The devil is back, my God! Nothing fully charges the battery in Slim Shady's back quite like a good ol'-fashioned street fight. Eminem courts more smoke than a firefighter. He likes his beef red, rare, and bloody, and anyone who dares get in the kitchen with him better not bring too many napkins. Machine Gun Kelly did just that last week, when he dropped "Rap Devil," a song and accompanying video made in response to a shot Em fired at MGK on his new album.
MGK ran right in with a fully loaded clip and a song that was honestly better than anyone who hasn't paid money for an MGK show expected it to be. But Eminem isn't Drake—there was never any question of whether he'd respond. It was just a matter of when, and how viciously, on a scale from "The Warning" to one of those Benzino drone strikes.
Welp, the response is here. It's called "Killshot," and it's pretty damn savage—and, more importantly, well-crafted on an entertaining level beyond just technical word-connect-words-connect-napkins-divorcing-Harrison-Ford rhyme schemes. MGK is a friend of the #brand. Em's a GOAT, the new album is fine, and I stan enough to even have a few MMLP2 tracks I keep in rotation. I wouldn't even know how to pretend to care about this beef genuinely—there's no side-choosing here, just pure bloodsport and praise for guys who are at least willing to go for it. With that said, let's highlight Em's choicest bars.
"Say you got me in a scope, but you grazed me/I say one call to Interscope and you're Swayze"
A major tenet of beef is boss talk. Em can't engage MGK without flexing his clout. As soon as he gets bored of this, all he has to do is pause that Loaded Lux YouTube compilation and call Jimmy to get Machine shelved indefinitely. The best thing about this line is that he could've also meant Shwayze, who, with his one-hit-wonder status, lends himself just as readily to a ghosting joke as Patrick himself. Between this and Jay Electronica (more on that later), Em is really waking everyone up on this run.
"Luxury, oh, you broke, bitch? Yeah, I had enough money in '02/To burn it in front of you, ho/Younger me? No, you're the wack me"
Jesus Christ. Boasting about outselling him at 45 is one thing, but this is just rude—and from a guy who rarely even flexes his bread, at that.
"Got the Diddy OK, so you spent your whole day/Shootin' a video just to fuckin' dig your own grave"
Every good diss needs a twist on the classic "Your boss is my man."
"My biggest flops are your greatest hits/The game's mine again and ain't nothin' changed but the locks/So before I slay this bitch, I mwah—give Jade a kiss"
And here we get an explicit Jadakiss reference, as well as one to Hailie, who MGK alleges is the source of all this animosity for that time he tweeted she was hot. Wonder if she gives a damn about any of this.
"It's your moment, this is it/As big as you're gonna get, so enjoy it/Had to give you a career to destroy it"
Give Marshall credit for finding new, meaner ways to make the same burn throughout the song!
"You're fuckin' salty 'cause Young Gerald's balls-deep inside of Halsey"
Look at Em inserting himself into the narrative of tertiary white-on-white crime! The glee is palpable!
"But Kells, the day you put out a hit's the day Diddy admits/That he put the hit out that got Pac killed"
I gotta be honest, I deadass thought he meant R. Kelly for a split second on first listen and was so fucking confused. Do people refer to MGK as "Kells" on some "Fiesta (Remix)" shit? News to me. Either way, this line is still bizarre to come from someone like Em. He later negates it with a jk in the outro. But, still, hearing a veteran spout one of rap's most classic conspiracy theories against a fellow vet was unexpected and seemingly came out of nowhere. Some in the game already don't find it funny. If Eminem manages to get Jay Elect into the booth to record a diss, this whole ordeal will truly be one for the books.
