Brain Damage

Eminem has been near to death several times in his life and he owes one of the scariest events that happened in his life to a man named D’Angelo Bailey.

Every Eminem listener knows the words of the song « Brain Damage » from the Slim Shady LP where Eminem relates the event, adding some sarcastic and imaginary verses (like his brain falling out of his head, for instance).
Debbie Mathers expressed about this tragic event on the Sally Jessy Raphael Show : « He was found in the bathroom, in blood, on the floor. Twenty-one doctors in four days gave up on Marshall. »
We know that Debbie tried to sue Roseville Elementary School in 1982 and that Eminem’s school dismissed the lawsuit in 1983.
Eminem was attacked twice by D’Angelo.
« The first time was around Thanksgiving and the second time was around Christmas. Marshall had a slight concussion the first time. The second time he almost wasn’t too lucky. Marshall fell in and out of consciousness. »
The doctors wanted to institutionalize Marshall, but Debbie, for once showing true love to her son, refused the idea. She didn’t want to give up on her son. It is really hard for a mother to cope with such events.
Debbie stated : « It was one of the hardests things for me to ever do. They gave me a choice- if Marshall’s hearing did not come back , his eyesight faded in and out- that I’d have to instutionalize him. »
But Debbie refuse to take this into account : « I refused to do so. He was on seizure medication, he would black out and did not even realize what he was doing at the time.. It took a year for him to bounce back. »

The D’Angelo bully has influenced Eminem’s music for a large part- I mean not only the song « Brain Damage », but if you take a deeper look at Eminem’s videos, there are references to hospitals, to surgery and to mental institutions. In the Real Slim Shady video, you can see a lot of insane persons in an asylum. If we look at the « Without Me » video, Eminem is being operated in a crazy way.The 50 Cent video « In Da Club » pictures Slim Shady operating his mate.
This event has traumatized Marshall for a great part and he needs to exorcize this part of his life.

D’Angelo Bailey, who does not even feel guilty for acting this way in the past, remembers the first time he listened to « Brain Damage » : « Damn, that must have been scared him for life. ». He has admitted the facts he denied later on Court in order to get some easy money « the good old American way » :
« Yeah, we flipped him right on his head at recess. When we didn’t see him moving, we took off running. We lied and said he slipped on the ice. He was a wild kid, but back then we thought it was stupid. Hey, you have his phone number? »
You will probably be amused if you get to know that D’angelo’s kids are Eminem fans who enjoy the song « Brain Damage » a lot.
D’Angelo filed several lawsuits against the famous rapper for defamation. He also held Eminem for responsible of the fact he was unable to lauch his career as a rapper.The most recent lawsuit has been dismissed by Judge Servitto a few weeks ago.

Eminem is a fighter who never gives up. Like his grandmother expressed it before, he is very lucky to be alive after all he went through in his life. The talented rapper deserves the deepest admiration for his ability to use even tragic events at his advantage and to increase his artistic creativity.