Eminem Apologizes to His Kids in Emotional New Song ‘Somebody Save Me’ Featuring Jelly Roll
Jelly Roll‘s “Save Me” is getting a second life on Eminem‘s new album The Death of Slim Shady, which dropped Friday (July 12) and features a surprise duet with the country star on its final track, an emotional open letter to the rapper’s children.
Eminem & Jelly Roll
Jelly Roll‘s “Save Me” is getting a second life on Eminem‘s new album The Death of Slim Shady, which dropped Friday (July 12) and features a surprise duet with the country star on its final track, an emotional open letter to the rapper’s children.
The song, titled “Somebody Save Me,” heavily samples Jelly’s 2023 hit, which reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November after Lainey Wilson jumped on the remix. The Detroit rapper’s new track opens with a recording of him shrugging off a younger version of his 31-year-old daughter Alaina’s pleas for him to come eat with her, after which the “Son of a Sinner” musician’s voice jumps in.
“Somebody save me, me from myself,” Jelly sings in the snippet. “I’ve spent so long living in Hell.”
Em proceeds to dedicate bars to all three of his kids — he’s also Dad to 28-year-old Hailie and 22-year-old Stevie — openly apologizing for his past history of choosing drugs over his children. “I don’t even deserve the father title/ Hailie, I’m so sorry/ I know I wasn’t there for your first guitar recital,” he raps. “Alaina, sorry that you had to hear me fall in the bathroom … Stevie, I’m sorry, I missed you grow up and I didn’t get to be the dad I wanted to be to you.”
In between Slim’s verses, Jelly’s emotional chorus fades in and out. “They say my lifestyle is bad for my health,” he belts. “It’s the only thing that seems to help.”
The surprise collaboration comes about a month after Eminem and the “Need a Favor” artist teamed up for a live performance of the former’s “Sing for the Moment” as part of NBC’s Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central special. Jelly sang the portion of Aerosmith’s “Dream On” sampled in the hip-hop titan’s The Eminem Show hit.
“Em reached out, his team reached out and said, ‘Would you be interested in doing this?’” Jelly gushed to Entertainment Tonight of the performance in June. “I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was a joke until I met Eminem himself … As soon as I met Eminem, it was like the coolest moment ever, man.”
The Death of Slim Shady features a total of 19 tracks, including the previously released singles “Houdini” and “Tobey,” the latter featuring Big Sean and BabyTron. It comes four years after 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Listen to Eminem and Jelly Roll’s surprise duet “Somebody Save Me” below.
