LETTY: Eminem and celebrity disses go hand in hand and recently, he's back in the fray,
sparring with Machine Gun Kelly and Joe Budden, so we thought it's a good time to look back
at Eminem's biggest beefs.
From the start, Eminem shared his complicated relationship with his mother,
from alleged child neglect to overmedication.
EMINEM: It’s my mother and like I love her no matter what she does but when I look back
at the things that she did to me, it’s crazy
LETTY: In 2001, Debbie Mathers defended herself on record.
LETTY: The two patched up, as depicted in Eminem's 2013 video, "Headlights."
LETTY: Canibus’ feud with Em began with a misunderstanding—he thought Eminem had
ghostwritten LL Cool J’s diss against him “The Ripper Strikes Back” in 1998.
Em didn’t and but the damage was done.
LETTY: Canibus tried to reconcile with Shady but failed.
And according to a Genius annotation by MsGothicM, the rapper reportedly revealed in an interview
that he felt Em's 2000 hit, "Stan" was about him so he responded in 2001 with
"Stan Lives (Skit)” and “U Didn’t Care.”
LETTY: Disses from both sides continued until 2015.
That’s a 17 year beef!
LETTY: After a few years of local Michigan beef with Insane Clown Posse,
Eminem made their disagreements public during a Howard Stern interview in 1999.
EMINEM: Those guys are idiots.
They claim Detroit they’re not from Detroit, they’re from no parts of Detroit.
They claim so much junk and I know so much about them that it makes me sick.
I used to be with a couple other groups and we used to chase them out of clubs.
LETTY: ICP responded with their own jabs like the track “Slim Anus,” a parody of Eminem’s
hit “My Name Is.”
LETTY: Then Eminem depicted ICP giving a fictional character fellatio during a Marshall Mathers
album skit—and acted it out with a blow-up doll on tour.
LETTY: The feud was ultimately deaded by an unlikely source.
You know who squashed our beef?
Proof before he passed away.
You know he contacted us and we had like a bowling game and everything it was real cool, man.
LETTY: Eminem’s beef with ex-House Of Pain frontman, Everlast, also known as Whitey Ford,
started in 1999.
Everlast tried to congratulate Em backstage on his success but was blown off so he fired a sub.
LETTY: Eminem doesn’t take kindly to mentions of his daughter Hailie and responded with
“I Remember” and “Quitter.”
LETTY: Everlast shot back with “Whitey's Revenge," aimed at Em’s mom and insinuating
that he'd sleep with Em’s ex-girl Kim—but Shady had already left the ring.
LETTY: Em’s beef with Benzino centered around Em’s popularity in hip-hop,
and Benzino’s thirst for fame.
In 2002, Benzino co-owned The Source magazine and called Shady out on the track,
"Pull Your Skirt Up.”
LETTY: After the fact, Benzino explained his side to MTV saying quote:
LETTY: Eminem’s responses, “The Sauce” and “Nail In The Coffin” came shortly
after and “The Sauce” became an unofficial nickname for the magazine.
LETTY: Then in 2003, Benzino unveiled two songs including “Foolish Pride,”
where a teenaged Em targeted an ex-girlfriend by saying that “Black girls are bitches”
and uses the n-word.
Em issued an apology and, in 2004, addressed the lyrics on “Yellow Brick Road.”
LETTY: There were more jabs and an entire Source issue dedicated to trashing Em,
but Benzino eventually apologized in 2012.
LETTY: Ja Rule’s beef with 50 Cent could’ve remained simple but in 2003 Ja violated one
of Shady’s cardinal rules—don’t diss Hailie.
LETTY: Eminem responded to Ja on a couple tracks and targeted Rule’s family.
LETTY: Eminem addressed the all-consuming beef years later.
LETTY: Eminem and Mariah supposedly dated in the early 2000s and when he name dropped
her on "Superman," the alleged fling became public.
LETTY: Eminem explained the lyric saying the two had a brief fling, but in 2003 Mariah denied it.
INTERVIEWER: Well what is your relationship with Eminem?
MARIAH: I don’t even know, it certainly wasn’t a physical one.
LETTY: Eminem kept calling out Mariah for nearly a decade, even dissing her now ex-husband Nick Cannon.
LETTY: This led to Mariah’s own diss track and video starring an Eminem look-a-like in 2009.
LETTY: In early 2018 Life&Style reported that Mariah was attempting to bury the hatchet,
but who knows.
LETTY: In January 2011, Eminem signed the group Slaughterhouse, including Joe Budden,
to his label, Shady Records—but things would sour.
ROB: What’s the interactions with you and Eminem?
What have they been like?
JOE: They’ve been good.
Actually, that would be an understatement.
They have been great, just far and few.
LETTY: Over time, Joe felt slighted by Eminem— from saying that Slaughterhouse never opened
for Shady on tour to feeling unsupported as a group in Em's shadow.
Joe even admitted that his 2015 track, “SlaughterMouse” began as a diss toward Em,
but he re-wrote it.
LETTY: By 2017, Budden had traded rapping for podcasting and co-hosting,
where he critiqued Eminem's 2017 album 'Revival.’
JOE: This is the first time in my life that I feel like the ball is being dropped on Eminem.
AKADEMIKS: By him?
JOE: No, not by him, by whoever the fuck is handling Eminem.
It seems like a ploy and a fucking gimmick to sell records.
LETTY: Machine Gun Kelly and Eminem's beef began with a tweet.
In 2012, a 22 year old MGK posted about Eminem’s then-16-year-old daughter Hailie,
which didn't sit well with Shady.
LETTY: Then MGK alleged that Em banned him from his Shade 45 radio station.
LETTY: In 2018, MGK dissed Eminem on Tech 9ine’s “No Reason...” with a play on Eminem's hit, "Rap God."
LETTY: Em responded on Kamikaze’s “Not Alike..."
LETTY: Kelly returned fire with “Rap Devil” and that’s where it stands, for now.
LETTY: Eminem's never shied away from a rap battle so if you thought he’d stop anytime soon,
we'd say don't underestimate him.
EMINEM: I gotta answer this motherfucker.
LETTY: What'd we miss?
I’m Letty for Genius News bringing you the meaning and the knowledge behind the music.