Hip-HopEminem Defends Kid Rock Collab, Says It Is About Friendship, Not Sides
Eminem is making it clear that his new song with Kid Rock is about friendship, not politics. The two men sit on opposite sides of a loud political divide, and that divide has now followed them into the studio.
On October 17, Eminem took to social media to defend the collaboration. “Not about choosing sides, just choosing to make music with my old friend. Praying for all of us,” he wrote, posting alongside a snippet of the song. His post tagged Rock and used the track's hashtag, and it arrived hours after “Heal My Faith” came out on Rock's new Christian album.
That album is Halfway 2 Jesus, Rock's 13th studio record and the follow-up to 2022's Bad Reputation. It hit in mid-October, and Eminem is featured on the track “Heal My Faith.” The song put a decades-old friendship back under the spotlight at a moment when the two men's public views could not be more different.
The guest list changed before the album dropped. The tracklist was posted earlier this fall with Eminem listed on “7 Sins,” and fans were caught off guard given the public political differences between the two artists. Rock later addressed the confusion in a video posted on October 14. In it, he explained that Lil Wayne had taken the “7 Sins” slot, while Eminem moved over to “Heal My Faith.” Wayne now sits in the third position on the album, and Eminem holds the fifth.
The switch was not a sign that Eminem had walked away from the project. Billboard has reported that Rock first approached Eminem about the song roughly a year earlier, when it was titled “Lord Above” and later “Show Me Love.” Eminem initially chose “7 Sins,” but he asked to switch after hearing the song again. He sent back a verse that looks back over their history together.
