Hailie Jade Mathers

Being a huge Eminem fan, I have been confronted to those questions many times : � How will Hailie react as a teenager when she will discover the full version of � Bonnie and Clyde � and of songs like � Kim �, for instance ?
Many Eminem detractors have objected me that Eminem was so � evil �, that his daughter would end up hating her father.
I am totally convinced of the contrary and let me tell you why :

-

Eminem is a devoted father to Hailie who feels very concerned by her well being. He is very cautious when Hailie listens to his music. She only listens to clean versions of his songs.

- Eminem�s approach of education with Hailie is liberal. Recently Hailie even learnt how to use some cusswords from her cool daddy who thought it was high time for her to learn some, she�d hear some cusswords at school anyway.

- The little girl is also used to her daddy�s sense of humor. She is also part of his artistic creation and lend her voice to her daddy�s records since she was 2 and a half.

- When Hailie will be old enough, Eminem will spend some time with his daughter to explain her the meaning behind the words. He will explain her in which context he wrote � 97 Bonnie and Clyde � and � Kim �. Hailie will understand that her caring dad had been hurt by her mom and that he wanted to get her back. She will understand that those songs that shocked the media are nothing else than Eminem�s expression of love towards Kim. Hailie will understand that her parents, despite their arguments, had strong feelings for each other.

In 1999, when Hailie was 3, Kurt Loder from MTV asked Eminem about the song � Guilty conscience �. He wanted to know how Eminem would explain the song to his daughter. The part with the 15 years old girl in particular :

� Yo! This girl’s only fifteen years old
You shouldn’t take advantage of her, that’s not fair)
Yo, look at her bush.. does it got hair? (Uh huh!)
Fuck this bitch right here on the spot bare
Til she passes out and she forgot how she got there
(Man, ain’t you ever seen that one movie _Kids_?)
No, but I seen the porno with SunDoobiest!
(Shit, you wanna get hauled off to jail?)
Man fuck that, hit that shit raw dawg and bail� �

There are clear references to rape in � Guilty Conscience �. But why should Eminem hide those things to Hailie ? Eminem envisions America�s bad side in the song and he is referring to reality.
There is no reason for him to overprotect his daughter and to hide reality to her.

This is how Eminem answered to Kurt :

Eminem:” I would be able to explain that song to her just like I would to any other child on the face of this earth. Anyone with a half a brain can see that “Guilty Conscience” was me just talking about the ways of the world and your conscience. It’s a concept song.It’s like you got the bad half of you and you have the good half — and it seems like in America these days, the evil side always rules. And that’s what I was trying to do with that song. It was a concept, you know, me taking little stabs at Dr. Dre and him throwing them back. As a kid growing up, my daughter is gonna know right from wrong. She’s gonna know what to do and what not to do. She’s also gonna go through the same things that other children do when growing up. When I was 12 years old, if I heard an NWA record or I heard an Ice-T record, I never went out and shot somebody. You have to be smart enough to know.”According to me, Eminem is a good father who is doing the right thing with his little daughter. When she will be old enough to understand, he will explain his lyrics to her. He will help her to distinguish between right and wrong. We should expose reality to our kids in its uglyness and roughness : that�s the best way to prepare them to their adult life. Life won�t always be sugarcoated for them. It is useless to act as of danger and violence didn�t exist. Kids who are far from reality will be weakened in their adult life.”

Parents, should also be tolerant about their kids� musical tastes. Music helps them to grow up and is not necessarly a bad influence.
As Eminem points it out, he stated listening to NWA and Ice T when he was 12 and he never shot anybody. Take your kid�s CD for what it actually is: words and music.

The story posted on the following website has attracted my attention recently :

http://www.clubid.nl/clubs.php?clubid=1916

During Eminem�s recent European tour 2003, Hailie had to face a very difficult situation. Her mom had been arrested for cocaine possession and Kim was making the headlines of the media.

