| Superman | |
| Cover: | Eminem - Superman single.png |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Eminem featuring Dina Rae |
| Album: | The Eminem Show |
| Recorded: | 2001 |
| Length: | (album version) (music video) (clean version) 7:02 (instrumental version) |
| Chronology: | Eminem |
| Prev Title: | 8 Mile |
| Prev Year: | 2002 |
| Next Title: | Sing for the Moment |
| Next Year: | 2003 |
"Superman" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his fourth studio album, The Eminem Show (2002), featuring guest vocals from his frequent collaborator, singer Dina Rae. Written by Eminem, Jeff Bass and Steve King, the song was released as the third single from The Eminem Show on January 21, 2003 in the United States only. It peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on the issue dated March 15, 2003, and received 2x Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
"Superman" is about the rocky relationships and promiscuous nature of the girls Eminem has had in his life and how he plans to deal with it. In his 2008 autobiography, The Way I Am, Eminem revealed that the song is, to an extent, about his alleged relationship with Mariah Carey.[1] "Superman" is very similar to Eminem's song "Drug Ballad" and D12's song "Pimp Like Me".
In a 2021 interview with Raaj Bundles of SideShowRaaj, Dina Rae revealed that Carey originally sung the hook for "Superman" before being replaced with herself, due to personal conflicts between Eminem and Carey.[2]
Entertainment Weekly editor described "In the creepy-crawly, mesmerizing 'Superman', he depicts himself as both sexual predator and commitment-phobic single guy."[3] HipHopDX named the production "the southern bounce", lyrics as dealing with groupies and called the chorus "cheesy".[4] Steve Juon described: "'Superman' features Eminem playing with his flow in a stuttered cadence, but he's done the gimmick before and his beat on this one inspires only partial attention to his flow."[5] Rolling Stone concluded that his divorce fuels the slow Southern bounce of the hypermisogynist "Superman".[6]
The accompanying music video for "Superman" features pornographic actress Gina Lynn. Shannon Elizabeth was Eminem's first choice, although this never came to fruition as they could not come to terms. The video can only be found on the 8 Mile DVD and contains an edit different from the album version. The uncensored video contains nudity and is rarely shown on MTV or BET, although it is available on YouTube, Vevo, and Dailymotion