In his song Wicked Ways Eminem says he has Aspergers:
Ever heard of Aspergers? It’s a rare condition
It’s what you’re suffering from when you simply don’t care if it’s an 80 degree day
And there’s no fricken air conditioning.
In another song called Legacy he raps:
“I used to be the type of kid
That would always think the sky is fallin’
Why am I so differently wired? Am I a martian?
What kind of twisted experiment am I involved in?
‘Cause I don’t belong in this world
That’s why I’m scoffin’ at authority, defiant often,
Flyin’ off the handle at my mom
No dad, so I am non-compliant at home
At school I’m just shy and awkward}
And I don’t need no goddamn psychologist
Tryin’ to diagnose why I have all these underlyin’ problems”.
He has always pushed boundaries and a unique and never heard before versatility. He lyrically and literally stuns his fans with his touching, sometimes humorous, and frequently dark lyrics. But it’s also no surprise to me that he could have an Aspergers diagnosis based on his history too.
Eminem, aka Marshall Bruce Mathers III, was born on the 17th of October 1972 to Deborah Mathers. His father left when he was an infant and he grew up near the notorious eight mile road in Detroit.
His mother remembers him speaking in full sentences as early as two years old and walking before his first birthday. She writes in her book that “he would hum and bounce himself in his car seat and high chair soothing himself to sleep as an infant.”
Eminem had a vivid imagination tearing round the house in his batman cape fighting imaginary foes and loved to illustrate his own comic books. He had an infatuation with dinosaurs and owned a good variety of books on the prehistoric age.
He preferred to be at home writing poetry, drawing comic book characters and reading.
He regularly feigned illness to stay home from school where he says he was shy and awkward. At home, his mother alleges he would have violent outbursts.
Like many of us autistics, he was bullied regularly which one day culminated in an injury that caused bleeding from both his ears and nose. He was hit with a block of ice thrown by his tormentor and sustained a cerebral haemorrhage which rendered him unconscious for days. It took five months for him to recover and he reportedly suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the attack.
From a young age Eminem wrote poetry and dabbled with rap lyrics saying LL Cool J and Slick Rick were his inspiration. At first, when he started performing, he was regularly booed off stage and was often overcome with nerves and unable to rap at all. But he persevered and finally exploded onto the mainstream music scene after legendary hip hop producer Dr. Dre heard his demo tape and flew him out to Los Angeles to sign him to his record label, Aftermath.
After My Name Is… was featured on MTV, he became unstoppable. He quickly released one album after another, his first being The Slim Shady LP which sold 300,000 copies in one week. The rest is history. Eminem’s “no boundaries” versatility and thought provoking lyrics can provoke tears. To me, he will reign as one of the top hip hop legends ever.
I was lucky enough to see Eminem on his first UK tour at London Arena. I was one of the first through the doors after camping out overnight to see him and was happily crushed on the barriers watching him work the crowd up to a veritable frenzy wielding a chainsaw and wearing blue dungarees and a hockey mask.
I saw him twice more at Reading Festival where he thrilled us with a guest appearance by Marilyn Manson during the hit The way I Am and lastly at Milton Keynes for his Anger Management tour. His lyrics have always resonated with me…and now I know why!
When Eminem’s lyrics mention Aspergers it meant so much to me. It helped me not feel ashamed about my own diagnosis. It gives hope to those of us who felt like geeks and left out while growing up…for those of us trying to fit in but can’t, finding life at home hard with constant struggles to understand others points of view…we can turn to his example and feel confident that we each have a place in this world.
Eminem stands up for what he believes and as a die hard fan, I have modeled his outlook and adopted his philosophy to never give up. His lyrics have been my shield of strength as I fight for the rights of autistic children and make sure they are protected from fake cures and abusive treatment. In fact, my first tattoo is an old English lettering of one of his lyrics that helps me when I feel intimidated and prevents me from quitting.
As an autistic, I welcome Eminem as a part of our community. To me, his lyrics and the discussions that follow will bring a greater understanding of Aspergers and autism to his fans and the music industry. I hope that he inspires autistics in entertainment to be truly authentic with the public. It can only help all of us gain acceptance.
