📍Dresden Street, Detroit, MI 48205, USA
1987 – 1999“Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, in October 1972. His father left when he was small, and his mother, Debbie, moved back and forth between Missouri and Detroit, rarely staying anywhere long; Marshall changed schools constantly and found it hard to make friends. In 1987 his mother bought a small house at 19946 Dresden Street, on Detroit's east side, just south of 8 Mile Road, the dividing line between the city and its white suburbs, and Marshall spent most of his teenage years there. The Dresden Street neighbourhood was mostly Black and working-class, and he was often bullied, and once badly beaten at school, an experience he later wrote about. He found refuge in comic books and in hip-hop, after hearing LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys, and he spent hours reading the dictionary to learn new words. At fourteen, he and his friend Mike Ruby would sneak into Osborn High School to join the lunchtime freestyle battles, where he met a young rapper named Proof, who became his best friend. He failed ninth grade several times and left school at seventeen, working at a restaurant called Gilbert's Lodge while he built a reputation at open-mic nights at the Hip-Hop Shop on 7 Mile. In 1997 he took second place in the Rap Olympics in Los Angeles, and Dr. Dre signed him. His albums The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP, whose cover showed the Dresden Street house, made him one of the best-selling artists of all time, and his film 8 Mile told the story of those years. Detroit is proud of him, and he supports the city's young people through his foundation.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today