Eminem, the rapper born as Marshal Mathers, is known worldwide as one of the first white emcees to be loved, accepted and embraced by the hip-hop community and is now considered among the best in the industry with regard to lyricism. With so many iconic songs, it is hard to deny the Detroit rapper’s talent and impact on the genre.
Concerning white emcees in hip-hop, Mathers remained relatively unchallenged for the first ten years of his career. However, by the end of the late 2000s, artists like Mac Miller began to emerge on the scene, but (as a true hip-hop lover) Mathers never disrespected them and was, in fact, very supportive of the newcomers.
This support was the case until Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) emerged on the scene around 2014. The feud between Eminem and MGK has a long and complicated backstory. However, one thing that is clear to all is that MGK (as a young competitive rapper) was the antagonist. Furthermore, it is common knowledge that the rapper was highly disrespectful in how he spoke about Mathers and his personal life.
Mathers was fairly silent while Kelly (real name Colson Baker) went on his rants about his disdain for Mathers and his family. However, in a sit-down interview with radio host Sway of Sway In The Morning, Mathers broke his silence for the first time and detailed how it was a build-up of events that led to him hating MGK.
Speaking on the hatred, Mathers explained, “One day…you know how you go down the f*cking wormhole of YouTube, so I see [a video named] ‘Machine Gun Kelly Talks About Eminem’s Daughter’, I’m like, ‘What the f*ck!’ So I click on it, and then he starts doing a press run about Haile!”
He continued: “I’m like, what the f*ck, yo my man better chill. The reason I dissed him first was ’cause he said, ‘I’m the greatest rapper alive since my favourite rapper banned me from Shade45’ like I’m tryna hinder his career. I’m saying, ‘I couldn’t give a f*ck about your career!'”
Mathers recalled how he didn’t want to respond to MGK, stating, “As irrelevant as people say I am in hip hop, I make them bigger by getting into this thing where I wanna destroy him, but I also don’t wanna make him bigger.”
Mathers concluded the segment by furiously begging MGK to just “shut the f*ck up!” You can watch the interview segment in the video below.
