Rapper Eminem walks backstage during the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards held at Staples Center on January 31, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo : Getty Images/Christopher Polk)
In October 2010, Marshall Bruce Mathers III, now 44, who is professionally known as Eminem, was interviewed by Anderson Cooper, now 48, in a special "60 Minutes" segment on CBS. The Detroit rapper talked about being bullied in school when he was a kid.
"I was beat up in the bathrooms, in the hallways, shoved in the lockers for the most part for being the new kid," Eminem told Cooper. The rapper said it was rapping that helped him overcome the phase of his life when he was bullied and he felt "like a fighter coming up."
On Oct. 15, 1981, Eminem's lip was split by a bully named DeAngelo Bailey, now 46, at Dort Elementary School. The beating caused nightmares and anti-social behavior to Eminem, who was only nine years old at the time.
In January 1982, Bailey beat up Eminem again. Eminem's mother Debbie Mathers-Briggs, now 62, claimed her son suffered head, face, back, and neck injuries, intermittent loss of vision and hearing, post-traumatic headaches and a cerebral concussion when she filed a Circuit Court complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Smoking Gun.
Eminem's mother sued Dort Elementary School for $10,000 in damage. However, it was dismissed on the grounds of governmental immunity.
In 1999, Eminem mentioned Bailey in his song "Brain Damage." Bailey was so embarrassed that he filed a $1 million lawsuit against the Detroit rapper calling the song slanderous.
"I was harassed daily by this fat kid named DeAngelo Bailey," Eminem raps in "Brain Damage." "He banged my head against the urinal till he broke my nose, soaked my clothes in blood, grabbed me and choked my throat."
Judge Deborah Servitto, now 61, dismissed the defamation suit filed by Bailey against Eminem. The judge concluded that the Detroit rapper was entitled to summary disposition.
"Mr. Bailey complains that his rap is trash so he's seeking compensation in the form of cash," Servitto wrote in the 10-stanza footnoted explanation of her ruling obtained by The Rolling Stone . "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."
On Nov. 7, 2003, Eminem released a mixtape titled "Straight from the Lab," which has a diss track titled "Bully." The track is aimed at Ja Rule, Irv Gotti and Benzino. Check it here:
