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Eminem’s longtime representative Dennis Dennehy confirmed
Nelson’s death in an email on Tuesday. He did not provide a
cause of death, although Nelson had battled lung cancer.
Nelson was born in 1955 on a military base in Kansas. Her
fraught relationship with her son, whose real name is Marshall
Mathers III, has been no secret since the Detroit rapper became
a star.
Eminem has disparaged his mother in songs such as the 2002
single “Cleaning Out My Closet.” Eminem sings: “Witnessin’ your
mama poppin’ prescription pills in the kitchen. ... My whole
life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn’t.”
In lyrics from his Oscar-winning hit “Lose Yourself” from the
movie “8 Mile,” his feelings seem to have simmered, referencing
his "mom’s spaghetti.” The song went on to win best rap song at
the 2004 Grammy Awards.
Nelson brought and settled a pair of defamation lawsuits over
Eminem’s statements about her in magazines and on radio talk
shows. In her 2008 book, “My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem,” she
attempted to set the record straight by providing readers
details about the rapper’s early life, writing that Eminem had
forgotten the good times they had.
“Marshall and I were so close that friends and relatives
commented that it was as if the umbilical cord had never been
cut,” she wrote.
She also detailed her own childhood, describing a violent home
life in which her dad’s mother, who she spent summers with, was
“the one woman in my large dysfunctional family to show us kids
love.”
In 2004, she was dragged from her car on Eight Mile Road, the
street in a Detroit suburb made famous by “8 Mile,” by a
16-year-old who was later sentenced to more than four years in
prison. She suffered bruises and a broken foot.
The highly acclaimed rapper Eminem won for best hip hop act at
the 2024 MTV EMAs and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of
Fame in 2022.
He announced in October that he was going to be a grandfather,
saying his daughter Hailie Jade is pregnant by way of a touching
music video that is a tribute to their relationship.
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