Eminem’s Estranged Father Dead At Age 67
Eminem’s father, Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr. died this week near Fort Wayne, Indiana.
According to TMZ, Mathers, 67, apparently, suffered a heart attack while at home.
Eminem, who is named after his father (Marshall Bruce Mathers III), has publicly expressed his disdain for Mathers who abandoned him, in his music over the years.
The Detroit rapper’s hit songs such as “My Name Is” and “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” reflect upon Eminem’s feelings towards his father.
“My fa***t father must’ve had his panties up in a bunch ‘Cause he split, I wonder if he even kissed me goodbye. No, I don’t, on second thought, I just f**kin’ wished he would die. I look at Hailie, and I couldn’t picture leavin’ her side,” Eminem rapped on “Cleanin’ Out My Closet.”
Mathers, who went by Bruce, married Eminem’s mother when he was 22-years-old and she was 15-years-old, and two years later they had Eminem, according to the rapper’s mother, Debbie.
Shortly after, the two split up, and Eminem and his mother settled in Detroit with Debbie’s family while Mathers relocated to California where he had two other children.
Eminem has mentioned in interviews that he penned letters to his father when he was a kid, but they would always come back to him as “return to sender.”
The elder Mathers published a letter in 2001 in a newspaper addressed to the rapper and stated that Eminem’s mother kept him away from Mathers.
Glennisha Morgan is a Detroit-bred multimedia journalist and writer. She writes about intersectionality, hip-hop, pop culture, queer issues, race, feminism, and her truth. Follow her on Twitter.
