Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
Eminem Got Beat Up - The Eminem / Deangelo Bailey story
27 Apr 2025
The DeAngelo Bailey case centers on a 2001 lawsuit filed against rapper Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III) by his former schoolmate, DeAngelo Bailey. Bailey alleged that Eminem's 1999 song "Brain Damage," from The Slim Shady LP, portrayed him falsely and invaded his privacy by depicting him as a violent bully. In the song, Eminem recounts being severely beaten by Bailey in a school bathroom, an account Bailey claimed was exaggerated and defamatory.#truestory #truecrime #eminem
Full Episode
Do you remember that time Eminem got beat up and then sued for a million dollars? Well, it all starts with this kid, Marshall. And Marshall's nine years old, living in Michigan, and bro has a problem. The poor kid gets bullied a lot in school. I mean, he's only in the fourth grade, but he's getting kicked around like every day. Specifically, there's one kid who messes with him a lot.
This kid, D'Angelo. And D'Angelo is a little older. He's 11. He's in the sixth grade, but he is much bigger than Marshall. And Marshall, admittedly, has a big mouth. So D'Angelo and his boys, they whoop up on him all the time. And this goes on for months. But one day in 1982, they give it to him real bad. Because it's winter and it's snowy out and they're all outside.
And the bullies, they see Marshall across the yard. And D'Angelo, I guess he puts like a rock or something hard into a snowball and he aims it at Marshall and he throws it as hard as he can. And pow, it hits him and it knocks him to the ground. Then the bullies all jump him and they beat him over and over and over again. And eventually, Marshall stops moving. He's blacked out.
And D'Angelo and his boys, they're like, oh shit! And they don't want to get in trouble, so they all run away. Later, Marshall gets sent home because, you know, he's hurt. And there, he isn't feeling so well. He's losing his vision and one eye, and his ear starts bleeding. So his mom, or someone, takes him to the hospital.
and at the hospital they determined that he has a cerebral concussion and for the next five days he apparently goes in and out of consciousness. Well, lucky for Marshall, he eventually recovers, but he's never the same. According to his mom, as a result of all this bullying, not only was he physically injured, but he started exhibiting antisocial behavior and acting out. In fact,
She's so upset by the damage this has done to him, she goes and files a lawsuit against the school district, claiming that they neglected to protect her son from harm while he was in their care. But unfortunately for her, the lawsuit is eventually thrown out on the grounds that the school district has, like, government immunity or something, and they can't be sued in this case.
But whatever, they all eventually move on. So fast forward many years, and it's now the late 80s. And Marshall's a teenager, and he gets really into hip hop and rapping. And he decides, I wanna be a rapper. And over the next decade, he starts freestyling and writing songs and competing in rap battles. And he does this for years. He even puts out an album.
And then one night in 1997, his whole life changes because he's 25 years old now and he competes in a rap battle competition called the Rap Olympics. And he actually does really well. In fact, he does so well, he gets second place. Here's the thing, though. In the audience that night is an intern for Interscope Records. And this intern really likes what he hears.
So after the show, he goes up to Marshall and he's like, hey, you're great. Do you have like a demo or something you can give me? And Marshall, he's still all salty because he came in second place and not first, and he's like, yeah, sure, here, whatever. And he gives him an EP, a literal cassette tape of some of his songs, called the Slim Shady EP. Not the Slim Shady LP, the Slim Shady EP.
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