Although Eminem is trying to avoid Hailie�s exposure to the public�s eye, she is sometimes confronted to difficult situations, like Kim�s recent problems. Which is sometimes difficult to bear for a 8 years old little girl. Too much pressure on a little girl�s shoulders.
Another kid insulting Kim when Hailie didn�t even know the meaning of the charges she was facing. Hailie went crazy and acted in an abnormal ( but understandable) way.
It is sometimes really shocking to see how kids can be mean to other kids but the main responsibles are the media.
Unfortunately, Eminem was on tour when this event happened. He had to face
difficult issues while being on tour all due to Kim�s irresponsible behavior ( read topic of June the 18 th). He feared to lose Hailie and Whitney (who lives with him too) at the same time :

http://66.218.71.225/search/cache?p=eminem+problems+with+hailie+june+2003&ei=UTF-8&n=20&fl=0&u=www.cajconnections.com/mtype/archives/2003_06.html&w=eminem+problems+with+hailie+june+2003&d=B060853EED&c=483&yc=14412&icp=1

Marshall is doing his best for his daughter to live a fairly normal life. He refused to access Kim�s desire to take an agent for Hailie. He wants her to live a normal childhood. As normal as his fame allows it :

http://www.rapnewsdirect.com/News/0-202-256058-00.html

Marshall is a wonderful and dedicated daddy to his daughter who takes his role as a father very seriously :

� I’m a father before anything. I’m a father before I pick up the mic. I’m a father before I’m Eminem. �

Hailie knows that she can count on him any time. Even when he is not physically present, she can be sure that his first thoughts are for � the only lady he adores �.

Even if Hailie has to face with the trouble of fame, she has shown a strong personality like her father. She is not ready to let people trash her without retaliating. That�s why psychologists shouldn�t worry so much about her. Psychologists seem to ignore that the more we weaken kids, the weaker they are.
Hailie may have to face some difficulties, but just like her dad, she�s got character. She�s a power girl who has already defeated Ja Rule.

We learn a lot about Hailie Jade from her proud daddy�s mouth :

“I just got off the phone with Hai Hai a lil while ago. She’s talking up a storm, she talks a lot. She loves to talk. She’ll say stuff out of the blue, big words that I didn�t even know she knew.”

Hailie seems to surprise her daddy day after day. Like many kids, she�s very talkative. Hailie seems to have an interesting personality. Maybe she is already conscious to be a little � superstar � :

“And she’s a character, man. She’s like me to the tenth power, she’s got such a personality. She runs around the house and she makes up little sayings and phrases.”

Of course, the little girl is conscious that her Dad is a famous person, but Eminem doesn�t want his daughter to be affected by his celebrity. Eminem doesn�t want his daughter to appear in each magazine. He wants her to live a normal childhood and he expressed his will to protect her from the media :

“Being this little, the only thing I want her to worry about is
playing � What’s she going to play with today? Is she going to play
with dolls, is she going to color today?”

As he expresses it so well in � Say Goodbye to Hollywood �, Eminem�s fight was to offer Hailie the life he never had. Of course, Eminem would like his daughter to be an actress, but not now.
He knows how much pressure is put on people in the show business ans he knows that would make Hailie�s life a living hell as a kid. That�s why he strongly disagreed with Kim when she wanted to find an agent for Hailie :

” Hailie is just a kid. She needs to grow like others her age and be in a place where she fits in and feels normal.J ust because her daddy is famous don’t mean shes got a one way ticket to stardom. Every seven year old wants to be famous, I just dont think Hailie’s old enough to make up her mind yet. She’s young and there will be time for her to act when she’s done with school.”

Eminem takes his role as a father very seriously. He is very cautious concerning the impact his music could have on his daugher:

“The more adult I’m becoming, the more I’m realizing that [my music]
might have an affect on her, or it might scare her, or she might hear
a word or a sentence that she doesn’t know how to take. I’d just
rather not even play it around her.”

That�s also why he made clean versions for her to listen to.
Eminem acts as a responsible father and wants to give Hailie the best education:

“I’m not as religious as I should be, but we do try and instill it in
our daughter. We try to teach her wrong from right, having been as
wrong as we’ve been.”

