One of the highest-selling hip-hop artists of all time, Eminem, is no stranger to all-out beef. But what happens when you decide to troll the King of Pop, Michael Jackson? Slim Shady is notoriously famous for eating rappers alive in his songs and holding back nothing. However, there is one defeat that the Lose Yourself rapper will never forget. Let’s rewind the story of when MJ threw dirt at Em’s face without saying a word.
We all know how Eminem gets naughty while writing his songs. Back when the Thriller singer was fighting molestation accusations, the rapper capitalized on it and went all out on the singer in his 2004 song ‘Just Lose It’. In that song, Em wrote, “Come here little kiddies, on my lap/Guess who’s back with a brand new rap/And I don’t mean rap, as in a new case/Of child molestation accusation/No worries, papa’s got a brand new bag of toys/What else could I possibly do to make noise, I done touched on everything/But little boys.”
Of course, these lines did not rest well with Smooth Criminal singer. But instead of feeding into the drama, Michael Jackson told Steve Harvey on KKBT-FM as per Log Angeles Times and said, “I’ve admired Eminem as an artist, and was shocked by this. The video was inappropriate and disrespectful to me, my children, my family and the community at large. I am very angry at Eminem’s depiction of me in his video. I feel that it is outrageous and disrespectful. It is one thing to spoof, but it is another to be demeaning and insensitive. I’ve never met Mr. Eminem, and to have – I’ve always admired him – and to have him do something like that has been pretty painful.”
One might think the beef between Eminem and Michael Jackson ended here. But this was just the beginning. MJ then decided to rock Eminem’s world. He bought out the publishing company Famous Music for a whopping $370 million, which owned the rights to Marshall Mathers’ back catalog. The year was 2007 and Slim Shady was coming down with a fever. Right around this time, the rapper went big time into drugs and overdosed. Luckily, he was able to overcome this dark phase. Tragically, MJ passed away in 2009 and Em returned to the scene with his fine album titled ‘Recovery’.
Eminem did not get the rights back to his music catalog up until 2016. Sony paid the Michael Jackson estate $750m for the late pop star’s share in the venture that owns the rights to songs by The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Eminem, and more.
What do you think about this crazy fight between Michael Jackson and Eminem?