The one line that almost cost Eminem $10 million
Eminem has always been a divisive figure, and, in his early days particularly, his material caused a lot of polarisation. From domestic violence to drug abuse and homophobia, his unfiltered lyrics were always heavily scrutinised. However, one track in particular nearly cost the Detroit emcee $10 million after he was hit with a lawsuit.
When Eminem released his hit single ‘My Name Is’, it was received well by most hip-hop fans. Still, the explicit version featured on his album contained graphic imagery that was difficult for the rapper to stomach, including the 8 Mile star describing his mother in scathing terms.
During his prime, Eminem released plenty of material, and much of it recalled his life before fame, which was precarious. Prior to getting discovered by Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, the rapper lived with various family members and moved between rural Missouri and Detroit while his mother suffered from a drug addiction.
Early in his career, the lyricist wasn’t very harsh about his family. However, when he formed his alter-ego, Slim Shady, in 1997, Eminem became more raw, increasingly edgy and highly disparaging about his mother and ex-wife Kim Scott.
After the failure of Infinite, Em’s independent debut album, he became more frustrated, and he aimed a lot of his anger at his mother, who he felt didn’t believe in him and didn’t support him.
In a 1999 interview with Rolling Stone, the Encore star spoke about his rage and the formation of Slim Shady, stating, “After that record, every rhyme I wrote got angrier and angrier. A lot of it was because of the feedback I got. Motherf***ers was like, ‘You’re a white boy, what the f*** are you rapping for? Why don’t you go into rock & roll?’ All that type of s*** started pissing me off.”
That rage remained inside Eminem, and after his breakthrough in 1999, when he recorded ‘My Name Is’, he decided to include one line that caused him many problems. During the track, he rhymes, “I just found out my mom does more dope than I do.”
That said, his mother, Debbie Nelson, was aware of his material and heard this line. In fact, she was so infuriated by Em’s choice to air out her personal life in his music that, on September 17th, 1999, she filed a $10 million lawsuit against her son for slander.
The legal proceedings made Eminem the centre of a media firestorm, with both him and his mother appearing in court on TV screens across America. The trials lasted for over two years. However, it didn’t bankrupt the lyricist as Nelson was only awarded $25,000 in damages. Furthermore, most of the money went to legal fees, leaving her with just $1,600.
Although Eminem was frustrated with his mother, later in life, he came to terms with his trauma and decided not to reference any of his family members in his music and matured with his material.