Read about Emma, our Aspierations Columnist
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*Image of Eminem via Interscope.com
I cannot explain how Eminem and his lyrics have helped me live. Thank you Eminem. I love what u have done and what u have accomplished in this lifetime. If it wasn’t for you I probably wouldn’t be here.
Thank you for this. I was diagnosed late, as an adult. I was never a huge fan of Eminem, but appreciated what he did, and this makes me like him all the more. I can totally relate. I’m with you, I hope other people with platforms and celebrity that have Aspergers or any other form of ASD would come out, so to speak. I’m tired of being misunderstood.
Thank you for sharing ! Love his music! The creative ways behind it and depth! Now I know why! Love this! 💜🙏🏼
I am a single mother of two Boyz who have autism and to my youngest Eminem has touched him from when he first heard him, his music calms my son at the worst of times and I honestly didn’t know why (I luv his music) but most don’t classify it as calming But he does after reading that he had aspergers it made so much more sense … I hope to one day take him to one of your concerts as I know he will be in heaven (being in BC not the easiest) But I live to make their dreams come true
Stay true to you and keep calming/inspiring the ones you touch !!!!!
Glad it calms him, but Eminem doesn’t have aspergers. She assumed by his lyrics. She’ll probably get sued by him for is. He’s never, ever come out and said something ridiculous like that. He plays characters in his songs and if you listen as much as you say you’d know that.
Idk I think it’s pretty possible that he does, not just cause he mentions about being differently wired and stuff in his lyrics but also because of the fact that he’s such a genius. He was also always the sort of quiet weird one in skl and was bullied for being ‘different’. He shows a lot of symptoms so maybe in all of the songs where he mentions it he was actually coming out.
Have you seen his written lyric pages.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/48dtj9/eminems_hand_written_lyrics_for_lose_yourself/
It’s definitely something an autistic person would come up with. It’s like he has all these other ideas for rhymes he puts down outside the circle and he fits pieces of those ideas into the circle. He literally says in the song “legacy” that he connects lines like crosswords. It’s like words are Tetris blocks to him and he wants to take from the stash and fit the right blocks into the field.
Autistic people get obsessed / hyper focused on the things that they enjoy doing. I’d get hyper focused on making sample chops in Reason. That and trying to “hear” the right notes to play for backing instruments despite the fact I’m not trained. I’d just hum and harmonize with the keyboard until the note I was playing was the tone I was humming.
Thanks for sharing this Chris!
He’s not actually come out and said he was. You’re getting this from a song. He has also rapped about killing his ex wife but so far hasn’t done so I don’t see how this is a public admission of Aspergers.
Just curious, are you assuming he’s on the autism spectrum because of lyrics in his songs, or has he actually said “I have Aspergers” Wondering if you are taking lyrics out of context. If it’s just based on his lyrics, you obviously don’t listen to him often. You can’t take an artists lyrics seriously, I mean he talks about dying and coming back to life after being taken off life support, being an alien, hanging himself as a 12 year old boy, which never happened. So, before you get sued for telling the world he has Aspergers, when he more than likely doesn’t, you better edit or delete this.
Ali, I spoke with the writer of this piece and she based it on both the lyrics and his history growing up, some of which she talks about in the essay. Your comment is appreciated and helped us go back in and make some edits so that it is clearer. She does listen to him often and has seen him in concert. I believe she even has a tattoo of one of his lyrics in old English lettering. His words inspire her to never give up, even in the face of adversity. The writer is someone who inspires me as she is authentic, brave, and never gives up either. Thanks again for taking the time to comment. ~ Jodi
It would probably be nice if you also edited the title, which implies Eminem has “gone public” with Aspergers when no such thing has taken place. It comes off as very clickbaity, particularly now that you’ve made some selective edits to the article itself.
Thanks for the input! We did make some edits to be clearer.
You do realise Eminem is a Celebrity, a sympathy seeker and a father in america…this has nothing to do with you… As someone protecting someone’s personal attainment don’t be so attached and be real
…he’s a worker and an experimentalist too…not someone on he record to look up to.