Kim (song)
Encyclopedia
"Kim" is a song by American rapper Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...

 which appears on his 2000 album The Marshall Mathers LP
The Marshall Mathers LP
The Marshall Mathers LP is the third studio album by American rapper Eminem. Released May 23, 2000, the album sold more than 1.76 million copies in its first week just in the US. In 2001, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and was nominated for Album of the Year...

. The song reflects intense anger and hatred toward Eminem's then-wife Kim Mathers. It features Eminem imitating her voice and samples the drums from "When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

.

On the clean version of The Marshall Mathers LP
The Marshall Mathers LP
The Marshall Mathers LP is the third studio album by American rapper Eminem. Released May 23, 2000, the album sold more than 1.76 million copies in its first week just in the US. In 2001, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and was nominated for Album of the Year...

, this song is replaced by a clean version of "The Kids." (An unedited version can be found on the CD single of "The Way I Am
The Way I Am (Eminem song)
- Charts :...

" and the UK edition of The Marshall Mathers LP.) As of January 2011, a clean version of this song is available on iTunes.

Background

Ever since their meeting, Eminem and Kimberley Anne Scott, have had an on-and-off relationship. They had a daughter together named Hailie, born in December 1995. The couple married in 1999 and divorced in 2001, later re-married in 2006 and divorced that same year. "Kim" is the second song by Eminem about Scott, the first being "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" from his debut album The Slim Shady LP
The Slim Shady LP
The Slim Shady LP is the second studio album by American rapper Eminem, released on February 23, 1999. It is his major-label debut, and was released under Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, and Web Records....

(1999). A slower instrumental version of the song is played at the start of the music video of "The Way I Am
The Way I Am (Eminem song)
- Charts :...

".

Eminem is both emotional and aggressive throughout the entire song, as the song portrays Eminem murdering Kim. The song begins with Eminem in Kim's home (after murdering her husband and her stepson). Eminem is talking calmly to their daughter, who is sleeping. Eminem then starts to shout verbal abuse at Kim, which remains a common element throughout the entire song.

In the second verse, the setting changes to Eminem and Kim in a car, while in the third, they are in the woods. The song continues with Eminem slitting Kim's throat, while screaming "Bleed, bitch! Bleed!". The song ends in a prolonged outro during which the listener can hear the sounds of a body being dragged through the grass and placed in the trunk of a car. This same clip is played as the beginning of "97' Bonnie & Clyde", indicating the association between the two songs and the direct chronology of events.

Eminem performed this song in-concert on July 7, 2000 in Detroit. Scott saw the performance. During the performance, Eminem abused a mock-up doll of her on stage to audience approval. This was a recurring part of his performance in the Up In Smoke Tour
Up in Smoke Tour
The Up in Smoke Tour was a West Coast hip hop tour in 2000 featuring artists Ice Cube, Eminem, Proof, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Nate Dogg, Kurupt, D12, MC Ren, Westside Connection, Mel-Man, Tha Eastsidaz, Doggy's Angels, Devin The Dude, Warren G, TQ, Truth Hurts and Xzibit.- Background :The tour was...

. Scott attempted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 by slitting her wrists after viewing the show's conclusion. Months later, she sued Eminem for defamation after he depicted her violent death in the song.

Critical reception

The Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

album review of The Marshall Mathers LP stated that:
While Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

wrote that:

Censorship

The song censors the words "four" and "boy" in the album version when Eminem says "There's a four year old little boy, laying dead with a slit throat in your living room!" in the second verse, because of the Columbine High School Massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...

 and reference to child murder
Child murder
The murder of children is considered an abhorrent crime in much of the world; they are perceived within their communities and the state at large as being vulnerable, and therefore especially susceptible to abduction and murder. The protection of children from abuse and possible death often involves...

 offending mothers. The song also contains the line "And while this is goin' on/His son just woke up and he just walks in/She panics and he gets his throat cut", but is not censored. An uncensored, rare version of "Kim", known as "Bitch So Wrong," was leaked into the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

, before the massacre and album release, which doesn't censor the words "four" and "boy".
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