My Name Is

Background

Producer Dr. Dre wanted to use a sample of Labi Siffre's "I Got The ..." for the rhythm track; as revealed in the sleeve notes of the re-mastered CD of the source album, Remember My Song. Siffre, who is openly gay, stated, "attacking two of the usual scapegoats, women and gays, is lazy writing. If you want to do battle, attack the aggressors not the victims." Eminem made lyric changes and Siffre cleared the sample. There are currently three different versions available. The "clean" and "explicit" versions are available on iTunes. There is also another version which is more explicit than the one available on iTunes, released as the B-side to "Guilty Conscience" on the CD single. The kid's voice at the beginning of the song has reverb on the explicit version on iTunes, but not on the clean version. During the time the song was released, Eminem and Insane Clown Posse were having a "rap feud". After the release of this song, Insane Clown Posse parodied this song with a song called "Slim Anus". "My Name Is" was later re-released in 2005 on Eminem's compilation album Curtain Call: The Hits. The song is mixed with Jay Z's song "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and Beck's song "Loser" on the video game DJ Hero. Eminem also made a remix of it, using the most explicit version, over the top of AC/DC's "Back In Black".

Before The Slim Shady LP was released, an explicit version was available on the Internet. The original lyrics on the dirty version of the song were: "Extra-terrestrial, killing pedestrians / Raping lesbians while they're screaming, 'Let's just be friends!'" The version on the album was changed to "Extra-terrestrial, running over pedestrians in a spaceship / While they're screaming at me, 'Let's just be friends!'" There is also a line that was changed from "My English teacher wanted to have sex in junior high / The only problem was, my English teacher was a guy" to "My English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high / Thanks a lot; next semester, I'll be 35." These lyrics appear on the a cappella version of the song, featured on a 12" release of the song.

There are also lines that were changed in the clean version of the song. The line "Chased him with a stapler / Stapled his nuts to a stack of paper" from the album version was changed to "Chased him with a stapler / Told him to change the grade on the paper (now!)" in the clean version. The song ends with a line that was changed from "And by the way, when you see my dad / Yeah, tell him that I slit his throat in this dream I had" which was changed to "And by the way, when you see my dad / Yeah, ask if he bought a porno mag to see my ad" in the clean version. The album version opens with the line "Hi kids! Do you like violence? Wanna see me stick Nine Inch Nails through each one of my eyelids?" while the clean version replaces the word "violence" with Primus.

Music video

The video premiered on MTV TRL on January 21, 1999. It was directed by Phillip Atwell, who would later direct music videos for several other Eminem songs, including "Stan", "Lose Yourself", "The Real Slim Shady", and "Just Lose It". The video starts out with a stereotypical redneck family watching television, who then come across a show starring "Marshall Mathers" (Eminem's real name). As the video goes on, Eminem parodies several TV shows and movies. He also imitates then President Bill Clinton, a porn star, and others.

The video was ranked #97 in NME's 100 Greatest Music Videos.

Critical reception

Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine highlighted the song. Rolling Stone wrote that "Eminem is on some serious Dangerfield shit in loser anthems like 'My Name Is'". David Browne wrote that this single and its accompany video were both "attention-grabbing".

Track listing

1. "My Name Is" (Clean) - 4:27
2. "My Name Is" (Explicit) - 4:27
3. "My Name Is" (Instrumental) - 4:27

1. "My Name Is" (Clean) - 4:27
2. "My Name Is" (Instrumental) - 4:27
3. "Just Don't Give A" (Clean Version) - 4:02

1. "My Name Is" (Clean) - 4:27
2. "My Name Is" (Instrumental) - 4:27

Controversy

Eminem's mother Debbie Mathers filed a $10,000,000 slander lawsuit against him for insinuating that she does drugs in the lyrics "99% of my life I was lied to, I just found out my mom does more dope than I do". Eminem also berates his mother in the third verse of the song, with the lyrics "When I was little I used to get so hungry I would throw fits/How you gonna breastfeed me, Mom?! You ain't got no tits!" Debbie stated in her 2008 book My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem, "This line was horrible and upsetting, because I'd contracted toxemia-blood poisoning when I gave birth to him and hadn't been able to breast-feed."

Awards

Grammy Awards