The Meaning Behind “Somebody Save Me” by Eminem and Jelly Roll and Why the Rapper Is Apologizing to His Kids

On Eminem’s new song “Somebody Save Me,” the Detroit rapper apologizes to his kids with help from country singer and rapper Jelly Roll.

The emotional track closes The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), Eminem’s latest studio album. His 12th album arrived July 12 via Shady Records, and “Somebody Save Me” is the tearjerker ending to the iconic rapper’s alter ego.

“Save Me”

Eminem’s song samples Jelly Roll’s “Save Me,” which became a Top-20 hit in 2023 in a reworked version featuring Lainey Wilson.

“Somebody Save Me” opens with Eminem’s 31-year-old daughter Alaina as a young girl pleading with her father to eat. You hear her father’s weary voice putting off his daughter before Jelly Roll enters with the hook from “Save Me.”

Somebody save me

Me from myself

I’ve spent so long living in hell

Eminem raps to his three children, apologizing for choosing addiction over their needs. He laments missing a first recital, a wedding, the birth of a grandchild, and the kids’ experience of hearing their father collapse in the bathroom.

Another pill as I start to spiral

Message to my daughters

I don’t even deserve the father title

Hailie, I’m so sorry

I know I wasn’t there for your first guitar recital

Didn’t walk you down the aisle

Missed the birth of your first child

Your first podcast. Looking down, sweetie

I’m so proud of how you turned out

Sorry that I chose drugs and put ’em above you

Sorry that I didn’t love you enough to

Give ’em up, how the f–k do

I not love you more than a pill

Looking up to the ceiling from this floor, wonder will

Between Eminem’s vulnerable raps, Jelly Roll returns. The production arrangement makes it sound like Jelly Roll is Eminem’s inner voice pleading for help. However, due to the album title, the listener knows hope is lost and help won’t arrive.

Jelly Roll’s Childhood Hero

This isn’t the first time the two artists have collaborated. Eminem and Jelly Roll performed Eminem’s “Sing for the Moment” at the NBC concert special Live from Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central. Jelly Roll sang the sampled portions of Aerosmith’s “Dream On” on Eminem’s hit from his 2002 album The Eminem Show.

The concert also featured fellow Michigan stars Diana Ross, Big Sean, Jack White, and Detroit Lions’ Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders.

Kindred Spirit

Performing with Eminem is a dream come true for Jelly Roll. “I always say my childhood [heroes] lived somewhere between Willie Nelson and Eminem,” he wrote on Instagram.

He went on to say he can recite every song from Eminem’s classic albums The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP, and The Eminem Show. Jelly Roll struggled in his teenage years and served multiple jail sentences. Then, at 17, he began competing in rap battles in Nashville where he’d entered the stage to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.”

He added, “I related to every word Eminem wrote. I understand him and felt like he understood me, which was rare cause I spent most of my life feeling misunderstood.”

Jelly Roll said he cried when he received word that Eminem sampled “Save Me.” He told ABC, “And for him to use the song to discuss the other side of what could’ve happened if he would’ve allowed his demons to win brought me to tears.”

Guess Who’s Back?

Eminem is known for many things. He’s one of the greatest rappers in history who’s also received continual backlash for his controversial lyrics.

Yet he endures by telling stories without sugarcoating the reality of his experience. Depending on whom you ask, Eminem’s either being honest or adolescently provocative. Maybe both.

Or perhaps his music did more than antagonize. It also saved a young man like Jelly Roll. And Jelly Roll might do the same for another generation of kids born into overwhelming circumstances.

Meanwhile, the character in “Somebody Save Me” cannot be saved. Otherwise, Slim Shady won’t face his coup de grâce.

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 falling down on my cheek

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Photo by Andrew Roth/Shutterstock