Eminem has released a powerful new video for “Somebody Save Me,” the Jelly Roll-assisted curtain closer from his latest album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce).
Bringing the heart-wrenching theme of the song to life, the clip captures Eminem ruing his regrets as a parent due to his demanding music career and past battle with drug addiction.
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The Detroit native can be seen watching old family footage featuring his three children from behind a glass screen while emphatically reciting his wistful rhymes.
The video, directed by Emil Nava of Ammolite Machine, later cuts to Em helplessly witnessing his old self fall in the bathroom, presumably from a drug overdose, before he screams at the younger Marshall Mathers who is comatose in bed in an attempt to wake himself up.
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One particularly stirring scene imagines Em’s children burying him at his funeral as the rap legend spits: “Right now, I’m just weak / As I fall further down in this deep hole / And farther in the ground that I sink / As they lower me in my coffin, I feel the tears all fallin’ down on my cheek.”
Jelly Roll, who channels his own demons into the track’s soaring hook, also makes a cameo in the clip.
“Somebody Saves Me” is one of two tear-jerking tracks on The Death of Slim Shady dedicated to Eminem’s children, with the other being “Temporary.”
That song serves as a heart-rending ode to his eldest daughter Hailie Jade and even features her vocals in the form of childhood recordings.
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Also featuring frequent collaborator Skylar Grey on the hook, “Temporary” is intended for Hailie to listen to after her father has passed away, with lyrics such as: “So Hailie Jade, I wrote you this song / To help you cope with life now that I’m gone.”
Em also urges his 28-year-old daughter to look after her siblings and her uncle when he’s no longer around: “Look after Alaina, Stevie and Uncle Nate / And sweetie, be strong, I know I was your rock.”
The rapper’s voice even breaks slightly when he says the next line: “And I still am, saying goodbye is just not / Ever easy, why you crying? Just stop.”
At the end of the song, Eminem admits that “Temporary” is “the hardest thing I ever wrote.”
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The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) has proven to be another successful release in Eminem’s decorated discography, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with over 280,000 equivalent units in it first week.
Previous single “Houdini” also made a splash on the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached number two thanks to its whimsical, star-studded video and lyrical jabs aimed at Megan Thee Stallion and R. Kelly, among others.
