Throughout many of his rhymes, Eminem has made it abundantly clear that he absolutely adores his daughter, Hailie Jade. In the 28 years since he first made waves as a rising Detroit MC, Marshall Mathers has told Hailie’s life story as seen through his own lyrical lens. There are hundreds of bars dedicated to his only biological offspring.
Right around the time she was born, Eminem used early tracks on his 1996 debut album, Infinite, to let Hailie Jade and the hip-hop world know he was determined to provide an ideal life for his daughter. On “Never 2 Far,” a deep cut from the independently released LP, Em raps the notably humble line, “’Til I’m glad to be buried and leave this crazy world/And have at least a half a million for my baby girl.” In a 1999 interview with Rolling Stone, a then-fledgling Slim Shady explained how Hailie was always top-of-mind while recording his first studio project.
“It was right before my daughter was born.” Em told the publication. “So, having a future for her was all I talked about.”
Hailie Jade, 28, has remained the apple of Eminem’s eye and a prominent subject of his music through the decades. In fact, some of the lauded lyricist’s most successful songs are solely devoted to Hailie. 2004’s “Mockingbird,” a loving, self-produced homage to his daughter’s mere existence, is certified five-times platinum. Another example is 2005’s “When I’m Gone,” which serves as an inspirational letter to Hailie Jade in the hypothetical event of her father’s untimely demise. The emotional track reached as high as No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Even in lyrical warfare, as foes such as Ja Rule and Machine Gun Kelly attempted to use Eminem’s admiration for his daughter against him, Slim not only defends Hailie in his pointed clap backs but has never shied away from using their ironclad daddy-daughter relationship against the opposition.
“We’d all much rather get along than fight you/Me and Hailie dance to your songs, we like you,” Eminem sarcastically adds as he smacks Ja Rule on the 2002 diss track “Bump Heads.”
Now, in 2024, Eminem appears to be entering a new chapter of his iconic rap career with his upcoming album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce). At the same time, he’s also going through a major transition in his personal life as it pertains to the woman he’s described through rhyme as “the only lady that I adore.” Last month, Eminem gave away his daughter’s hand in marriage to her longtime significant other and now-husband Evan McClintock. The modest ceremony found a dapper and doting Slim Shady slow-dancing with his daughter as white roses surrounded the two.
See Eminem’s Heartfelt Lyrics About Hailie Jade
Hailie Jade in Mockingbird music video
Eminem/YouTube
“If I Get Locked Up”
“Hailie Jade, Daddy loves you, baby/Don’t ever tell me how to raise my daughter/F**k you, lady!/You critics wanna criticize, but couldn’t visualize/Individuals lives through a criminal’s eyes (F**k y’all)”
Eminem’s Stan music video
Eminem/YouTube
“Stan”
“But anyways, f**k it, what’s been up, man? How’s your daughter?/My girlfriend’s pregnant too, I’m ’bout to be a father/If I have a daughter, guess what I’ma call her? I’ma name her Bonnie”
“It’s O.K.”
