This page was last updated
4-2-04 Special thanks to Shorty and
oOShadyGurlOo
for donating quotes.
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Quotes |
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Growing Up |
"Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people
are poor?! I wouldn't say I lived in a ghetto, I'd say I
lived in the 'hood. The same friends I had back then are the
same people on tour with me now."
"We just kept moving back and forth because my mother never
had a job. We kept getting kicked out of every house we were
in. I believe six months was the longest we ever lived in a
house."
"My earliest memory was raping the babysitter when I was
5...she was 15."
"There were times when friends had to buy me fuckin' shoes!"
"I don't like to give the sob story: growing up in a
single-parent home, never knew my father, my mother never
worked, and when friends came over I'd hide the welfare
cheese. Yo, I failed ninth grade three times, but I don't
think it was necessarily 'cause I'm stupid. I didn't go to
school. I couldn't deal."
"I mean I got jumped, fucked up shit happened to me a few
times, but that happens to everybody. I don't think it has
anything to do with color or any of that shit. It's just all
a part of growing up."
"I took a lot of them, I took a bunch of pain killers -
Tylenol. I took 13, 16 of 'em and fuckin' threw 'em up. I
thought I was going die, I thought I was going to die for
real." - On His Suicide Attempt
"I didn't have nothin' going for me until I found something
I loved, which is music, and that changed everything."
“I always had drive coming up and I always wanted to make it
as a rapper. That was my dream.” |
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His Family |
"She will always love daddy, and she will always know who
daddy is." – On Hailie
"Everyday I thank her, Everyday When I wake up I thank her."
– On Hailie
"I did right by my daughter. I didn't want to do the same
things my father did to me." – On Hailie"I'm sure Hailie
is going to come to me and ask me about all of it when it's
all said and done. I'm sure she'll come to me, probably when
she's a teenager- which I dread. I have no fucking idea what
I'm going to do when she starts dating. I'm gonna kill boys.
It's gonna drive me crazy. It's the greatest feeling in the
world to watch your seed grow, to watch a life that you
created look at the world through another set of your eyes.
It also hurts to know that one day she's going to grow up
and be out of the house. But that's what we're here for, to
create more life I guess." - On Hailie
"Lil’ son of a bitch."- On Nathan
"Ronnie and I grew up like brothers. When he died, I didn't
have the strength to go to his funeral." – On uncle Ronnie
"Me and the missus, we go at it. It's no secret, we've had
our share of problems." – On Kim
"Look. I was pissed off!" That's all I could say. I really
felt that I wanted to do that shit. At one point in time, I
really wanted to do that shit. For real." – On Kim
“Me and Kim, we been through our dramas and shit, but I’d be
bald faced lying if I said I didn’t love her or I’m with her
because of my daughter. I’m with her because I wanna be with
her. I love that girl man, I really do.” – On Kim
"Kim used to get mad when I rapped about wanting to kill
her. But I tell her, 'look if you piss me off when I'm
writing a song, you might be in it.'" – On Kim
"My baby's mother put me through a lot of shit, so she's
worth a lot of songs." – On Kim
"My father? I never knew him. Never even seen a picture of
him." – On his Father
"As soon as I turned fifteen my mother was like, 'Get a
fucking job and help me with these bills or your ass is
out.' Then she would fucking kick me out anyway, half the
time right after she took most of my paycheck." – On his
Mother
"When I was growing up I hated my mother. Why? Lots of
reasons. But mainly because we were constantly moving, so I
was always the new kid at school. I never stopped to think
about whether that was her fault or not or what the
situation was, I just blamed her for everything." – On his
Mother
"My mother did a lot of dope and shit - a lot of pills - so
she had mood swings. She'd go to bed cool, then wake up
like, 'Motherfuckers, get out!'"– On his Mother
"My mom is a lawsuit queen. All her life, she has sued
people. That's how she makes money. When I was five, she had
a job on the cash register at a store that sold chips and
soda. Other than that, I don't remember her working a day in
her life." – On his Mother
"Cause my mother's a bitch. You can even print that. My
mother's a bitch. My mother never had a job. My mother never
had nothing. We didn't have shit." – On his Mother
"My family has never been there for me. They expect things
because we're blood." - On his Family |
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Friends |
"What are friends? Friends are the people you think are your
friends but there really your enemies with secret identities
and disguises to hide their true colors, and just when you
think you close enough to be brothers they wanna come back
and cut your throat when you ain't lookin"
"50 is to me what I was to Dre, only difference, 50 thinks
he’s better than me-ha!" – On 50 Cent
"Nobody's fuckin' wit' Dre, as far as rap producers. As soon
as we went into the studio we knocked out four songs in six
hours. Every beat he would make, I had a rhyme for. For some
reason, he knows what type of beat I like. We got a good
chemistry together." – On Dre
"It was an honor to hear the words out of Dre's mouth that
he liked my shit. Growing up, I was one of the biggest fans
of N.W.A, from putting on the sunglasses and looking in the
mirror and lip-synching to wanting to be Dr. Dre, to be Ice
Cube. This is the biggest hip-hop producer ever." On Dre
liking his shit |
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His Race |
"When you're a little kid, you don't see color, and the fact
that my friends were black never crossed my mind. It never
became an issue until I was a teenager and started trying to
rap."
