On the MGK/Eminem Beef

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve been regularly posting on my website, and if there was anything I should have addressed already it is the MGK/Eminem beef. As you’re probably aware from a previous blog post... I am OBSESSED with Eminem—which I will admit gives me quite a bias in the MGK vs. Eminem debate.

But before we get started on that subject, I’d like to talk about my reaction to the surprise Eminem album Kamikaze.

I had no idea it was coming, even though the night that it was released I watched a clip of Eminem’s new song for the motion picture Venom. This hinted that Eminem would be out with new music, but I never expected an entire album after viewing this simple promotion of a cash-grab song. So I posted that I was angry that Eminem did a song for Venom, which I did not look forward to and then went to bed.

Right when I woke up on August 31, I checked messenger, and my friend Tarun had sent me a text that just read: “Eminem released!!!” At that point I was thinking that he meant he released the Venom track, for which I could care less. But another friend of mine, Josh, texted me that Eminem released an album, and then my brain went:

HOLY SHIT!!!!!

I go to Spotify and immediately give the album a listen. 40 seconds into the first track “The Ringer” and I text my buddy Ryan that I’m already hooked. I have not stopped listening to that song for a couple months now—it is my favorite on the album, even if my cousin tries to convince me it’s just whining. To me, the song, which is just one really long verse, is lyrically amazing, honest, and it truly brings back the essence of Slim Shady, who no rapper in the game ever wants to go head-to-head with (we’ll get to that in a minute).

A little further into the album—not bad, and the "Em Calls Paul" skit makes me laugh so hard, since it reminds me of the ending of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, my favorite Kevin Smith film to date.

The album still goes strong until “Fall,” the second best song on the album, but then it falls off. After “Fall,” you have these two mini-songs—if you will—called “Nice Guy” and “Good Guy,” and I don’t know which is which, or which one actually comes first because they’re both so forgettable. And then of course you have the Venom song. If these three songs didn’t exist on the album, I would easily put Kamikaze in my top five Eminem albums because there’s a lot of good stuff going on up until “Fall.” In fact, the only two songs before “Fall” that I dislike are “Normal” and “Kamikaze.” That’s six “good” songs out of eight, which would make for a great short album. But as we learned from Revival, older Eminem seems to drag his projects out a little bit.

Overall, Kamikaze gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me, but if the last three tracks weren’t included, I’d probably give it an eight. It’s no Marshall Mathers LP (the first one), but a few of Eminem’s best verses in the past eight years are on this album. Out of the nine albums I know by Eminem (I live and breathe everything other than Infinite, his first album and the hardest one to get a hold of) Kamikaze ranks above Revival, Encore, and MMLP2. Not a masterpiece, but not his worst work.

"Rap Devil"

A few days later I see a link with MGK’s face as the photo. I click on it and it takes me 30 seconds or so to realize I’m listening to a track that’s dissing Eminem. I’m speechless. Never did I expect anybody to go after Eminem, especially not a young, white rapper that I’ve barely even heard of. And some of the disses in the song are a little petty, but they’re still good, especially considering that this song came out only two days after Kamikaze was released. I nearly even said “damn” out loud to the lyric, “Knees weak of old age, the real Slim Shady can’t stand up.”

After sharing the link on Facebook, I made a comment that I couldn’t wait until Eminem releases a response to that diss track.

"Kill Shot"

On the first listen, I was a little disappointed to be honest. I’ve been a Stan for so long that I expected better punchlines and an angrier-sounding Eminem than what I heard on “Killshot.” A couple of the punchlines made me laugh out loud though—on first listen I laughed at: “I’d rather be eighty-year-old me than 20-year-old you.” I also really liked the line about if Eminem was 3'11" then MGK would still suck a dick to be Eminem for a second—since it was a weak punchline on “Rap Devil” when MGK brags about being taller than Em.

But on repeat listenings and reading annotations on Genius (amazing website for lyrics, especially for breaking down hip-hop lyrics) “Killshot” became awesome. The first thing I noticed on repeat listenings was that Eminem nearly addresses every single diss that MGK had for him on “Rap Devil.” To realize this, I had to listen to both diss tracks a couple more times each. Eminem gets to the point right away: “Rihanna just hit me on a text,” responding to MGK’s line about Eminem not getting Rihanna’s number. “Was watching 8 Mile on my Nordictrack,” a direct response to: “Last time you saw 8 Mile was at home on the treadmill.” “Wait, you just dissed me I’m perplexed—insult me on a line, compliment me on the next, damn.” Three direct responses and these are all just in the first 30 seconds of “Killshot.”

Then you have to appreciate Eminem’s rhyme schemes that he comes up with on “Killshot;” he is far from MGK’s lazy approach of only rhyming the last two syllables of each line. “Rihanna just hit me on a text” lines up great with “hickeys on her neck,” then “dissed me I’m perplexed” and “compliment me on the next” all show Eminem following a four-syllable rhyme scheme. Then later, “out-petty who” lines up with “ow, Kelly, ooh” and then lines up with “out-selling you.” If you pay attention to these rhyme schemes, you’ll have a much deeper appreciation for “Killshot.”

Eminem EASILY wins this beef, but somehow MGK doesn’t see it that way. He does an interview with The Breakfast Club where he talks about “Killshot” being a 6 out of 10—and this interview gets so many dislikes on YouTube for obvious reasons. One of the most ridiculous claims that MGK makes is that he had a response for “Killshot” ready, but “put it back in the holster” once he actually heard “Killshot” because it was too weak. Uh, wouldn’t you want to respond to the diss track to PROVE it was weak?? He asks why Eminem is talking about man-buns when literally the first line of “Rap Devil” addresses Eminem’s beard. He claims he is the better artist since his response took two days while Eminem’s took two weeks. Eminem had better stuff to do than write a diss track right away. He took his time and won.

Sit down MGK, you’re done.