“One day I plan to be a family man, happily married/I want to grow to be so old that I have to be carried/’Til I’m glad to be buried and leave this crazy world/And have at least a half a million for my baby girl”
“I’m on a quest to seize all, my own label to call/Way before my baby is able to crawl”
Eminem Mockingbird music video
Eminem/YouTube
“The Way I Am”
“But at least have the decency in you/To leave me alone, when you freaks see me out/In the streets when I’m eatin’ or feedin’ my daughter”
“’97 Bonnie & Clyde”
“C’mon Hai-Hai, we goin’ to the beach/Grab a couple of toys and let Dada strap you in the car seat/Oh, where’s Mama? She’s takin’ a little nap in the trunk/Oh, that smell? Dada must’ve runned over a skunk”
“I told you it’s OK, Hai-Hai, want a ba-ba?/Take a night-night? Na-na-boo, goo-goo-ga-ga?/Her make poo-poo ca-ca? Dada change your didee/Clean the baby up so her can take a nighty-nighty/Your dad’ll wake her up as soon as we get to the water ’97 Bonnie and Clyde, me and my daughter”
“Brain Damage”
“Way before my baby daughter Hailie/I was harassed daily by this fat kid named DeAngelo Bailey”
“Rock Bottom”
“My daughter wants to throw the ball, but I’m too stressed to play/Live half my life and throw the rest away”
“Holdin’ two Glocks, hope your doors got new locks on ’em/My daughter’s feet ain’t got no shoes or socks on ’em/And them rings you wearin’ look like they got a few rocks on ’em”
Eminem Mockingbird music video
Eminem/YouTube
“Kim”
“Yesterday I changed your diaper/Wiped you and powdered you How did you get so big?/Can’t believe it, now you’re 2/Baby, you’re so precious, daddy’s so proud of you”
“Come on, get out! (I can’t! I’m scared)/I said get out, bitch! (Let go of my hair! Please don’t do this, baby! Please! I love you! Look, we can just take Hailie and leave)/F**k you”
“Cleanin’ Out My Closet”
“I look at Hailie, and I couldn’t picture leavin’ her side/Even if I hated Kim, I’d grit my teeth and I’d try/To make it work with her at least for Hailie’s sake, I maybe made some mistakes/But I’m only human, but I’m man enough to face ’em today”
“Say Goodbye to Hollywood”
“I gotta get up, thank God, I got a little girl/And I’m a responsible father, so not a lot of good/I’d be to my daughter layin’ in the bottom of the mud”
“It’s f**kin’ crazy, ‘cause all I wanted was to give Hailie/The life I never had, instead I forced us to live alienated”
Eminem Mockingbird music video
Eminem/YouTube
“Sing for the Moment”
“It’s all political, if my music is literal/And I’m a criminal, how the f**k can I raise a little girl?/I couldn’t, I wouldn’t be fit to”
“My Dad’s Gone Crazy”
“A little help from Hailie Jade, won’t you tell ’em, maybe?/I think my dad’s gone crazy!”
“9 millimeter heaters stashed in two-seaters with meat cleavers/I don’t blame you, I wouldn’t let Hailie listen to me neither”
Eminem Mockingbird music video
Eminem/YouTube
“Hailie’s Song”
“Man, if I could sing, I’d keep singin’ this song to my daughter/If I could hit the notes, I’d blow somethin’ as long as my father/To show her how I feel about her, how proud I am that I got her”
“I got my baby, maybe, the only lady that I adore/Hailie! So sayonara, try tomorrow, nice to know ya/Our baby’s traveled back to the arms of her rightful owner”
“Now it don’t feel like the world’s on my shoulders/Everyone’s leanin’ on me/’Cause my baby knows that her daddy’s a soldier/Nothin’ can take her from me”
Eminem Mockingbird music video
Eminem/YouTube
“Bump Heads”
“We’d all much rather get along than fight you/Me and Hailie dance to your songs, we like you”
“Lose Yourself”
“God only knows he’s grown farther from home, he’s no father/He goes home and barely knows his own daughter”
Ja Rule performs onstage during the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2024 Issue Release and 60th Anniversary Celebration at Hard Rock Hotel New York on May 16, 2024 in New York City.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit
“Like Toy Soldiers”
“That Ja s**t, I tried to squash it, it was too late to stop it/There’s a certain line you just don’t cross and he crossed it/I heard him say Hailie’s name on a song and I just lost it”
Eminem Mockingbird music video
“Mockingbird”
“Hailie, I know you miss your Mom, and I know you miss your Dad/When I’m gone, but I’m tryin’ to give you the life that I never had/I can see you’re sad, even when you smile, even when you laugh/I can see it in your eyes, deep inside you wanna cry/’Cause you’re scared, I ain’t there, Daddy’s wit’ you in your prayers/No more cryin’, wipe them tears, Daddy’s here, no more nightmares/We gon’ pull together through it, we gon’ do it”