"I get offended when people come to me and ask me, 'So being
a white rapper...' and 'Being that you're white...' and 'So
growing up white...' and 'After being born white...' and
white white white white is all I ever seem to hear instead
of the music."
"I try not to look at it that way. Being white. I don't wake
up every day and look in the mirror, 'Oh. I'm white'."
"It's funny how all the magazines can dwell on my race, but
they could NEVER say that my shit is whack because they know
my shit is tight!"
"Unless you want to fuck me, why do you care what I look
like?"
"At this point, I'm like "Come up with something new." I
hate the same old questions. But it seems like "white"
magazines such as Spin and Rolling Stone focus on my
"whiteness" more than Black magazines"
"If there aren’t that many good white rappers, I don’t have
anything to do with that. All I can do is speak for myself."
"There was a while when I was feeling like, 'Damn, if I'd
just been born black, I would not have to go through all
this'."
"All my life I've been dealing with my race because of where
I grew up [Detroit] and being in the rap game. I'm at a
boiling point...Anybody who pulls the race card is getting
it right back in their face." |
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His Influences |
"When I was 9 years old, my uncle put me on to the Breakin'
soundtrack. The first rap song I ever heard was Ice-T,
'Reckless.' From L.L. to the Fat Boys, and all that shit, I
was fascinated. When L.L. first came out with I'm Bad, I
wanted to do it, to rhyme. Standing in front of the mirror,
I wanted to be like L.L."
"I would never fucking put them in a rhyme. I don't even
want them wondering if I was trying to dis them. I got a lot
of love for them. I grew up on that shit. The other rappers,
whatever." (About the Beastie Boys)
~ HIS ALTER EGO – SLIM SHADY:
"I was takin' a shit. I swear to God. And the fuckin' name
just popped into my head. Then I started thinkin' of twenty
million things that rhymed with it." – On how he came up
with the name – Slim Shady
"Slim Shady is just the evil thoughts that come into my
head. Things I shouldn't be thinking about. Not to be
gimmicky, but people should be able to determine when I'm
serious and when I'm fuckin around. That's why a lot of my
songs are funny. I got a warped sense of humor I guess."
"I had this whole Slim Shady concept of being two different
people, having two different sides of me. One of them I was
trying to let go, and I looked at the mirror and smashed it.
That was the whole intro of the Slim Shady EP. Slim Shady
was coming to haunt me, was coming to haunt Eminem." |
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Infinite |
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"Infinite was me trying to figure out how I wanted my rap
style to be, how I wanted to sound on the mic and present
myself. It was a growing stage. I felt like Infinite was
like a demo that just got pressed up." |
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The Slim Shady LP |
"One thing I won’t do is put out another song like 'My Name
Is,' his breakthrough hit. 'I can't stand that fucking song'
he says. 'This album is rawer. Fans looking for bubblegum
rap aren't going to get it here."
