Eminem has made headlines countless times for talking about his mom in his music, but this time, he’s keeping his mouth closed.
The 52-year-old rapper performed at the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix on Saturday, December 7, just five days after his mother, Debbie Nelson, died at age 69.
The 15-time Grammy Award winner performed “Without Me,” a song that famously includes the line, “F**k you Debbie,” referring to his mother. However, this time, Eminem notably stayed silent for the punchline and let his fans yell it for him instead.
Nelson died on December 2 after a battle with lung cancer.
Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, had a tumultuous relationship with his mother growing up, which the rapper frequently wrote about in his earlier music.
In the 1999 song “Brain Damage,” Eminem seemingly implied that his mother yelled at and physically abused him, rapping, “My mother started screamin’, ‘What are you on, drugs? / Look at you, you’re gettin’ blood all over my rug.’ / She beat me over the head with the remote control.”
In a different song released in 2000 titled “Marshall Mathers,” Eminem rapped, “My f***ing b***h mom’s suin’ for $10 million / She must want a dollar for every pill I’ve been stealin’ / S**t, where the f**k you think I picked up the habit? / All I had to do was go in her room and lift up her mattress.” These lyrics seem to imply that his struggles with addiction stemmed from his mother’s own issues with drugs and prescription pills. The lyrics also address the $10 million defamation lawsuit his mom filed against him in 1999, which he lost.
Eminem’s brother, Nathan “Nate” Kane Mathers, posted a story on Instagram the day after their mother passed, where he wrote, “Hatred and mixed emotions today.”
Aside from the subtle choice to skip the lyric during his performance, the Academy Award-winning musician has not yet commented on his mother’s death.
