Eminem First Album < PREMIUM | Strategy >

He sold maybe 70 copies. Most were given away. Detroit’s underground radio stations ignored it. One local hip-hop magazine gave it a brutal review, calling him a “Nas clone.” The final nail: at a small record store, Marshall watched a customer pick up Infinite , listen to it, and put it back with a disgusted face. The owner later told him, “Nobody bought it. We threw most of them in the trash.”

But without Infinite ’s silence, there’d be no Slim Shady ’s explosion. It’s the forgotten first step — not his debut, but his . eminem first album

One original Infinite cassette — with the hand-drawn label — sold on eBay for over $1,000 years later. Eminem himself once said, “If you find a copy, burn it. I hate that album.” He sold maybe 70 copies

Before the world knew him as Eminem, before Dr. Dre, before “My Name Is,” a hungry, angry 24-year-old Marshall Mathers released an album called in 1996. And it pretty much failed — spectacularly. One local hip-hop magazine gave it a brutal

The cover shows Eminem looking young, clean-shaven, almost soft — a stark contrast to the bleached-blond menace he’d become. The music? He rapped over mellow, jazzy, Nas- and AZ-inspired beats, with a calm, multi-syllabic flow. He wasn’t being funny or violent — just earnest.

Here’s an interesting story about Eminem’s first album — but it’s not The Slim Shady LP .