The rapper so good Gwen Stefani labelled them a “real weirdo”
Though she might not be a hip-hop hero, Gwen Stefani is music royalty in her own right. The ‘Luxurious’ singer was one of the dominating presences on the pop scene in the 2000s. Her debut studio album Love. Angel. Music. Baby was a massive success, with one of its singles, ‘Hollaback Girl,’ becoming the first US download to sell a million copies.
Stefani followed up her first release with her equally successful second album, The Sweet Escape. Her single, titled the same as the album, is still her most popular release to date. Stefani asserted herself as a star by this point, and as we all know, fame has its downsides.
Celebrities are often targets of negative campaigns by the media and struggle to live a life free from the shutters of paparazzi cameras. Frustration can boil over. One infamous example of this is a video where a member of the paparazzi greets Kanye West with a friendly “Good morning Kanye”, only for the rapper to kindly reply “Shut the fuck up”.
The California native has had her share of issues with the press. Speaking to Harpers Bazaar she explained the issues she had with unwanted attention from the media: “I was dying to get out of the house [during my pregnancy], but I had to sneak into the back of my brother Todd’s car”.
For Stefani though, her strangest interaction didn’t come from the paparazzi, it came from within the music industry.
In 2004 Eminem was riding a wave of massive success after his meteoric rise to stardom. Following the monumental successes of his third and fourth studio albums The Marshal Mathers LP, and The Eminem Show, released in 2000 and 2002 respectively, Mathers was on top of the world and on top of the rap game.
The Detroit native went on to release his next acclaimed album Encore which included the track ‘Ass like that’. On the track, he name-drops the likes of Britney Spears, Janet Jackson and the Olsen Twins to varying questionable degrees. Nevertheless, Em reserved his strangest line for Stefani.
In the final iteration of the chorus Shady sings “so Gwen Stefani, will you pee pee on me please”. Certainly an interesting request by the rapper. He has maintained though that he never meant to disrespect Gwen with the line he simply thought it was funny. Speaking to NME in 2015 Em said “I’ve always respected Gwen Stefani. She’s an incredible talent”.
In fact, the pair have since collaborated together on the Missouri-born rapper’s 2015 track ‘Kings Never Die’ for the soundtrack to the movie ‘Southpaw’. In tribute to how highly the singer thought of the rapper, this was her first feature on a single since 2005, which saw her join Pharrell on the song ‘Can I Have it Like That’.
When discussing their collaboration with Entertainment Tonight, Stefani said about Eminem, “he’s so incredible. He’s a real artist; he’s a real weirdo”. It’s clear then that she took no offence to her ‘Ass Like That’ mention, seemingly describing the rapper as “a weirdo” in a positive manner. Although, this might have been her way of getting a sneak diss in for revenge.
The former No Doubt singer seemed almost giddy when recounting the call she received from Mathers requesting she feature on the track to 102.7KIISFM. The singer recalled, “I was just so blown away to be talking to him” as she got the call in the car, driving her kids to football training.
As a self-professed Eminem superfan, the singer was also keenly aware of Shady’s famous lewdness. Remembering that she was driving her kids she told to Entertainment Tonight that she quickly responded to the call with a mindful “All my kids are in the car! Don’t say any bad words!”. A smart move.