Marshall knows how much kids who surround his daughter may bother her, constantly trying to get in touch with him through Hailie:

“She has to have something normal in her life to help her fit in as much as possible. It’s hard for her because everywhere she is, all kids wanna know is can I meet your dad?”

This is an example of a typical day Eminem and his daughter spend together when her famous Dad is at home:

�When I’m home, I wake her up in the morning, I feed her some cereal, watch a little TV, take her to school and pick her up. Lately, I’ve been taking her to the studio, because that’s where I spend most of my time. She has fun there, there’s video games for her and stuff. Coloring books and crayons – thank God for those. We watch a lot of movies, just typical shit. She’s real into The Powerpuff Girls and Hey Arnold! and Dora the Explorer — ever seen that one? It’s the same episode all week long because it teaches kids numbers and how to speak Spanish. By Friday, you know it by heart. I watch that with her, then I go listen to my songs over and over. I’m gonna fucking jump off a bridge.�

Eminem is so conscious that political tensions and dramas in the world can affect and our kids’ life:

�I try to keep Hailie sheltered from most of the bullshit. When September 11th happened, I didn’t tell her that morning. I just didn’t know how to explain it to her. I switched on the TV and saw the second plane hit. She was still sleeping. I got her up and took her to school, and within a couple of days she heard about it there. Those are things that I have trouble with, explaining to her all the fucked-up shit in the world. I try not to drive myself crazy with what to say if she asks me certain things. There’s a few things that are going to be tough to deal with.�

Eminem�s attitude towards education is liberal. When she was little, the full mouthed rapper tried not to swear around Hailie, but he doesn�t forbid people to use them around her. He knows that sooner or later, she will hear some cuss words:

�But, you know, Hailie listens to my music, and I go back and forth with myself a lot about it. When I was six, music flew by my head. But I caught it if there was a swear word. If I have a song that has a lot of swear words in a row, I make her clean versions and play those in the car. I don’t cuss around my daughter. If someone else is around and they say the f-word, she’s heard it before; I don’t say, “Hey, watch your mouth around my daughter.” That would be ridiculous. After all, I’m Eminem, Mr. Potty-Mouth King. I try to be a liberal parent and be open about things. If somebody is smoking a joint in a movie and she asks, “Daddy?” I say it’s a cigarette — a big cigarette if it’s a Cheech and Chong movie. She doesn’t know about drugs yet, and she’s not old enough for me to explain that they’re doing drugs and those are bad.�

Recently Eminem thought Hailie was old enough to learn some swear words from him:

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/0/D9E0CCF975222F7D80256D350057A48A?opendocument

“She’s going to hear it in school regardless, do you know what I mean. I would rather be able to educate her at home.

“If she ever has a question or something about a song, I try to explain it in the best way that I can, how she’s going to understand. She loves music, she loves hip-hop, and to me that’s a good thing.”

Eminem is so right about it: kids learn so many cuss words at school and my own sons have learnt their first cuss words at school.

J.R Watkins, the author of the �Cleaning Out My Closet� book can testify that Marshall is a dedicated daddy to his daughter:

“He’s a very good daddy. He’s trying to give Hailie more of a normal life than he had.”

The main reason why Eminem keeps working so hard for his career is for his daughter to be proud of him. One day she will understand why her loving dad spent so much time outside of their home:

“The awards will one day help me explain to my daughter, Hailie Jade, why he spent so much time during the past two years on the road and in the recording studio.”
“The main thing I started this whole career based on was acceptance and respect. So I guess if trophies mean respect or whatever, it’s cool. I’ve got this trophy case at home that I try and keep my accomplishments in, just so that Hailie can see these things when she gets older and realizes that daddy wasn’t just gone to be gone.”

To all of you who doubted it, Eminem takes his daughter�s education, her environment and her well being very seriously. Thanks to him, she has a fairly normal life and when she�ll be older she will realize how much her loving father has done for her.