"I had nothing to lose, but something to gain. If I made an
album for me and it was to my satisfaction, then I
succeeded. If I didn't, then my producers were going to give
up on the whole rap thing we were doing. I made some shit
that I wanted to hear. The Slim Shady LP, I lashed out on
everybody who talked shit about me."
"I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push
the freedom of speech to the limit." |
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The Marshall Mathers LP |
"They didn't quite understand my lyrics first time around.
They took everything I said literally. I'm addressing a lot
of critics and I get pretty personal on this album too.
That's why the album's called the Marshall Mathers LP"
"I was juggling around some other titles, I was thinking of
another title 'Amsterdam' because I wrote four songs in two
days when I was in Amsterdam. When I started to write the
songs and saw which direction the album was going, it got
more personal and more personal and I love the media, I
thank God for the media because you give me shit to talk
about. If it wasn't for you all I probably wouldn't have
shit to talk about.” On the album’s title |
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Lyrics |
"A lot of my rhymes are just to get chuckles out of people.
Anybody with half a brain is going to be able to tell when
I'm joking and when I'm serious."
"If I said in one of my songs that my English teacher wanted
to have sex with me in junior high, all I'm saying, is that
I'm not gay, you know? People confuse the lyrics for me
speaking my mind. I don't agree with that life style, but if
that lifestyle is for you, then it's your business."
"Just because I talk about my daughter and put her in my
songs, or I say something about Kim in my songs, doesn't
give you the right or nobody else to talk about 'em and feel
free to do so."
“Don’t take everything I say literally. I might say some
things that are kinda left field but that doesn’t mean every
single thing I say, I mean.”
"My father was absent in my life. When I look at my little
girl, I know I could never abandon her. I can't see how a
father would do that. The line "Sometimes I just feel like
my father/I hate to be bothered" was spoken as a metaphor,
but it was true. But we shouldn't get into analyzing lyrics.
Why can't you just put my record on and let it explain
itself? Why do I have to sit here and talk about myself and
about what I was thinking when I wrote each lyric? If you
listen to the lyric, you can tell what I'm thinking. If you
play my records front to back, they will tell a story
because I set them up as one big story. I really don't like
to sit and talk about why I wrote this or how I did that."
“A lot of things I say are not meant to be disses. They’re
just meant to be me speaking my mind.”
“If people would shut up I wouldn’t have as much to say.”
"When I say I'll murder my baby's mother, maybe I wanted to,
but I didn't. Anybody who takes it literally is ten times
sicker than I am."
"I might talk about killing people, but that doesn't mean I
do it."
"Yeah, I've pushed it. I can go further tho, I can always go
further."
"For me, I still feel I'm an underground artist regardless
of how many units I sell. The subject matter and the topics
I rap about are still underground, they're still raw. I
don't try to polish up my shit for anybody. I tell it like
it is. And when you buy a Slim Shady album, you're gonna get
Slim Shady. You're not gonna get birds and bees and flowers
and trees. You're gonna get 'Fuck you, suck my dick,
cock-sucking muthafucker', that's what you're gonna get,
because that's what I'm about, and I don't feel like I have
to compromise my style for anybody.”
"Sometimes I regret telling people so much, and sometimes I
don't. It's like a Catch-22. You want to be honest with
people and you want to make fans feel they can be in touch
with you in your personal life- so they can feel what you
are going through, because they may be going through the
same thing." |
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Violence |
"I do promote violence and I don't give a fuck." – In reply
to Time magazine
"Saving Private Ryan was probably the illest, sickest movie
I've ever watched, and I didn't see anybody criticizing that
one for violence."
"I grew up listening to 2 Live Crew and N.W.A. and I never
went out and shot nobody."
“What cracks me up is when I talk about violence or smacking
a bitch or faggot this, faggot that, people act like I was
the first motherfucker to say that.” |
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His Career |
"I never got into a battle and didn't freestyle. That's how
I won all my battles. I can't see anybody winning a battle
with written raps. That shit is so fuckin' corny to me. I
don't wanna be known as an underground MC, but you gotta
start in the underground. If you don't build a foundation,
your ass is through." – On his secret to success
"I don't like rap anyways, I'm just trying to get my porno
career started."
