In the Stans documentary, Eminem takes viewers through some of the most defining moments of his career and personal journey. He talks about finding a father figure in hip hop, reflects on the pitfalls of fame, near-death battles with addiction, and ultimately, a life rebuilt through sobriety and fan support.
“Hip Hop Was Like My Dad”
“Hip-hop taught me how to throw my first punch” 🥊 #STANS doc in theatres 8/7 🎤 https://t.co/BQ8uxND0i6 pic.twitter.com/hRdAJq8LEB
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) August 2, 2025
Looking back at his childhood in Detroit, Eminem describes how music became his only source of strength.
“Hip hop was the most important thing that empowered me as a kid”, he says. “It made me feel tough when I wasn’t. I was a scrawny little kid growing up on 8 Mile, walking up the fucking block. Put my headphones on, and it made me feel powerful. Hip hop taught me how to throw my first punch, gave me the confidence. It was like my dad… It was the only thing that made me empowered and made me feel good about myself when I started being able to write rhymes and figured out how to do it”.
Early Fame and the Weight of Fans’ Words
That sense of empowerment quickly shifted into something overwhelming when “The Slim Shady LP” took off.
“With the first album, all of a sudden, now it’s important. What I have to say is important?!” he recalls. “I remember one of the first times signing autographs, there’d be a line out the door, and somebody would be like, yo, I just want you to know, man, you helped me so much for this or for that. So, now I’m writing a long paragraph for them and shit, and signing their name, and people are like, yo, can you speed it up a little bit? ’Cause we’re not going to get to everybody. I was living it, inside it, when it was all new to me, and I still didn’t understand it”.
Eminem admits that his raw and personal lyrics allowed fans to connect deeply, but he wasn’t prepared for the intensity. “What I put out was very much raw and real, as far as situations in my life and how I came up. I think that one of the things that made some people feel like they could relate. It was a weird, strange adjustment, and my personality wasn’t well-equipped to handle that”.
Returning to Where It All Started
The film shows Eminem walking through the remains of his old Detroit neighbourhood, the setting of “The Marshall Mathers LP” cover.
“That’s crazy. The whole neighbourhood’s gone now. Me and Proof used to climb this tree all the time. We would sit up in the tree, and he would always climb higher than me ’cause he wasn’t afraid of heights. I was. We would just sit there and talk about what we were going to do once we made it as rappers”.
Pointing to where his childhood home once stood, he adds: “We shot here when the house had been condemned, but it wasn’t burnt down yet. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a house, go back to when you were a kid – everything seems smaller. Bro, that motherfucker was like from here to here, you could touch the living room walls. We tried to buy it, and the city had already condemned it. So they wouldn’t sell it to us”.
When asked about fans making pilgrimages to the spot, Em shrugs: “It’s cool that people care, but it’s also weird, still, ’cause it’s me. Like, why? It’s really not that big of a deal”.
Fame’s Heavy Price
Fame, however, wasn’t just about recognition. It often became frightening. Eminem recalls one mall trip with his daughter Hailie that quickly spiralled out of control.
“It was the last time I went to the mall as me. Not disguised. Every store we went, we come out, and there is a bigger crowd, and a bigger crowd, and a bigger crowd. And it got to the point where I picked her up and I was like, Come on, kiddo, time to go. And as I’m walking faster and faster and faster, they are walking faster and faster. I literally felt like I was being chased out of the fucking mall. That was one of those moments when I realised that my life really has changed. I can’t do this anymore. ’Cause I got to protect my baby”.
Hitting Rock Bottom
The pressures of fame and his own struggles eventually pushed Eminem into a cycle of pill addiction that nearly killed him.
“I’d got into this vicious cycle of, I’m depressed, so I need more pills. And then your tolerance gets so high that you end up overdosing. I woke up in a hospital, and I didn’t know what the fuck happened. It seemed like I fell asleep and I woke up, and I woke up with tubes in me and shit. I wanted to get up. I couldn’t move”.
The turning point came when he realised the impact it had on his daughter: “I missed Hailie’s first guitar recital. The amount of guilt that I felt… I cried when I saw it ’cause I was like, Oh my god, I missed that. And I kept saying to myself, ‘Do you want to fucking miss that again? Do you want to miss everything? If you can’t do it for yourself, at least do it for them’. I realised, I’m never doing this again”.
Rebuilding Through Sobriety
After detox, Eminem had to rebuild not just his health, but his art. “I had to relearn how to walk, talk, and, for the most part, had to relearn how to rap again. My writing had gotten terrible. When I started to get it back, it was exciting because I felt it. It would be in conversations, just having conversations with people or the TV. Every phrase that someone said on TV… it was hitting me really fast, and I was writing songs really quickly”.
Even criticism became fuel. “The response that I got from Relapse was lukewarm. That hurt a little bit, but it also turned the lights on. Like, you’ve got to do something different. Why don’t you try embracing sobriety? I realised, I’m not embarrassed anymore about it. And I started treating sobriety like a superpower, and I took pride in the fact that I was able to quit”.
“I Owe My Life to My Fans”
In the end, Eminem credits his fans for giving him the strength to keep going.
“A true die-hard fan really does, I think, understand me and every aspect of me. And understands that I am just a regular person. I’m just a human being. The reason they connect with me is because they see some of themselves in me… Because they understand me, and I feel like I understand them. I get them because they’re really me”.
He doesn’t hold back his gratitude – or his attitude. “The fans that have grown with me from day one till now – it’s unbelievable that they’re still with me. I’m very blessed to this day to still have people that ride for me like that. To my fans, thank you. I love y’all. I would not be here if it was not for you. So, I owe you my life. And that’s who I do my music for – it’s them. And fuck everybody else. Fuck ’em. Fuck ’em. Eat a dick. You don’t like it? Eat a fat dick”.
