Eminem Sued By His Bully After Calling Him Out In A Song
There was a time when bullying was kept secret and children who were victims kept their anguish and despair to themselves.
Parents would have no idea their child was in pain until their children were past the bullying or it was too late.
Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, was one of the kids who was harassed and bullied during his teenage years.
Unlike many victims, he had an outlet through his music that allowed him to post therapeutic lyrics about this experience – but his outlet would eventually backfire.
Eminem was sued by his former bully after naming him in a song.
In the second verse of his 1999 song Brain Damage from The Slim Shady LP, Eminem details the heartbreaking events of his childhood. The lyrics alone are enough to make you feel empathy for him and the abuse he suffered. He raps:
“Long before my little girl Hailey
I was harassed daily by this fat kid named D’Angelo Bailey
An eighth-grader who acted obnoxiously because his father boxed
So every day he stuffed me in the lockers”
The track goes on to describe the vicious bullying Eminem claims to have endured, mentioning a beating that left him bloodied and with a broken nose after Bailey allegedly punched him repeatedly in a urinal.
The bullying was so severe that his mother, Deborah, sued the Detroit school system for their failure to protect her son.
After “Brain Damage” was released, D’Angelo Bailey admitted to bullying Eminem.
In a 1999 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Bailu said, “We were a band to bother with him. You know, bully type things. We knocked him over his head at recess. When we didn’t see him move, we ran away. We lied and said he slipped on the ice.
Although Bailey has already confessed to doing exactly what he was accused of, two years after his admission he sued the rapper for $1,000,000.
In that lawsuit, Bailey alleged that the bullying story was made up for Eminem to gain credibility in the rap game.
In the lawsuit, his attorney is said to have said: “Eminem is a white male who has been the subject of criticism in the music industry that he did not suffer from difficult circumstances growing up and was therefore a “suitor” in the industry.”
“Eminem used Bailey, his African-American childhood friend, as a pawn in his efforts to stem the tide of criticism.”
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In late 2003, Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Deborah Servitto ruled that Eminem did not harm Bailey or slander him when he verified it in his words.
But she didn’t stop there. She decided to recite some rap lyrics she had written just for this occasion.
Judge rapped, “Lyrics are stories that no one would take for fact. They are an exaggeration of a childish act.”
“Any reasonable person could clearly see that the words can only be hyperbole,” she said as she delivered the verdict.
NyRee Ausler is a writer from Seattle, Washington, and author of seven books. It covers lifestyle, entertainment and news, as well as workplace navigation and social issues.
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