Eminem loves to poke fun at other people. He's been doing it since his debut album, and he's been praised and criticized in equal measure for keeping it up as a veteran. The first single for Em's new album, "Houdini," contained a dig at Megan Thee Stallion. His latest single, "Tobey," has one aimed squarely at hip-hop legend Melle Mel. He may seem like a random target, but Em has actually been beefing with the Furious Five frontman for years.
The diss in question comes towards the end of "Tobey." Eminem dedicates a whole couplet to Melle Mel and their past disagreements. "Get dissed though and by a pioneer. Who was one of the reasons why I am here," Em raps. "They tell me I should just let that shit go and slide (Why?). 'Melle Mel shouldn't get no reply (Why?). 'That man is a legend,' b*tch, so am I (Haha, yeah)." Context is going to helpful here. So Melle Mel made headlines in 2023 when he dismissed Eminem's contributions to rap. "If you were talking about rhyme style, okay he got a rhyme style," Mel told DJ Vlad. "But he’s white. He’s white." The rapper did not appreciate the racial bias, so he fired back on the song "Realest."
Eminem Feels He Matches Melle Mel's Legend Status
It gets weirder and more complicated from there. Melle Mel decided to respond to Eminem's diss with a song called "Kickback." It was universally panned, and led to the Furious Five rapper issuing an apology to Eminem. "Regrettably, my response fell short in its execution," Mel wrote. "I accept full responsibility for the misjudgment." It seemed as though things between Eminem and Melle Mel had blown over, but the former still has some additional digs to get in.
The verse on "Tobey" isn't so much a rehash of the beef as a reminder than Eminem is more important than Melle Mel gave him credit for. He has a point when he was derided to for dissing Mel, on the merits that he's a genre pioneer. Eminem is the biggest-selling rapper of all time, and has influenced (for better or worse) generations of imitators. Hence the line "'That man is a legend,' b*tch, so am I." Based on how poorly things went last time, we imagine Melle Mel is going to chill out on recording a response.