After the death of Eminem’s mother Debbie Nelson, her younger son is now speaking out.
Three days ago, Debbie Nelson, mother of Marshall Mathers aka Eminem, died at the age of 69 from complications of lung cancer. Eminem’s half-brother Nathan “Nate” Mathers breaks the silence that has surrounded their two sons since their mother’s death.
Hatred in message about deceased mother
Nate Mathers reports on Instagram about his mother’s death with succinct words. He posts a story and writes “hatred and mixed feelings today”. But the brief, loveless message doesn’t come as a surprise when you think about the difficult relationship between Debbie and her two sons.
The fact that Marshall and Nate don’t speak well to their mother becomes particularly clear when Marshall takes the microphone as Eminem. Debbie is often the subject of Eminem’s songs. Lyrically, he deals with his difficult mother-son relationship and does not shy away from firing sharp shots at his mother. The rapper has little or nothing good to say about his mother in his songs. For example, on his 1999 track “My Name Is,” he raps: “99 percent of my life I’ve been lied to / I just found out my mother does more drugs than me / I told her I was going to be a famous rapper / Make a record about drugs and name it after her”
The Mathers Family Feud
Debbie Nelson gave birth to Eminem aka Marshall Bruce Mathers III in 1972, two years after she married Eminem’s father, Marshall Mathers Jr., when she was just 16 years old. When Eminem was 13 years old, his parents had long since separated, his mother had a son Nathan with her new partner Fred Samra. When Nate was 16, Eminem became his legal guardian.
The tension between the mother and her children reached its peak when Debbie sued Eminem for defamation in 1999 for eleven million US dollars (the equivalent of around 10.4 million euros today). Although the court ruled in her favor, a 2001 judgment awarded her only $25,000. In 2007, Nelson revealed the details of their rocky relationship in her memoir “My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem.” Later, in 2013, Eminem cautiously waved the white flag for the first time with his song “Headlights.” In it he raps: “I rushed in headfirst without thinking about what I said, who I hurt/……/The brunt, as stubborn as we are, did I take it too far?/”Cleanin’ Out My Closet” and all the other songs/ But whatever, I don’t hate you because, Ma/ You’re still beautiful to me because you’re my Ma.”