Eminem has finally said something about his Kid Rock collaboration, and it was one sentence long. As Kid Rock’s Christian album Halfway 2 Jesus arrived on Saturday, October 17, Eminem shared his guest track “Heal My Faith” with a caption that Consequence reported as: “Not about choosing sides, just choosing to make music with my old friend. Praying for all of us.”
For a lot of his fans, that wasn’t enough. The pairing has been argued over since it was first announced earlier this month, and the release-day post appears to have reopened the argument rather than closed it.
Why this one stings
The friendship between the two Detroit artists goes back to the late 1990s, when both were breaking out of the same city’s scene. Their politics went in opposite directions.
Kid Rock is one of the most visible music supporters of Donald Trump. Fox News reported that he appeared at a Trump rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, on October 10, the same weekend he was promoting the album.
Eminem has been just as public on the other side. At the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards he delivered a freestyle aimed squarely at Trump, and, as NME reported at the time, told any fan who supported the president that they would have to choose between the two of them. HotNewHipHop notes that he also endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024.
That history is why “not about choosing sides” landed the way it did. Nine years ago, choosing sides was exactly what he asked his own audience to do. According to HotNewHipHop, some fans had hoped for a clearer statement from him and the backlash grew after the caption went up. Complex described the run-up to release as “weeks of discord from fans.”
The song swap
The collaboration didn’t arrive in a straight line. When it was first announced on October 1, Eminem was billed on a track called “7 Sins,” according to Reality Tea. Within two weeks, Lil Wayne had replaced him on that song and Eminem had moved to “Heal My Faith.”
Accounts of why differ in emphasis. Kid Rock’s version, given to the Detroit Free Press and summarized by IBTimes UK, is that Eminem asked him when he had last listened to “Heal My Faith” and suggested trading tracks, and that the finished mix moved him. IBTimes is careful to say there is nothing establishing that the political backlash caused the change. Other coverage, including a Soap Central report, framed the switch alongside the fan reaction, while noting that Rock had not confirmed a reason.
What’s on the record is the order of events: an announcement, an outcry, a swap, and then the album.
What Kid Rock has said
Kid Rock has been doing most of the talking. In an October 12 appearance on Fox News’ My View with Lara Trump, Soap Central reports, he said the two had agreed years ago, “let’s not let politics divide us,” and suggested two rappers from Detroit could show the country that people can disagree and stay friends. He called Eminem “a class act all the way around.”
He was less patient with the critics. Speaking to the Detroit Free Press, as quoted by Reality Tea, he said: “You’re upset that two old friends did something together?” HotNewHipHop reported that he also dismissed the detractors as “empty wagons.”
In the album’s foreword, per Consequence, Rock wrote that he was proud of his guests, “especially my old friend Eminem,” adding that the two “differ politically and on other things, but we’ve stayed friends through it all.”
The album itself
Halfway 2 Jesus is a faith-themed record built around forgiveness and second chances. Besides Eminem and Lil Wayne, Consequence lists Jimmie Allen among the guests. Kid Rock told Fox News the album reflects a lifelong relationship with God rather than a sudden conversion, insisting he “didn’t get saved” and is still the same person. He has also talked about taking the material on the road with arena and stadium shows that mix a rock concert with a revival-style service.
According to Consequence, Eminem’s verse on “Heal My Faith” traces the long history between the two men and presents their friendship as an example of setting differences aside. That is the same argument Kid Rock has been making in interviews for two weeks.
Where it goes from here
Neither artist shows any sign of backing away from the collaboration. The song is out, the album is out, and Eminem has said his piece in a single line.
The question his fans are arguing over is a simple one. Is a decades-long friendship a good enough reason to share a record with someone whose politics you have publicly attacked? Or did Eminem, the artist who once told his own audience to pick a side, just decline to pick one himself?
Kid Rock’s answer is clear: it’s two old friends making music. Eminem’s answer fits in a single caption. Whether that settles it is up to the people who have been listening to both of them since the ’90s.
