Samples and Interpolations
Trivia
- Eminem’s debut single, “Just Don’t Give A Fuck,” was first made available at the Slim Shady EP release party on December 10, 1997, at The Viper Room. He followed this with his major-label debut: a remixed version of the same track featured on his breakout album, The Slim Shady LP.
- In a 2022 interview with , described the decision to exclude this version from The Slim Shady LP as “heartbreaking.”
- The LP version, despite being the second released iteration, is actually the third version of the song. An LP demo version — distinguished by a different sample than “Gavotte & 6 Doubles” — was recorded during the sessions but remains officially unreleased.
Words from Eminem
““Just Don’t Give A Fuck” was a song that I wrote when I was staying at my mother’s house. It was also around the time that Hailie was born. […] Not being able to provide for my daughter, my living situation, etc., just started building up so much that I had just had it. “Just Don’t Give A Fuck” was actually the second song where people that knew me were like “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” See, I didn’t normally talk about stuff like that. It just wasn’t my usual subject matter... My hype-man, Proof, said, “You need to quit talkin’ that drug shit,” because it seemed like it was from out of left field compared to what I usually rapped about.
I soon found myself doing things that I normally didn’t do. Like getting into drugs and drinkin’. […] Kim and I had Hailie, my producers F.B.T. were just about to give up on me, we weren’t payin’ rent to my moms, and just a whole bunch of other horrible shit was going on ... It was my first real song. It was when I first came up with the whole “Slim Shady” theme. I actually thought of the name and then wrote “Slim Shady / Brain-dead like Jim Brady,” and that’s when I went with the name.