Trivia
- “Superman” was released as a radio single exclusively in the US and Canada, peaking at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 19 on the Canadian Hit Radio Chart.
- “Superman” marks the fourth and final “” collaboration between Eminem and , following “Cum On Everybody,” “Drug Ballad,” and ’s “Pimp Like Me.”
- Unused vocals recorded during the song’s sessions were later weaponized for Eminem’s 2009 diss track, “The Warning.”
- Although it is the third Eminem solo track to feature vocals by Dina Rae, it is the first to credit her as a featured artist. However, her name appears in smaller font than the album’s other featured artists.
Words from Dina Rae and Eminem
“The other three [songs with Em] we had done in Los Angeles, and then “Superman” — I got flown [to Detroit] because, you know, at that point he’s got the means to do it. […] Mariah [Carey] was the original vocal on “Superman.” And whatever happened happened — I think he was a little upset. So I get flown in — her vocal was actually the reference — and I recorded it there in the studio in his crib.
“With “Superman,” all I ever hear people talk about is Mariah Carey. Did she inspire it? Yes, she kind of did. I don't want to get into tabloid gossip, but if you read between the lines, and you listen to it, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
I recorded it toward the end of The Eminem Show. I wanted to do it with an LL Cool J kind of a whisper, like in his song “I Need Love.” That was the thing for a while with the good old-school love songs, to be gentle and playful with your voice.
In “Superman,” the girl thinks I'm serenading her, but I’m really telling her I’m sick of her. I’d just gotten divorced from Kim, and I wasn't going down the same road I’d already been on. This was my way of saying, I’m not going to make a love song.
“I don’t want to say anything disrespectful because I respect [Mariah Carey] as a singer, but on the whole personal level, I’m not really feeling it. I just don’t like her as a person. I gotta be honest; I learned a lesson from [dating her]: Don’t believe the hype. I have respect for her, but she doesn’t really have it all together. I’ll just say that and that she’s a beautiful woman.