A spokesperson for the rapper, known for hits like Without Me,
Confirmed to People that Nelson died on Monday, December 2, in St. Joseph, Missouri, after battling advanced lung cancer.
TMZ reported the news on Tuesday.Nelson’s lung cancer diagnosis was first revealed in September, though neither she nor her son, Eminem (whose real name is Marshall Mathers III), publicly confirmed it.
The rapper and his mother had a famously strained relationship.
He accused her of abuse and neglect in his early music and even called her out in several tracks, including the 2002 song Cleanin’ Out My Closet. However, in his 2013 track Headlights, Eminem publicly apologized for his previous criticisms of her.
Their relationship soured further when Nelson filed a defamation lawsuit against Eminem in 1999 and published a memoir, My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem, in 2007. However, Nelson made an attempt at reconciliation in 2022, congratulating her son on his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Eminem’s estranged father, Marshall Bruce Mathers Jr., passed away in 2019 at the age of 67.
