Richard Wayne
Eminem has a long history of feuding with other rappers
Eminem is no stranger to feuding with other celebrities. Throughout his career, Marshall Mathers has attracted everyone from actors to pop stars. But his feud with another rapper was only because of his connection to another hip-hop artist.
It’s no secret that Eminem has had feuds with other celebrities, from Mariah Carey and Will Smith to Ja Rule and Joe Budden. In fact, these feuds inspired countless diss tracks and shady references that fans can still enjoy today. But one of his fiercest feuds so far has been with hip-hop media executive and reality star Raymond “Benzino” Scott.
Our Top 3 Eminem Diss Tracks
- Nail in the Coffin
- The Warning
- The Warning
Eminem and other rappers have had public fights
Eminem recently had an amusing spat with Machine Gun Kelly, which reignited the feud between the two rappers. On his recent release of “Kamikaze,” Eminem sent Kelly a number of criticisms in response to the shots the Cleveland rapper threw over the years. MGK responded quickly with a biting “rap demon” and wowed the audience with his impressive response. After making fans wait nearly two weeks, Eminem hit back with “KILLSHOT” on Friday (September 14), leaving fans divided between the two rappers.
Eminem has struggled throughout his life, both in legal battles and public feuds, but his biggest struggle came when he was a child, a moment that shaped not only his career as a rapper but as a people’s careers.
Eminem has been involved in several legal disputes
Eminem’s controversial relationship with his mother has surfaced in his music. In The Slim Shady LP, Eminem claims that his mother, Debbie Mathers, was an abusive, drug-addicted parent. She then sued for defamation (settled out of court).
Eminem’s career was built on the angry, controversial rapper. He has spent most of his career fighting lawsuits. The artist, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, is no stranger to courtroom interiors, and over the years seems to have spent more time with lawyers than in the studio.
The question is how big is the burn hole in his pocket? It started in 1999 when Eminem released The Slim Shady LP on Aftermath/Interscope Records. When he slandered his mother, Debbie Mathers, he rapped with unfiltered raw emotion, and in return she sued him for about $10 million. The case continued until 2001, and she was awarded only $1,600 in damages.
Then, in 2000, the No-BS rapper pulled an unloaded gun during an altercation at a car audio shop in Royal Oak, Michigan, and was arrested on the spot. The next day in another city in Warren, Michigan, Eminem reportedly saw his then-wife Kimberly Scott kiss a bouncer in the parking lot of the Hot Rock Cafe after attacking John Gray. After fighting a bodyguard, the rapper was arrested again.
Em broke down reality into comedy and staged the parking lot attack in a skit for his 2000 release of The Eminem Show; the song was called “The Kiss (Skit).” He was charged with possession of a concealed weapon and assault. He pleaded guilty to both charges and received two years of probation. A few months later, Scott attempted suicide by cutting her wrists. Eminem released a song titled “Kim,” almost in all seriousness, and she sued him for defamation. The song begins with Eminem having a sweet talk with their daughter Hailie and ends with Kim having her throat slit and dragging her into the trunk of a car. It was just the beginning of the vivid picture he later painted of his bad relationship with his daughter’s mother.
Eminem became a bad boy rapper almost overnight, his rap like a self-destructing time bomb waiting to go away. The troubled rapper lived up to the hype, further cementing his already shaky relationship with the law. That same year, Mathers was due to perform at Toronto’s Skydome, but Ontario’s attorney general filed a case to ban the rapper from entering Canada. Attorney General Jim Flaherty’s allegations were reportedly based on vulgar content in a song by Eminem called “Kill Me.”
“Personally, I don’t want anyone coming to Canada to advocate for violence against women,” Flaherty said. Then-Congressman Michael Bryant even said the rapper should be charged with violence against women. Charged with hate crimes. The party went back and forth to deny him entry to the country, but in Eminem’s favor, the Toronto concert went as planned.
At the time, Mathers had just released his third LP, titled Marshall Mathers, under the Aftermath/Interscope Records banner, and his hit ownership interest was on the rise. Having won his spurs with some of the best rappers in the game, his name is starting to roll off the hip-hop Stan’s tongue. So you would think he would want to stay away from controversy? Not Eminem.
In 2001, he was sued by former classmate D’Angelo Bailey, a plumber, alleging the rapper violated his privacy and tarnished his reputation. Eminem has been accused of putting Bailey in the wrong eye for posting unreasonable information on his track Brain Damage. Bailey files $1 million claim for Eminem’s rap: “I was molested every day by this fat boy named D’Angelo Bailey. An eighth grader who was nasty because his dad boxed. So he stuffed me every day. into the locker.” In 2003, the charges against Mathers were dismissed in court.
