A History Of Eminem's Most Vicious Lyrics

This past week, Eminem re-ignited his 22-year beef with Benzino on “Doomsday Pt. 2” from Lyrical Lemonade’s All Is Yellow. He also mentioned the former Source Magazine co-owner’s daughter, Coi Leray on the track, who later responded to Em’s lyrics on Twitter. Coi wrote, “There’s no way I’m about to entertain these grown ass men and the beef they been having for over 20 years. Lmao it’s so stupid, all I can do is laugh.” Throughout his career, Eminem has been notorious for engaging in beef, sending fiery diss tracks and stray shots at anyone who slights him. His competitive spirit contributed to his ascent as a rapper and still permeates his music today. Today, we are looking into the history of Eminem’s most vicious disses, including particular lines and entire songs. Take a look at the list below.

Read More: Breaking Down Eminem & Melle Mel's Beef

Eminem’s debut single saw the birth of his Slim Shady alter ego, as well as numerous rap beefs. His second verse on “Just Don’t Give a Fuck” targets multiple white rappers, dissing them in just a few bars. He raps, “I'm nicer than Pete, but I'm on a search to crush a milkbone / I'm everlastin', I melt vanilla ice like silicone/ I'm ill enough to just straight up diss you for no reason/ I'm colder than snow season when it's twenty below freezin'.” Eminem cleverly incorporated the names of Miilkbone and Vanilla Ice into cold-blooded punchlines while praising Pete Nice, MC Serch, and Everlast. Before he would beef with the latter, his jabs at Miilkbone and Vanilla Ice on this song led to exchanges of multiple diss tracks.

One of four diss tracks from Eminem’s feud with Benzino back in 2002, “Nail In The Coffin” was a vicious response to “Pull Your Skirt Up.” The entire song is quite cutthroat, but here are his most scathing bars: “You sit behind a fuckin' desk at The Source butt-kissin' / And beggin' motherfuckers for guest appearances / And you can't even get the clearances 'cause real lyricists don't even respect you or take you serious/ It's not that we don't like you—we hate you, period.” Though Eminem recently took shots at Benzino, this song spoke true to its title during their beef back in the day.

Read More: Benzino: A Brief History Of Beef

“Bully” not only fires at Benzino but also at Ja Rule, with whom Eminem was also beefing during the early 2000s. Released during the peak of their feud, Em spits an aggressive diss towards Ja and Murder Inc. In his third verse, he raps, “If Irv really gave a fuck about Ja, like he claims he does / He'd wake him up and make his boy get off them drugs / But he just keeps feedin' him pills, so if that E doesn't kill him / Someone from G-Unit will, and I ain't buzzed.” Eminem backs 50 Cent, who was also aiming disses at Ja Rule. As one of his meanest disses, he declares that he will not back down and “cower to no bully.”

Eminem’s tension with Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon is one of his most bizarre feuds, but we got a relentless diss track out of it. “The Warning” responds to Carey’s “Obsessed” song and video, which stems from lyrics on “Bagpipes From Baghdad” and The Eminem Show about the singer. He fires at both Cannon and Carey: “You're gonna ruin my career, you better get one / Like I'ma sit and fight with you over some slut bitch cunt that made me put up with her psycho ass over six months / And only spread her legs to let me hit once.” A harsh diss, “The Warning” certainly contains some of Eminem’s most disrespectful diss bars. 

Eminem’s 2018 album, Kamikaze took digs at his critics, mumble rappers, and others who have spoken ill of him. Songs like “Fall” respond to his critics, including Pitchfork, Akademiks, Charlamagne tha God, Tyler, The Creator, and Lord Jamar. Most notably, he disses his former Shady Records signee and Slaughterhouse member Joe Budden. “Somebody tell Budden before I snap, he better fasten it or have his body bag get zipped/ The closest thing he's had to hits is smackin' bitches (Pump it up!),” he raps. Eminem makes light of Joe’s alleged domestic abuse after Budden heavily criticized Revival on Everyday Struggle. Joe Budden responded on his podcast, claiming to have been a better rapper than Eminem for "this entire decade."

Also on Kamikaze was “Not Alike” where Eminem directly attacked Machine Gun Kelly, which resulted in MGK’s “Rap Devil” diss. In response to the track came “Killshot.” The lethal diss track references the 2008 film in which a man named Colson, MGK’s government name, is targeted by a hitman. The song is riddled with vicious lyrics, including “Younger me? No, you the wack me, it's funny but so true / I'd rather be 80-year-old me than 20-year-old you” and “as long as I'm Shady he's gon' have to live in my shadow.” Eminem also warns MGK: “Kelly, they'll be putting your name next to Ja, next to Benzino—die, motherfucker! / Like the last motherfucker sayin' Hailie in vain.” “Killshot” proved once again that one cannot mess with Eminem on a song without consequence.

“I Will” saw a mini Slaughterhouse reunion without Joe Budden. In the song, Eminem pays respects to his favorite rappers while also poking fun at Lord Jamar. The two have exchanged disses and words outside of music, but “I Will” was Eminem’s most brutal diss against him to date. He raps, “I'm more than you bargained for and I am far more worse than a forty-some bar Lord Jamar verse.” 

Eminem responds to Lord Jamar calling him a “guest in the house of hip hop” and calls him the worst rapper in Brand Nubian: “If it was anyone's house, G Rap and Rakim would be havin' you mop floors / Run-DMC would be havin' you cleanin' sinks / Yeah, your group was off the chain, but you were the weakest link.” Over the span of his career, Eminem has come out victorious in his rap beefs by spitting lethal bars. With his latest verse against Benzino, it still holds true no matter how petty it might come across. 

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