Judge Drops Eminem Rap

A Michigan judge wrote a rap to support her reasons for dismissing a $1 million lawsuit filed against Eminem by an alleged junior high bully whom the rapper sought revenge against in song.

Thirty-two-year-old DeAngelo Bailey filed suit against the rapper, citing lyrics from "Brain Damage" (a song from the 1999 album The Slim Shady LP) as slanderous. The lyrics read in part: "I was harassed daily by this fat kid named DeAngelo Bailey/He banged my head against the urinal till he broke my nose, soaked my clothes in blood, grabbed me and choked my throat." Eminem's mother has publicly defended her son's account of Bailey's bullying.

But Bailey denied that he ever harmed Eminem (Marshall Mathers back in the eighth grade). Judge Deborah Servitto saw things differently and her thirteen-page opinion was padded with a ten stanza footnoted explanation of her ruling, that included the lines:

"Mr. Bailey complains that his rap is trash
so he's seeking compensation in the form of cash.
Bailey thinks he's entitled to some monetary gain
because Eminem used his name in vain.
The lyrics are stories no one would take as fact
they're an exaggeration of a childish act."

In closing, she stated, "It is therefore this court's ultimate position, that Eminem is entitled to summary disposition."

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

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