Then, in June of that year, Eminem got into an argument with a Psychopathic Records employee who received a one-year suspended sentence for a gun crime. He was fined $2,000, including community service.
In March 2002, French jazz pianist Jacques Loussier claimed that “Kill Me” didn’t create enough drama in his life with Kim, claiming that the beats were stolen from his jazz fusion song “Pulsion,” He handed a 10-million-dollar lawsuit against Eminem and its producer. Although a trial date was set for June 2004, the case was later settled for an undisclosed amount.
In late 2002, the feud between then The Source co-owners, rapper Raymond Scott aka Benzino, began to heat up. Mathers began to disparage The Source because he felt his Marshall Mathers LP was worthy of the acclaimed 5 Mics, and Benzino retaliated by claiming that Em was in the game for discrediting the contributions of black and Latino artists to hip-hop. This sparked a battle of diss records against diss records, leading to some personal revenge rap.
Eminem sues The Source for defamation and copyright infringement. A federal court has issued an injunction to limit the distribution of tapes unearthed from The Source of Eminem that racially abuse black people and women. The magazine ignored the restraining order and they were found guilty of contempt of court. As a result, the magazine was forced to pay Eminem and its label Shady Records undisclosed damages. As the two sides prepare to go to court over copyright infringement, Em backs down and explains that he has no more arguments with The Source.
Everyone’s eyes in the rap game are on you – rapper and fans alike? You are getting the attention of the US Secret Service. Well, that’s what Eminem does. In December 2003, the USSS publicly stated that it was investigating allegations that Eminem posed a threat to then-President George W. Bush. Look, they found an unreleased song on the streets called “We As Americans.” The urgency is in the rap: “Fuck the money, I’m not going to rap for a dead president. I’d rather see the president dead, never said it, but I set a precedent. Later, in a video titled “Mosh,” Eminem cited several news clips related to the investigation, including some of Bush’s unfortunate moments as president of the United States.
In late 2003 and late 2004, Apple Inc. and Eminem went to court over his song “Lose Yourself,” which was used in a TV commercial on Apple’s iTunes music store, which ran on MTV for three months . However, the ad features a 10-year-old rap lyrics to Em’s Oscar-winning track. By this point, Eminem had everyone paying for a piece of the pie; he played in the majors, and family was a priority.
In 2005, Eminem was sued by his aunt and uncle Jack and Betty Schmitt. The rapper is said to have promised them a $350,000 home and maintenance allowance for the property, but apparently Em kept the property in his name and tried to evict her; another case of “mo money mo problems.”
In 2007, Eminem and Apple Inc. met again. The Detroit rapper and his music distributors Eight Mile Style LLC and Martin Affiliated LLC have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the iTunes operator over alleged copyright infringement and Aftermath Entertainment. The charge against Aftermath is that they failed to reach a decent deal with Apple for its digital downloads. Apple allegedly paid a portion of its revenue from Eminem downloads to recording giant Universal Music Group; the downloads were never authorized, the complaint filed said. The lawsuit with Apple was settled out of court shortly after the trial began, for an undisclosed amount. It wasn’t until July 2010 that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that F.B.T. Productions and Eminem were owed royalties equal to 50 percent of net income.
Eminem’s latest violation of the law was a $9 million lawsuit against Chrysler advertising. The lawsuit accuses Eminem of knowingly using intellectual property from last year’s most popular Super Bowl ad, and plaintiffs seek millions of dollars in damages. A homeless New Yorker filed a $9 million lawsuit in January 2012, claiming he proposed to Em a two-minute ad for Chrysler’s Born of Fire idea. In a recent media report, Pieck was quoted as saying, “I designed every aspect of the ad, and the ad was stolen from me. Also, I received no financial compensation for the work I did.” in progress.
For 13 years, Eminem has had at least one major lawsuit a year. While this isn’t a new lawsuit filed by or against the Detroit rapper, his legal woes have somewhat overshadowed the music. While the damages he paid were only a small fraction, his attorney’s fees covered the bulk. And no matter how much money you make from gigs, albums, and digital sales, an average $1,000 entertainment lawyer consultation can put a lot of money in any rapper’s pocket. Fees charged to Eminem for legal disputes were not calculated, but approximately $4,745,000 over 13 years covered his legal representation 365 days a year, and all damages and fines owed to him were separated. It turns out it’s all fun and games until the legal bills land on your desk. But in Eminem’s case, with his recent lawsuit making headlines, he appears to have more cash to play with.
