Eminem

Like many hip-hop stars, Marshall Mathers III rapped about surviving prejudice and poverty in the inner city. Except Marshall was white. Growing up in a rough section of Detroit, Michigan, he often experienced prejudice because of his skin color. When he took the stage as Eminem, he endured the same bigotry.

As a kid, everyone from his teachers to his uncle told him to give up his hip-hop dreams. He couldn t. It was the only thing he was good at. Before he became successful, he spent years working at minimum-wage jobs. Marshall s big break arrived when he devised the character Slim Shady who gained Marshall millions of fans, but also gained him critics enraged by his lyrics.