She was only known to the general public through the sharp texts about her, listened to by millions of people. Debbie Nelson, mother of rapper Eminem, dies at age 69 AP News Wednesday December 4.
The 52-year-old rapper’s agent, Dennis Dennehy, confirmed the death of Debbie Nelson without specifying the cause. She had been battling lung cancer for several years.
“Seeing your mother swallowing prescription pills in the kitchen…”
Born in 1955 on a military base in Kansas, she raised Marshall Mathers III, the real name of Eminem, and his little sister alone. For a time, they will live in a trailer in Detroit. The chaotic relationship with her son was no secret. She greatly inspired the artist throughout his career. In music Cleaning Out My Closet released in 2002 Eminem says: “Seeing your mother swallowing prescription pills in the kitchen… My whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn’t.”
In the movie 8 Miles published the same year and which recounts Eminem’s access to success, the character of his mother is depressive, unstable and flirtatious.
Two lawsuits filed against his son
Debbie Nelson filed two defamation lawsuits against her son after speaking about him on shows and magazines. In a book published in 2008, My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem, she tries to reestablish her version of the facts by evoking details about Eminem’s youth and the good times spent together.
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She also evokes her own childhood, describing a violent environment, in which her father’s mother with whom she spent her summers was the only person who gave her love.
