Eminem revisited painful family memories in his latest music video for his single Somebody Save Me.
The song, which appeared on his twelfth studio LP The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce), featured the 51-year-old rapper, born Marshall Mathers III, recalling family milestones in the lives of his brother and his three sons that he regretted missing.
In the heartbreaking video, which was released Wednesday, Eminem makes the topic even more literal by watching home movies of his children Hailie Jade, Alaina and Stevie, as well as his brother Nate, while rapper-turned-country superstar Jelly Roll returned to join him for filming.
Eminem, who was recently mistaken for an Olympic archer, shares Hailie Jade, 28, with ex-wife Kim Scott.
The former couple later adopted Alaina, 31, in the early 2000s. She was the daughter of Kim’s sister, who at the time was battling drug abuse, and later died in 2016 from a suspected heroin overdose.
Eminem raps over old home movies of his three kids (Hailie, 28; Alaina, 31; and Stevie, 22) in the new video for his single Somebody Save Me
The song featured rapper-turned-country star Jelly Roll, and the hitmaker returned to appear in the video, which was released Wednesday.
Between Kim’s two marriages to Eminem (to whom she was married from 1999 to 2001 and part of 2006), she welcomed Stevie Laine Scott with her then-boyfriend Eric Harterr.
After Eminem and Kim got together, he adopted Stevie in 2005. The rapper’s 22-year-old son came out as nonbinary and genderfluid in 2021, and they clarified that they used all pronouns.
Eminem first appears in night vision archive footage showing him sleeping in bed as Hailie Jade enters the bedroom and tries to wake him up for breakfast.
The groggy rapper replies that he’s too tired and tries to go back to sleep as his daughter, clearly upset, screams again for him to wake up.
The somber tone of the Jelly Roll chorus indicates that Eminem probably wishes he had spent that time with his daughter instead of sleeping off whatever he did the night before.
Today, the hitmaker has swapped his short platinum-dyed hair for a darker shade with a beard to match.
He raps in a dark setting that features three walls of a dirty, empty room reminiscent of the disturbing stage of David Lynch’s Rabbits.
Home movies featuring Eminem’s kids play on the bare, stained wall of the empty room as he watches from outside the studio.
Eminem rapped on a dark stage, which had a dirty, empty room in the center. An actor who looked like an old-school Slim Shady dozed on a bed, representing the years the rapper lost to substance abuse.
Home movies featuring Eminem’s children are projected on the bare, stained wall, including one of his daughter Hailey’s first guitar recital, which he missed.
He then rapped about his regret for missing the graduation and other important events of his adopted daughter Alaina, who is the biological daughter of his ex-wife Kim Scott’s late sister.
Her three children are depicted in archive images.
“Hailey, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for your first guitar recital,” she raps as she is shown playing a pink acoustic guitar as a teenager.
He also shares his regrets for not having walked her down the aisle when she got married and for having missed the birth of her first child.
The rapper, who has been sober since 2008, apologizes: “I’m sorry, I chose drugs and I put them above you.”
As for Alaina, one of her regrets is not being able to attend her high school graduation.
But he also apologizes for letting her see the depths of his addiction.
“I’m sorry you had to hear me fall in the bathroom,” he raps, as a figure dressed as an old-school Slim Shady reenacts the seemingly drug-fueled event of falling in the bathroom with a cartoonish “oomph” sound.
His younger brother, Nathan “Nate” Kane Samara, appears in what sound like Christmas home movies from years past, as Eminem raps about his regret at leaving Nate in foster care, though he later adopted his half-brother.
He also raps about wishing he could have hugged Nate’s kids when they were little.
Eminem also regretted not being able to get his half-brother Nate out of foster care sooner, and wished he could have spent more time with his nephews when they were young.
He concludes by wishing he had been a better, more present father to his son Stevie, who came out as non-binary and gender fluid in 2021.
As Jelly Roll sings the chorus, smoke begins to fill the room where Slim Shady’s lookalike sleeps.
“Stevie, I’m sorry I missed you,” Eminem continues, regretting that he couldn’t “be the father I wanted to be to you.”
As she continues to watch footage of her children, Jelly Roll sings the chorus again as a figure that looks like a younger, thinner, shadowy person lies on the bed with his back to the camera.
The room, which is now lined with glass, begins to fill with smoke as the country singer sings the tune.
To underscore Eminem’s regrets and renewed connection with his children, he ends the Somebody Save Me video by letting a longer section of Hailey’s guitar recital video play even after the music has faded out.
