When I'm Gone (Eminem song)

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For the the 3 Doors Down single, see "When I'm Gone (3 Doors Down song)",
“When I'm Gone”
“When I'm Gone” cover
Single by Eminem
from the album Curtain Call: The Hits
Released December 13, 2005
Format CD
Genre Hip hop
Length 4 min 41 s
Label Shady/Aftermath/Interscope
Producer Eminem
Eminem singles chronology
"Ass Like That"
(2005)
"When I'm Gone"
(2005)
"Shake That"
(2006)

"When I'm Gone" is a song from Eminem's 2005 Curtain Call: The Hits greatest hits album, and one of the most critically acclaimed songs of his to-date. It was released as a highly successful single that peaked at #1 in Australia and #8 in the U.S. The song is about Eminem's career's effect on his relationship with his wife Kim. It talks about him not being there for his daughter, Hailie, and (in a sort of metaphoric "dream") Hailie confronts him at a concert in Sweden and demands to know why he was so cruel towards Kim (his ex-wife). She ends the confrontation by telling Eminem that he loves his fame, career, and fans more than his own family. After she leaves, Eminem turns around and sees a gun. He picks it up, screams "Die Shady!" and shoots his Slim Shady alter-ego. After that, he wakes up, realizing that it was only a dream. It's spring, Hailie's playing in the yard, and he kisses Kim.

Furthermore, this is a continuation of Marshall's difficulty coping with fame and his dark alter ego, Slim Shady ("When I'm gone just carry on, don't mourn"). "When I'm Gone" is a progression of this dilemma: where does Marshall end, and Shady begin? Who is the dominant alter ego and how does this figure into Eminem the artist and family man? The end of Eminem's dream where Shady shoots himself is similar to the ending of the song "Encore/Curtains Down" off of his album Encore, in which Shady leaves the stage but then comes back, shoots the crowd and then points the gun at his brain and shoots himself (in the clean version the song fades out before the shooting segment begins).

The single was released officially in the United States on the 6 December 2005. It was released in Australia on January, 2006.

Tarick Salmaci, (from the TV show The Contender) makes an appearance in the video with his wife.

Whitney Scott, Kim Mathers's daughter fathered by Eric Hartter (2002) in the period in which she and Eminem were divorced, appears in the video to the song, she's the youngest baby girl on the swing.


[edit] Track listing

  1. "When I'm Gone (Album Version) (Explicit)"
  2. "Business (Album Version) (Explicit)"
  3. "When I'm Gone (Instrumental)"
  4. "When I'm Gone (Trl Final Version) (Video)"
Preceded by
"Run It!" by Chris Brown featuring Juelz Santana
ARIA (Australia) number one single
January 29, 2006
Succeeded by
"Run It!" by Chris Brown featuring Juelz Santana

[edit] External links