Without Me

Eminem and Jeff Bass began writing "Without Me" during a late-night session in the summer of 2001, working on material for The Eminem Show. Eminem played a pre-recorded drum track supplied by DJ Head, and Bass tried out keyboard sounds until he landed on a bass guitar effect that suited it. Bass repeated two notes over the beat, and Eminem sounded out the melody from there, which Bass then recorded on saxophone. The whole thing came together quickly. Eminem, Bass and engineer Steve King wrote and recorded the music in roughly 30 minutes, finishing at 3:00AM. Eminem brought the lyrics to Bass about three months later.

Released on April 29, 2002 as the lead single from The Eminem Show, the song was conceived as a sequel to "The Real Slim Shady" and marked Eminem's return after the Marshall Mathers LP. Its central claim was that he was back to save the world, and it took aim at a long list of targets, among them Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne, the FCC, Chris Kirkpatrick, Limp Bizkit and Moby. It also parodied Prince's decision to adopt an unpronounceable symbol and mocked comparisons between Eminem and Elvis Presley. A line attacked his mother Debbie Mathers over the lawsuit she filed concerning "My Name Is". The opening line borrowed from Malcolm McLaren's "Buffalo Gals".

The single reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number one in fifteen countries, including a UK debut at the top with over 165,500 first-week sales. At the 2003 Grammy Awards it was nominated for Record of the Year, losing to Norah Jones's "Don't Know Why".