shady, kept everyone slightly unsure which one was telling the truth.

The Death of Slim Shady (2024) debuted at No. 1 in both the US and UK, moving 281,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. He announced it at the NFL Draft in Detroit with a fake obituary printed in the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News. That made 11 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, tying Barbra Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, and Ye. His Mom's Spaghetti restaurant in Detroit opened in 2021, named after the internet meme his "Lose Yourself" lyric spawned. At some point the meme became the point.

He never made it past 9th grade. Failed it three times before dropping out, moved between Missouri and Detroit constantly as a kid, and became legal guardian of his younger half-brother when their mother couldn't. A classmate beat him badly enough that he was reportedly in a coma for days. When prescription pill addiction finally caught up with him, the person he called was Elton John, who walked him through 18 months of recovery. The biography reads like fiction. It isn't.