Born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, on October 17, 1972, in Kansas City, Missouri. Eminem spent a good deal of his childhood moving back and forth between Kansas City and the Detroit metropolitan area; when he was 12, he and his mother moved permanently to Warren, Michigan. A fan of rap music from a young age, Eminem began performing at age 14. Although he dropped out of high school and worked at odd jobs for a number of years, his focus remained on his music.