Kim Mathers appears in Macomb County Circuit Court March 26, 2007 in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. Mathers’ ex-husband, Marshall Mathers, also known as rapper Eminem, filed a motion seeking to prohibit her from making derogatory, disparaging, inflammatory and otherwise negative comments about him in public, claming that her comments could harm the couples’ daughter Hailie.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
“Crazy in Love”
“If you ever leave me I’d probably have no reason to be/You are the Kim to my Marshall, you’re the Slim to my Shady/The Dre to my Eminem, the Alaina to my Hailie”
“When I’m Gone”
“What happens when you become the main source of her pain?/’Daddy, look what I made!’ ‘Dad’s gotta go catch a plane’/’Daddy, where’s Mommy? I can’t find Mommy, where is she?’/’I don’t know, go play, Hailie, baby, your daddy’s busy/Daddy’s writin’ a song, this song ain’t gon’ write itself/I’ll give you one underdog, then you gotta swing by yourself’/Then turn right around on that song and tell her you love her”
“That’s when I wake up, alarm clock’s ringin’, there’s birds singin’/It’s spring and Hailie’s outside swingin’/I walk right up to Kim and kiss her, tell her I miss her/Hailie just smiles and winks at her little sister, almost as if to say””
“Deja Vu”
“And you’d think that with all I have at stake/Look at my daughter’s face/’Mommy, something is wrong with Dad I think/He’s acting weird again, he’s really beginning to scare me’”
“Great places to hide ’em, ain’t it? So you can lie to Hailie/I’m going beddy-bye, Whitney, baby; good night, Alaina!/Go in the room and shut the bedroom door/And wake up in an ambulance/They said they found me on the bathroom floor, damn”
“Elevator”
“Rappers try to play me, they use Hailie as a ukulele/Whoopsa-that-a-f**king-daisy/That’s a no-no, even she knows Da-Da’s f**king crazy”
Eminem Mockingbird music video
Eminem/YouTube
“Going Through Changes”
“Hailie, this one is for you, Whitney and Alaina too/I still love your mother, that’ll never change/Think about her every day”
“Not Afraid”
“No more drama from now on/I promise to focus solely on handlin’ my responsibilities as a father/So I solemnly swear to always treat this roof like my daughters and raise it”
Eminem performs onstage at the 2022 MTV VMAs at Prudential Center on August 28, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for MTV/Paramount Global
“Kill Shot”
“Just ’cause you look in the mirror and think/That you’re Marshall Mathers (Marshall Mathers)/Don’t mean you are, and you’re not about it/So just leave my d**k in your mouth and keep my daughter out it”
Eminem Mockingbird music video
Eminem/YouTube
“Castle”
“I just want you to know that I ain’t scared/Whatever it takes to raise you, I’m prepared/To do whatever, to do whatever/Uhh, December 1, 1995, dear Hailie/This is your song”
“Arose”
“And it’s your birthday, Jade, I’m missing your birthday/Baby girl, I’m sorry, I f**king hate when you hurt, Hai/And sweeties, thank you for waiting to open gifts/But, girls, you can just open ’em”
“Bad Husband”
“I’ll never forget when you came home and you held Hailie/Day before you went to jail and daily/How we’d wait for that mail lady”
Eminem The Real Slim Shady music video.
Eminem/YouTube
“In Your Head”
“Hailie, baby, I didn’t mean to make you 80/Percent of what I rapped about/Maybe I shoulda did a better job at separating/Shady and entertaining from real life”
An anvil hanging by a frayed rope and isolated on black.
John_Kepchar/iStock/Getty Images Plus
“No Regrets”
“They talk about my daughters hopin’ I fly off of the handle (Handle)/’Cause my first thought is to trample and write a thousand bars/But sometimes it’s like dropping’ an anvil on a house of cards”
Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images
Rap group Bone Thugs & Harmony perform during the 9th Annual Holyfield Foundation Main Event All-Star Weekend concert at the Georgia World Congress Center on February 7, 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia.
“These Demons”
“They bring my name up just to get ratings/It’s like trying to choose between Bizzy, Layzie or Wish against Krayzie/’Cause I got a bone to pick and Slim Shady (Slim Shady)/Will thug (Thug) and harm any (Harmony)/Who attempt to diss Hailie (Hailie)”