"If I had to do it all over again, maybe I wouldn't have
recorded that song where I called my mother a crazy slut"
"I felt like it's my time to shine, I have to rip this. At
that time, I felt that it was a life or death situation." -
On his debut at The Wake Up Show
“I never felt the need to impress anyone but myself.”
"The main thing I started this whole career based on was
acceptance and respect, so I guess if trophies mean respect
or whatever, it's cool. I've got this trophy case at home
that I try and keep my accomplishments in, just so that
Hailie can see these things when she gets older and realizes
that Daddy wasn't just gone to be gone."
"I don't know what's going on with this whole selling so
many records. I don't understand it- it's a weird thing to
deal with this. It's like a dream come true, but I never
asked for this much!"
"That's the story of my life since the day I was born, I
should have been out celebrating my record sales. Instead
I'm sitting there in jail."
“Maybe I’m so successful because I’m a regular person. I
don’t think I come across as arrogant. I come across as me.”
“If I let fame get the best of me, I’m going to self
destruct. And I don’t wanna self destruct.”
“I really wish that I could put the music on and let it
speak for itself. Just sit back and do nothing.”
“U gotta be careful what you wish 4. I always wanted and
hoped for this. But it’s turning into more an nightmare than
a dream.”
“My white ass is on display quite a bit, so I gotta keep
some shit personal.”
"I want to bring different sounds, different points of view
to hip-hop, I want to be different and separate myself. I
already am different, you know what I'm sayin' just from
being who I am."
“I don’t owe nobody an explanation for a thing.”
“My aim is always the same: 2 write a better song than the
last 1.”
"That's basically what I came to do: upset the balance of
everything that's normal."
"It doesn't exactly feel like a shock, but it's all new to
me, and I'm taking it in as it comes."
"I'm not trying to be like anybody else, I'm trying to
sounds like nobody else."
"2pac was good at making u feel his pain. I want to be able
to make people cry, 2 make people feel."
“Like that cloning thing they’re doing. They should hurry it
up. Then I’d be able to do movies and rap and produce at the
same time and run a label and rip my hair out.” |
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Life |
“If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my
songs will be really wack or boring or something.”
"Life is like poker. It has an element of risk, an that
shouldn't be avoided. It should be faced.”
"The truth is, you don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow.
This is a crazy ride and nothing is guaranteed."
"Nobody really understands the pressures put on me, to
always be good, to always be on point."
“Sometimes I don’t know where my private life ends and my
public life begins.”
“I need years of therapy, but I don't want it. If I lose
that edge, people are gonna stop relating to me."
"I do say things that I think will shock people. But I don't
do things to shock people. I'm not trying to be the next
Tupac, but I don't know how long I'm going to be on this
planet. So while I'm here, I might as well make the most of
it." - On his philosophy for life
"I feel good about myself. Not that long ago I didn’t even
know if I’d ever be able to say that again."
"I’ve been thru a lot of shit, a lot of fucked up
relationships, so what I’m doing is reflecting what I know.
You’ve got to live it."
“There’s good and bad out there, but who R U 2 judge what’s
good or bad? Even if the person believes in the most
wrongest shit, they have the right to voice their opinion.” |
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Drugs |
“My favorite mix of drugs is whatever’s around.”
"I had too much Nyquil and Vivarin again. Lost my stomach
all over the place."
"Never take ecstasy, beer, bacardi, weed, pepto bismol,
vivarin, tums, tagamet hb, xanax, and valium in the same
day. It makes it difficult to sleep at night."
"'You get a better feeling looking at the computer images
than by taking drugs - and it doesn't harm your health.'" |
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His Attitude |
"I don’t know if I could trust someone in a relationship. So
my attitude causes problem."
"Sometimes I'm real cool, but sometimes I could be a real
asshole. I think everyone is like that."
"I feel like my music is therapy, because once I sit down
and write, I get everything off my chest. People might think
that I walk around mad all day, and I'm not. For the most
part, I'm happy. I get all my aggression out in the studio.
When I leave the studio, I'm like, 'Whew.'"
"If people look deeper than the surface they'll discover a
nice person. Only when I'm backed into a corner do I
retaliate."
