Eminem has never shied away from making records about his family life. He’ll release raw, ugly, emotional records about everyone. His mom, his ex-wife, and his daughter have all had their mentions in a multitude of records. This fearlessness to put it all on the table has defined Slim Shady over the years. He’ll make horrorcore records about his ex-wife or slander his mother in the next. But Eminem tends to save his most tender cuts for his daughter Hailie Jade, causing him to strip back all the anger and really examine his family.
Nowadays, he seems to keep those kinds of records off wax. However, it did end up costing him a legendary feature in the process. In December 2025, Nas spoke with Joe Budden to promote his album with DJ Premier Light-Years. There, he reveals that “Daughters,” off his 2012 album, Life is Good, was originally supposed to feature Eminem.
However, after making records like “Mockingbird” and “When I’m Gone”, Eminem made a promise not to put his family business on any more records. Consequently, Nas ended up keeping the song for himself. Now, it exists as a late-stage classic in his catalog.
Eminem Declined a Feature on Nas’ Song “Daughters”
“Every record I do is not a battle. I remember I sent the song ‘Daughters’ to Eminem and at the time he had spent so much time speaking on daughters, he was like, ‘Thank you, but I told my daughter I’m not gonna do anymore songs directly about daughters at the moment because it’s a sensitive issue with all the music I’ve put out,’ Nas explains. “I think [his] message was like, ‘Thank you ’cause most people want to do songs where they’re battling me on a record. It was refreshing to get a record where you’re not coming for me.’”
Despite not coming together on “Daughters”, Eminem has worked with Nas before and after the record. Back in 2002, he produced “The Cross” for Nas’ album God’s Son. Moreover, he eventually got that elusive Em verse back in 2021 for “EPMD 2” with the iconic duo. It was a long time coming for Slim Shady, who came into hip-hop as a massive Nas fan. Speaking with the New York Times, he recalls spending a whopping $600 on an Illmatic cassette tape and rosily recalls his first time hearing the album.
“I remember The Source gave Illmatic five mics [a perfect score]. I already knew I liked Nas from ‘Live at the Barbeque’ with Main Source because his verse on that is one of the most classic verses in hip hop of all time. But I was like, ‘Five mics, though? Let me see what this is,’” Eminem tells the publication.
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