Cleanin' Out My Closet

"Cleanin' Out My Closet"
Single by Eminem
from the album The Eminem Show
Released	September 17, 2002
Format	CD
Recorded	2002
Genre	Hardcore hip hop, rap rock
Length	4:57
Label	Shady, Aftermath, Interscope
Writer(s)	Eminem and Jeff Bass
Producer	Eminem and Jeff Bass
Certification	Platinum (ARIA) Platinum (RIANZ)
Eminem singles chronology
"Without Me" (2002) "Cleanin' Out My Closet" (2002) "Lose Yourself" (2002)
Curtain Call: The Hits track listing "Guilty Conscience" (13) "Cleanin' Out My Closet" (14) "Just Lose It" (15)

"Cleanin' Out My Closet" is a song by American rapper Eminem released in 2002. It was from his worldwide hit album, The Eminem Show and was later re-released in 2005 for Eminem's greatest hits album Curtain Call: The Hits. "Cleanin' Out My Closet" was the second single released from the album following "Without Me". However, unlike the preceding single Eminem departed from his humorous Slim Shady persona to take observers on a solemn journey into a deeply personal reservoir of fury and pain. It became the second top-ten single from the album (reaching #4 on the United States Billboard Hot 100) and one of the highest-charting singles of his career.

Alternate Version

From the most famous mashup video of "Atomic Closet", a fusion of Eminem's original "Cleaning Out My Closet" and Blondie's Atomic, the Blondie's most famous hit was heavily sampled as the background song throughout the entire video, while Eminem himself rapped throughout the whole song. The music video for the song was directed by Dr. Dre and Philip Atwell.

Lyrical content

In the song, Eminem introspectively examines his life reflecting on such topics as his troubled childhood, marital conflicts, and resentful feud with his mother. Eminem underscores his animosity towards her by melodically rapping a searingly honest portrayal of what he experienced as a child.

Also in the song, he describes how others protest his lyrics. He expresses the anger that he feels towards his family and how he is better off without them now, and goes on to reassure his audience that his words regarding his mother are not done for the sake of public attention "now I would never diss my own mama just to get recognition". The song also describes how Eminem suffers at the hands of his mother because of Münchausen syndrome by proxy in the line "All my life being made to feel sick when I wasn't".

Eminem also mentions the demo that his mother put out for him called Set The Record Straight.

Track listing

CD single

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Cleanin' Out My Closet"	M. Mathers, J. Bass	Eminem, Jeff Bass	4:57
2.	"Stimulate" (non-album track)	M. Mathers	Eminem	5:06

Charts and sales

Peak positions Chart (2002) Peak position Australian Singles Chart 3 Austrian Singles Chart 5 Belgian Singles Chart (Flanders) 6 Belgian Singles Chart (Wallonia) 10 Danish Singles Chart[1] 3 Eurochart Hot 100[2] 3 Finnish Singles Chart 10 French Singles Chart 20 German Singles Chart 4 Hungarian Singles Chart[3] 8 Irish Singles Chart 3 Italian Singles Chart 8 Netherlands Singles Chart 4 New Zealand Singles Chart 5 Norwegian Singles Chart 4 Romanian Singles Chart[4] 5 Swedish Singles Chart 3 Swiss Singles Chart 5 UK Singles Chart 4 U.S. Billboard Hot 100[5] 4 U.S. Billboard Pop 100 [5] 7 U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40[6] 2 U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 11 U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream[6] 7 U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks 5

End of year charts End of year chart (2002) Position Australian Singles Chart[7] 40 Austrian Singles Chart[8] 46 Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart[9] 42 Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart[10] 59 Dutch Top 40[11] 73 Swiss Singles Chart[12] 59 UK Singles Chart[13] 94 Certifications Country Certification Date Sales certified Australia[14] Platinum 2002 70,000 Belgium[15] Gold December, 2002 20,000 New Zealand[16] Gold November 17, 2002 7,500 Sweden[17] Gold December 20, 2002 10,000

In culture

• In 2003 the Australian comedy duo Scared Weird Little Guys produced a rap version of the folk song "Waltzing Matilda" called "Cleanin' Out My Tuckerbag", which parodies both "Lose Yourself" and "Cleanin' Out My Closet", but does not credit Eminem.
• The great Luke Ski did a parody called "Stealin' Like a Hobbit," which recaps the plot of The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. He also added bits of "Stan" and "Lose Yourself" at the end.

References

1. ^ Steffen Hung. "Eminem - Cleanin' Out My Closet". danishcharts.com. http://www.danishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Eminem&titel=Cleanin%27+Out+My+Closet&cat=s. Retrieved 2010-05-30. 
2. ^ "Europe Official Top 100". Top 40 Charts. 2002-10-19. http://top40-charts.com/chart.php?cid=31&date=2002-10-19. Retrieved 2011-10-17. 
3. ^ "Archívum - Slágerlisták - MAHASZ - Magyar Hanglemezkiadók Szövetsége" (in German). Mahasz.hu. http://www.mahasz.hu/?menu=slagerlistak&menu2=archivum&lista. Retrieved 2010-05-30. 
4. ^ "Arhiva romanian top 100". Archived from the original on 2002. http://web.archive.org/web/20030529130221/www.rt100.ro/ed.php?tn=x10051. Retrieved 2011-10-17. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Cleanin' Out My Closet - Eminem". Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/song/eminem/cleanin-out-my-closet/3985883. Retrieved October 26, 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Cleanin' Out My Closet at Allmusic. Retrieved October 2011.
7. ^ "2002 Australian Singles Chart". aria. http://www.aria.com.au/pages/aria-charts-end-of-year-charts-top-100-singles-2002.htm. Retrieved 2 May 2010. 
8. ^ "2002 Austrian Singles Chart" (in German). Austriancharts. http://www.austriancharts.at/2002_single.asp. Retrieved 2 May 2010. 
9. ^ "2002 Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart" (in Dutch). Ultratop. http://www.ultratop.be/nl/annual.asp?year=2002. Retrieved 2 May 2010. 
10. ^ "2002 Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart" (in French). Ultratop. http://www.ultratop.be/fr/annual.asp?year=2002. Retrieved 2 May 2010. 
11. ^ "Wanadoo Top 40 [2002 Dutch End-Year]" (in Dutch). http://www.top40.nl/pdf/Top%20100/top%20100%20-%202002.pdf. 
12. ^ "2002 Swiss Singles Chart" (in German). Swisscharts. http://www.swisscharts.com/year.asp?key=2002. Retrieved 2 May 2010. 
13. ^ "2002 UK Singles Chart". ChartsPlus. http://www.ukchartsplus.co.uk/ChartsPlusYE2002.pdf. Retrieved 5 May 2010. 
14. ^ Australian certifications aria.com (Retrieved January 4, 2009)
15. ^ Belgian certifications Ultratop.be (Retrieved January 4, 2009)
16. ^ New Zealand certification"Chart #1335: Cleanin' Out My Closet Gold certification". Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. rianz.org.nz. November 17, 2002. http://www.rianz.org.nz/rianz/chart.asp. Retrieved 2009-05-16. 
17. ^ Swedish certifications Ifpi.se (Retrieved January 4, 2009)

External links

• "Cleanin' Out My Closet" Official music video on YouTube