"I'm not alone in feeling the way I feel. I believe that a
lot of people can relate to my shit--whether white, black,
it doesn't matter. Everybody has been through some shit,
whether it's drastic or not so drastic. Everybody gets to
the point of 'I don't give a fuck'." |
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Women |
"There ain’t no shame in my game. No shame in my game at
all."
"I don't hate women - they just sometimes make me mad."
"I hate bitches [one] fucked up and it made me look at girls
as sluts."
"It’s a sick thing wit girls. Its like da more u diss ‘em,
the more they want u. if you act like u care about them,
they don’t want you. If you act like you don’t give a shit
about them, then they luv u."
"I don't want them once they turn 18." - On Britney Spears
and Christina Aguilera
"A. She's Ugly B. She dresses the way girls shouldn't C. She
has issues D. All the above." – On his dislike for Britney
Spears |
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Marriage |
“I would rather be on a coach flight with NSYNC than be
married again.”
“I’d rather have a baby through my penis than be married
again.” |
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Being a Role Model |
"It'd be stupid for me to sit here and say that there aren't
kids who look up to me, but my responsibility is not to
them. I'm not a baby sitter."
“I’m not a role model and I don’t claim to be.”
"I never wanted to be a role model, but I am aware that kids
are looking up to me."
"I like to finger my ass and watch the kids do it- I’m so
influential" |
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Enemies |
"To all the people who never gave love, and continue to deny
me 'cuz of what I look like: suck my dick you fucks!!!" - On
people who are unsupportive
"There's a difference between realness and an act, and
they're an act, and they know they're an act, and they even
say they're an act, they even say they're cornballs, they
admit it." - On ICP
"I don't think I take the beef as seriously as they do,
because I don't consider them artists. They look at me as an
artist. I think they get more uptight about it. I can look
at them and laugh. They can't do anything to me. What can
they do to me? They have no credibility, no respect, no
talent, they have nothing. All they can do is diss me
vocally, they can't diss me lyrically. There's nothing they
can do to me as far as the music goes. I don't take it as
seriously as they do and I think that frustrates them. I
think it's funny. " - On ICP
"Not everyone can graduate from Harvard. Oh!" - taking a
shot at Dave Mays, co-owner of The Source, who graduated
from Harvard and yet claims he's lived on the streets all
his life.
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The Future |
"20 years? I don't know, hopefully still producing music. If
I'm still rapping, someone slap me off the stage."
"Goals for the future: Have sex with Shannon Elizabeth.'"
"Aside from watchin' my girl grow, my ultimate dream is to
be good at what i am, be respected and grow up'" |
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Fans |
"You can't control who likes you. If I got Backstreet Boy
fans what am I supposed to do? Turn them away? Whoever likes
my stuff, likes my stuff but just know Slim Shady is hip
hop, I grew up on hip hop, it's the music I love and it's
the music I respect. I respect the culture...that's me"
“Nobody wants to talk about the positive shit I’m doing.
Theres millions of white kids and black kids coming 2 the
tour, throwing their middle fingers in the air and having
the common love: and that’s hip hop.”
“My fans should take my music with a grain of salt." |
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His Concerts |
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"Some asshole kept throwing oranges and other fruit at me
while I was onstage. Fucker had an arm like a major league
pitcher..." |
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Random Quotes |
"Don't do drugs, don't have unprotected sex, don't be
violent. Leave that to me."
"To the people I forgot, you weren't on my mind for some
reason and you probably don't deserve any thanks anyway."
"You can't out smart a smart ass"
"She's the one I wouldn't impregnate, I wouldn't impregnate
her, I'd use a condom." – On Ginger Spice
"A bunch of girls, swinging from a nice chandelier, landing
on top of me naked...while I lay in a pool of steaming hot
water!" – On his Spring Break Fantasy
"I have the right to remain violent. Anything I say can and
will be used against you!"
"The only job I need is a blowjob"
"England? England is in London, right?'"
"London? is that in England?"
"Who's Tony Blair, did he get his dick sucked? Oh he ain't
shit then..." - On English Prime Minister Tony Blair |
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