Credit: Alamy

Eminem is no stranger to rapping about fellow celebrities nor to controversial bars spat at supersonic speeds.

When those atoms of his existence collide, he often, and unsurprisingly, makes headlines. Although his most divisive days are behind him, he’s still prone to turning heads. One of his songs from 2009 targeted a bunch of familiar people.

On ‘We Made You’, which served as a single from his Relapse album, he mentioned everyone from Amy Winehouse to Britney Spears. Em produced the song with Dr Dre and managed to land a hit, reaching number nine on the Hot 100 and number four on the UK Singles Chart. The track addresses pop culture and brings up many household names.

In the third verse of the song, Eminem makes Jessica Alba the target of his lines. The 44-year-old actress is best known for her roles in movies such as Good Luck Chuck, Little Fockers, and Sin City, as well as two Fantastic Four films. Em raps, “Man, Cash, I don’t mean to mess with your gal, but/ Jessica Alba put her breasts on my mouth (Blup!)/ Wowzers! I just made a mess in my trousers/ And they wonder why I keep dressing like Elvis”.

In the lyrics, Em is talking to Alba’s then-husband, Cash Warren. His words about her breasts refer to comments Alba made in an interview during her first pregnancy. She once told Extra, “[One dream I had] had to do with breastfeeding, which is the only thing I’m paranoid about. More than giving birth”.

The lyrics joke about Alba liking Eminem so much that she doesn’t mind him having his mouth on her breasts, which of course, in true man fashion, led him to be let’s say, ‘overcome with penile joy’ in his trousers, but is safe from scrutiny because he dresses in white like Elvis.

Despite the crudeness of Em’s lyrics, Alba had no hard feelings against him. She revealed that they were on good terms and that she doesn’t get offended easily. “I have met him, we’re not friends, but he’s very nice,” she told GQ, elaborating, “He’s a really talented songwriter and rapper. I listen to his radio station, Shade 45, all the time. He wasn’t saying anything bad. I’m part of the millennial generation. I don’t think we let things like that upset us.”

There are a bunch of other times Em has namechecked Alba. He once admitted offering her a role to star in the music video for ‘Just Lose It’, 2004’s Encore track announcing Shady’s back again. She declined and the role ultimately went to Paris Hilton. “We needed somebody to punch me, slap me and pull my hair,” he told Rolling Stone, “Our first candidate was Jessica Alba. We couldn’t get Jessica, and Paris happened to be in town.”

That same year, he rapped about having a crush on Alba on D12’s ‘My Band’, revealing his intentions to marry her. “Yesterday, Kuniva tried to pull a knife on me/ ‘Cause I told him Jessica Alba’s my wife-to-be/ This rock star shit is the life for me/ And all the other guys just despise me because these,” he rapped.

Eminem later mentioned Alba on ‘Evil Twin’ from 2013’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Asking who to diss next, he raps, “So who’s left? Lady Gaga? Mess with the Bieber?/ Nah, F with Christina/ I ain’t fuckin’ with either Jessica neither: Simpson or Alba/ My album’s just sicker than strep with the fever”.

Clearly, he can’t get her out of his mind or his lyrical gymnastics, finding gracious opportunities once in a while to shout out the Sin City siren.