POEM FOR HAILIE

Shady’s little lady
You’re a cutie
Little Bonnie
Standing next to Marshall’s side
You know youre his pride
His princess always he will protect
Against any form of disrespect,
You’re the greatest gift he could get
Never he will forget
Always for you he will care,
Your enemies he will scare

Little Hailie baby you know
I love your voice on the Eminem Show
You’re funny
Little honey
My little princess
You look like a goddess
I’m moved by your Daddy’s tender loving care
Among all the treasures, you’re something rare

Little girl
You’re a precious pearl
Thanks to you, little Bonnie
Your daddy managed to cope with the loss of Ronnie
Thanks for being born
He abandoned the mourn
And thanks to you
Was reborn.

Hailie Jade is Eminem and Kim’s daughter.

The little girl is Eminem’s biggest source of inspiration. Since her earlier years, Marshall recorded her voice on his album, the ‘Slim Shady Lp’. He also dedicated his book ‘Angry Blonde’ to her.

Hailie Jade Scott was born on December the 25 1995 in Detroit. She is the one who gave Eminem the strength and the faith to go to the end. Her birth has been a wake up call for Marshall who really felt devastated after Ronnie’s death and who nearly gave up his dream to be a rapper. Hailie made Eminem conscious of his responsibilities towards his family. Nothing scared him more than the possibility of being separated from his daughter at the time he was facing court charges:

I guess I’ve always been the type of person who, if a brick is thrown my way, I set it up the wrong way and stand on it. Whatever obstacle is thrown my way, I try to use it to my advantage and run with it. It was a dark time for me, I guess, but I can honestly say I probably would be a different person sitting here right now if it wasn’t for my little girl.

Marshall also wanted to be a good and devoted father to his daughter unlike his own Dad. He expresses it so well in ‘Cleaning Out My Closet’ while touching his ‘Hailie tattoo’ tenderly:

I look at Hailie and I couldn’t picture leavin’ her side

Eminem’s wounds from the past are deep and still hurt. His Dad left him when he was just a few months old, and he wants things to be different for Hailie. Despite the fact he is a very busy man, most of his spare time belongs to his little lady. In his difficult love-hate relationship with his ex-wife Kim, Eminem has always put Hailie’s interest first. He also talks about in ‘Cleaning Out My Closet’:

Even if I hated Kim, I 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 them today, what I did was stupid, no doubt it was dumb, but the smartest shit I did was take them bullets out of that gun, cause id’a killed ‘em, shit I would have shot Kim and him both, it’s my life, I’d like to welcome y’all to the Eminem show…

Kim has humiliated her husband, giving John Guerra an intimate kiss and Marshall retaliated publicly (as usual). But in reality, he has tried to work out his relationship with Kim and to reunite his family. During his divorce procedure, he tried to reconcile with his wife, but it just didn’t work out. He also went back to Kim several times after their divorce. But Kim has proven to be an untrustworthy person. She recently just disappeared (after facing Court charges for cocaine detention) without even caring about what could happen to her daughter and how she could feel, being abandonned this way. In the meantime, the full custody of Hailie Jade has been granted to Marshall by the Court.

Eminem’s biggest enemies, Benzino and Ja Rule, who know that Hailie is the person that really matters in Marshall’s life, didn’t hesitate to diss the young girl in order to weaken the talented rapper who came out of the lyrical battle stronger than ever, with Hailie’s participation in ‘Do Ray Me’ where she mockingly asks Marshall : ‘Daddy is Ja Rule taller than me?’, her Daddy answers sarcastically : ‘No honey, you guys are the same size’.

His moving song ‘Hailie’s song’ from the Eminem Show summarizes the love Marshall feels for his little daughter who will be 8 years old on Christmas Day. It sounds like an ode to Hailie where his deespest feelings and Eminem’s � real side � is exposed to his public.

Hailie is the greatest Christmas gift Marshall could ever expect. She makes a happy and proud Daddy of him.