EMINEM 2000
Thick Oversized T-Shirt

In the early hours of 4 June 2000, 27-year-old Marshall Bruce Mathers III confronted John Guerra outside the Hot Rock Sports Bar & Music Café in his hometown of Warren, Michigan, after spotting the man kissing his estranged wife, Kim. During the scuffle he drew an unloaded 9 mm handgun and, according to police, struck Guerra with it. Officers arrested the rapper on felony counts of carrying a concealed weapon and assault with a deadly weapon, and the Macomb County Sheriff’s camera snapped the stony-faced, bleached-blond mugshot you see above—placard dated “06-04-00.”

The incident came barely 24 hours after another arrest in nearby Royal Oak, where Eminem was accused of brandishing a pistol during an argument outside a car-stereo shop—giving him two gun cases in two days.

After months of court hearings he pleaded guilty to the concealed-weapon charge in February 2001; prosecutors dropped the assault count. On 10 April 2001 a judge handed down two years’ probation, $2,000 in fines, 200 hours of community service and mandatory drug testing, warning that any slip-up could mean up to five years in prison.

Frozen just weeks after The Marshall Mathers LP exploded to No 1, the mugshot has become a pop-culture relic—proof that Slim Shady’s razor-edged persona nearly landed him behind bars before it propelled him to global superstardom.