Every time there's a rare public sighting of Marshall "Eminem" Mathers, his fans are
shocked by his appearance.
He's matured a lot since the release of his 1999 album, The Slim Shady LP, but his drastic
physical changes have made him nearly unrecognizable to his fans, prompting some to speculate about
his overall well-being.
What's really going on?
Showing stubble
One of the main reasons Eminem looks like a completely different person is because his
fans aren't used to seeing him with facial hair.
Since the start of his decades-long career, he's rocked a clean-shaven face.
However, Eminem debuted his new, scruffy look on his Instagram account in 2017.
In the photo, the 8 Mile star posed alongside rap pioneer Dr. Dre and breakout artist Kendrick
Lamar.
Soon enough, the comments section was flooded with fans who either detested his new rough
and rugged look or adored it.
Despite their opinions, it appears that the beard may be here to stay.
Drug use took a toll
Eminem's lyrics are laced with references to drug use, and even his album names reference
his struggle with addiction.
From 2009's Relapse to 2010's Recovery, music fans have stuck by him through every step
of his journey.
However, many listeners weren't aware of the extent of his drug battle until he opened
up while filming the 2012 documentary, How to Make Money Selling Drugs.
"I don't know at what point exactly it started to be a problem.
I just remember liking it more and more."
"People tried to tell me that I had a problem"
Before he knew it, his apparent addiction to prescription medication was so out of control,
it led to an overdose.
“How close do you think you were to dying?”
“They said two hours.
If I would have gotten to the hospital two hours later that would have been it.”
Although Eminem appears to have fared better than others who've suffered from drug addiction,
his previous demons may have robbed him of his once-boyish appearance.
Harder times
Eminem's love life has been a hot mess since his teenage years, after he fell in and out
of love with ex-wife Kim Scott.
They had a child, Hailie, in 1995, and, in 1999, they got married.
They divorced in 2001, only to remarry again in 2006, and divorce again later that year.
He's infamously rapped about his tumultuous relationship with Scott, most notably in the
song "Kim”.
But his rocky romance wasn't the only form of stress in his life.
In 2006, his close friend and D12 group member, Deshaun "Proof" Holton, was killed after an
altercation at a nightclub on Eight Mile Road.
Eminem took it hard.
Speaking with The Guardian, he said he was already dealing with depression, and the prescription
drugs he was taking just made things worse.
Heartbreak, loss of a loved one, and depression.
Sounds like this combo of life stressors could certainly have done a number on his appearance.
Run, Marshall, run!
Eminem told Men’s Journal that at the time of his hospitalization and detox in 2007,
he weighed "close to 230 pounds,” and he had a good idea why he was packing on the
weight, saying,
“The coating on the [pills] leaves a hole in your stomach, so to avoid a stomach ache,
I was constantly eating, and eating badly."
During his recovery, the rapper made it a priority to whip himself into shape.
“I started running.
It gave me a natural endorphin high, but it also helped me sleep, so it was perfect."
The rapper admitted he got a bit "carried away" with all of the exercise.
"I was running, I was, there was one point, where I was running like, it was a little
too much.
It was a little extreme...it was a total of 17 miles…”
Eminem dropped to 149 pounds, but his transformative weight loss came at a cost.
He told the magazine,
"I ran to the point where I started to get injured.
All the constant pounding from the running began to tear up my hip flexors.”
New hair, who dis?
One of the reasons Eminem really stood out when he released his first mainstream album
was because of the way he looked.
“How was it when you were starting out, because I know when, before you came along
there was only one white rapper I was familiar with and that was Vanilla Ice”
“He was great.”
But we're not just talking about him being one of the few white rappers in the hip-hop
community.
We're talking about his hair.
He rocked a head full of peroxide blond locks up until 2017, so when he made a public appearance
sporting his natural brown hair color for the premiere of The Defiant Ones, people barely
recognized him.
It's going to take us a while to get used to his new 'do, but, shockingly, the brown
hue is already starting to grow on us.
Cleaning up his act
After battling addiction and enduring a failed rehab attempt, the rapper revealed in 2010
that he was finally headed down the path to sobriety.
He told Reuters,
"When I first got sober I got really happy because I was not a prisoner of addiction
anymore, so life was brand-new to me."
Being a father also motivated him to clean up his act.
Aside from Hailie, the rapper has also raised Whitney, a daughter Kim Scott conceived during
a previous relationship, and Scott's niece, Alaina, who the former couple adopted.
So, we're now looking at a healthy, happy, and sober Eminem.
His physical changes are starting to make a lot more sense now, aren't they?