The fraught relationship with his mother was most starkly laid bare on one of his biggest hits, Cleanin' Out My Closet.
In the 2002 song, Eminem furiously accuses her of drug abuse and neglect.
"Witnessin' your mama poppin' prescription pills in the kitchen" he says, before later adding "keep telling yourself that you was a mom".
Nelson sued her son for defamation in 1999 over another of his hits, My Name Is, but later said it was her lawyer’s idea and settled out of court for $25,000 (£19,000).
The rapper, who battled his own problems with prescription drugs, connected his own experiences of addiction with his mother's, stating "that's why I'm on what I'm on 'cause I'm my mom" on the 2009 track My Mom.
In 2008, Nelson wrote a memoir titled My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem, in which she said she was "heartbroken" over her son's claims about her.