Inspiration: Til I Collapse
[Intro: Eminem]
'Cause sometimes you just feel tired
Yo, left, yo, left
Feel weak and when you feel weak
Yo, left, right, left
You feel like you wanna just give up
Yo, left, yo, left
But you gotta search within you
Yo, left, right, left
Try to find that inner strength and just pull that shit out of you
Yo, left, yo, left
And get that motivation to not give up
Yo, left, right, left
And not be a quitter, no matter how bad
Yo, left, yo, left
You wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse
Yo, left, right, left
[Verse 1: Eminem]
'Til I collapse I'm spillin' these raps long as you feel 'em
'Til the day that I drop you'll never say that I'm not killin' 'em
'Cause when I am not, then I'ma stop pennin' 'em
And I am not hip-hop and I'm just not Eminem
Subliminal thoughts, when I'ma stop sendin' 'em?
Women are caught in webs, spin 'em and hock venom
Adrenaline shots of penicillin could not get the illin' to stop
Amoxicillin's just not real enough
The criminal, cop-killin', hip-hop villain
A minimal swap to cop millions of Pac listeners
You're comin' with me, feel it or not
You're gonna fear it like I showed ya the spirit of God lives in us
You hear it a lot, lyrics to shock
Is it a miracle or am I just product of pop fizzin' up?
Fa' shizzle, my wizzle, this is the plot, listen up
You bizzles forgot, Slizzle does not give a fuck
[Chorus: Nate Dogg & Eminem]
'Til the roof comes off, 'til the lights go out
'Til my legs give out, can't shut my mouth
'Til the smoke clears out, am I high? Perhaps
I'ma rip this shit 'til my bones collapse
'Til the roof comes off, 'til the lights go out
(Until the roof, until the roof)
'Til my legs give out, can't shut my mouth
(The roof comes off, the roof comes off)
'Til the smoke clears out, am I high? Perhaps
(Until my legs, until my legs)
I'ma rip this shit 'til my bones collapse
(Give out from underneath me)
[Verse 2: Eminem]
Music is like magic, there's a certain feelin' you get
When you real and you spit, and people are feelin' your shit
This is your moment, and every single minute you spend
Tryna hold on to it, 'cause you may never get it again
So while you're in it, try to get as much shit as you can
And when your run is over, just admit when it's at its end
'Cause I'm at the end of my wits with half the shit that gets in
I got a list, here's the order of my list that it's in
It goes: Reggie, Jay-Z, 2Pac and Biggie
André from OutKast, Jada, Kurupt, Nas, and then me
But in this industry I'm the cause of a lot of envy
So when I'm not put on this list, the shit does not offend me
That's why you see me walk around like nothing's botherin' me
Even though half you people got a fuckin' problem with me
You hate it, but you know respect you got to give me
The press's wet dream, like Bobby and Whitney — Nate, hit me!
[Chorus: Nate Dogg & Eminem]
'Til the roof comes off, 'til the lights go out
'Til my legs give out, can't shut my mouth
'Til the smoke clears out, am I high? Perhaps
I'ma rip this shit 'til my bones collapse
'Til the roof comes off, 'til the lights go out
Until the roof, until the roof
'Til my legs give out, can't shut my mouth
The roof comes off, the roof comes off
'Til the smoke clears out, am I high? Perhaps
Until my legs, until my legs
I'ma rip this shit 'til my bones collapse
Give out from underneath me
[Verse 3: Eminem]
Soon as a verse starts, I eat at an MC's heart
What is he thinking? How not to go against me, smart
And it's absurd how people hang on every word
I'll prob'ly never get the props I feel I ever deserve
But I'll never be served, my spot is forever reserved
If I ever leave Earth, that would be the death of me first
'Cause in my heart of hearts I know nothin' could ever be worse
That's why I'm clever when I put together every verse
My thoughts are sporadic, I act like I'm an addict
I rap like I'm addicted to smack like I'm Kim Mathers
But I don't wanna go forth and back in constant battles
The fact is I would rather sit back and bomb some rappers
So this is like a full-blown attack I'm launchin' at 'em
The track is on some battlin' raps, who wants some static?
'Cause I don't really think that the fact that I'm Slim matters
A plaque and platinum status is wack if I'm not the baddest, so
[Chorus: Nate Dogg & Eminem]
'Til the roof comes off, 'til the lights go out
'Til my legs give out, can't shut my mouth
'Til the smoke clears out, am I high? Perhaps
I'ma rip this shit 'til my bones collapse
'Til the roof comes off, 'til the lights go out
Until the roof, until the roof
'Til my legs give out, can't shut my mouth
The roof comes off, the roof comes off
'Til the smoke clears out, am I high? Perhaps
Until my legs, until my legs
I'ma rip this shit 'til my bones collapse
Give out from underneath me
[Outro: Eminem, Nate Dogg, Eminem & Nate Dogg]
Until the roof, until the roof
The roof comes off, the roof comes off
Until my legs, until my legs
Give out from underneath me
I, I will not fall, I will stand tall
Feels like no one can beat me
When I listen to ’Til I Collapse, it feels like raw electricity running through the spine, a reminder of the relentless insistence of will. It is not a song about ease. It is about endurance, about standing and moving even when your body and mind are screaming for stillness. The opening—’Cause sometimes you just feel tired… but you gotta search within you…’—hits like a truth I have carried all my life. There are days when fatigue becomes a physical weight, when every step forward is a negotiation with pain and fear. And yet, the song insists: pull the strength from somewhere inside, even if it feels buried, even if it feels like nothing is left.
The repetition of ’Yo, left, right, left’ mimics both a march and a mantra. It is cadence and ritual, the way one trains the body to obey the mind, or perhaps the mind to obey the body. I think about the times I have faced trauma, illness, or the quiet pressure of stigma. It is one step after another, over and over, until forward becomes motion itself, until the very act of persistence becomes defiance. The song does not romanticize struggle. It names it, engages it, and says: fight anyway.
Eminem’s verses—’Music is like magic, there's a certain feelin' you get / When you real and you spit, and people are feelin' your shit’—resonate with the way passion can anchor a person. There is an urgency to claim your own voice, to assert presence, to leave your mark, not for applause, but for survival. That is how I feel about life itself. There were times when speaking, writing, creating, even existing visibly, became my method of resisting collapse. The act of continuing, the insistence on relevance, becomes salvation.
And the chorus, ’’Til the roof comes off, ’til the lights go out… I’ma rip this shit ’til my bones collapse’, embodies that extreme of endurance. It is a willingness to keep giving everything, over and over, long past exhaustion, not for perfection but for persistence. That is what resilience feels like when measured in days, months, years. It is messy, skeletal, breathless, and uncompromising. It is the human spirit insisting on its own existence even when the world seems indifferent.
Listening now, I realize this song is less about bravado than about an intimate truth: life demands endurance. We rise not because it is easy, but because we have no other choice if we want to honor our own survival. Passion, will, and purpose are inseparable—they are what keep us upright, what allow us to push through collapse, what allow us to keep stepping even when our legs want to give way. The song is a blueprint for stubbornness in the face of impossibility, a celebration of fighting with every ounce of energy we have, and a reminder that to fall is not failure if we rise again.
For me, ’Til I Collapse is a call to action in its purest form. It is the recognition that passion is a lifeline, that will is a weapon, and that no matter how heavy the load or how deep the ache, the body, the mind, and the heart are capable of astonishing endurance. And if the song teaches anything, it is this: collapse may come, but the rising is ours to command, again and again.
