Eminem vs. Machine Gun Kelly
via People Magazine
The feud between Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) and Eminem has come to the forefront of hip-hop news recently after trading massively successful diss tracks. However, some may not be aware that this war has quite a long history.
In May of 2012 MGK was a young up and coming rapper who had released his first EP only a couple months earlier and had an album in the works. Then on May 7th he tweeted, “Ok so I just saw a picture of Eminem’s daughter… and I just have to say, she is hot as f**k, in the most respectful way possible because Em is king.” Unbeknownst to MGK, this tweet would start beef with Eminem that would last 6 years and greatly affect his career.
Eminem is famously protective of his daughter Hailie. When Benzino and Ja Rule included lines about Hailie in their diss tracks from 2002 and 2003, respectively, they started feuds that caused irreparable damage to their careers. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that, despite the disclaimer in MGK’s tweet, Em took it as an insult. This is made more understandable when you realize that Hailie was 16 at the time and Kelly was 22. Eminem reacted by banning MGK from his radio station Shade 45. As a result, other stations with ties to Em also removed MGK’s music from play, effectively blackballing him. This would continue to affect him for years to come. MGK said in a 2015 interview with Hot 97, "Certain people won’t even listen or review [my album]. Certain places, you won’t even hear Machine Gun Kelly on. Certain things won’t even happen." Em revealed in The Kamikaze Interview that he didn’t like how MGK effectively did a press run about his daughter with interviews like this.
Despite Em’s harsh reaction, he never dissed or mentioned MGK on any of his songs. What really pushed him to speak out was when in MGK was featured on Tech N9ne’s song No Reason in 2017 and used that opportunity to subliminally diss Em. He rapped, “Remind y’all that you just rap, you’re not God” in reference to the song Rap God. When Em dropped his surprise album Kamikaze it included the song Not Alike. This song contains the lyrics “Next time you don't gotta use Tech N9ne if you wanna come at me with a sub-machine gun. And I'm talking to you, but you already know who the f**k you are, Kelly. I don't use sublims and sure as f**k don't sneak-diss. But keep commenting on my daughter Hailie.” A day after the album’s release MGK posted a video on Instagram of him popping champagne while listening to Eminem’s diss.
Two days later MGK released his Eminem diss track Rap Devil. It currently has 117 million views with about 53% likes on YouTube. It covers topics such as Em’s age, appearance, and worsening rap skills as well MGK being blackballed. 11 days after Rap Devil was released, Eminem released Killshot. This track mocked Rap Devil’s lyrics and video. It also mentioned how much more successful Em is and how this beef will be the peak of MGK’s career. Killshot has 117 views and 97% likes on YouTube.
MGK responded by saying Em “missed” and that Killshot was a “legshot.” He also made the most of his time in the spotlight by announcing his new EP Binge, which was released on September 21st. Many people expected the beef to continue with MGK responding to Killshot on that EP. Rap Devil was included, but there were not any new disses on Binge. MGK
confirmed that although he had something ready he wouldn’t respond to Eminem, effectively signaling the end of this beef.
In the past, rappers have taken the advice of The Game when he said, “I'm saying like Eminem I don’t think there’s a rapper he won’t slay in and you don’t even want to war with Eminem, you know he crazy,” However this seems to have done great things for both rappers. Eminem has received a lot of attention and views, as well as satisfying his fans who love to watch him diss people. MGK has received a huge publicity boost, with Rap Devil reaching #1 on the iTunes charts and becoming his second most viewed music video of all time. He also capitalized on the opportunity with the release of Binge. It will be interesting to see how this translates to long term success for Machine Gun Kelly, and if Eminem ended his career, as some people predicted he would, or if this feud acts as the push towards him becoming a much more popular artist.