Benzino provided a detailed backstory on how the feud between him and Eminem came to be, blocking Em from getting a five-mic rating at The Source, and whether the Detroit rapper ended Benzino’s career.
In a new episode of Math Hoffa's My Expert Opinion, Benzino admitted he listened to Em’s diss track “Nail in the Coffin.”
“I liked it,” Benzino said. “The beat was dope and he killed that shit. He deserved...every piece of success he got, he earned it. … Mind you, when I was at The Source, I was at the top. I didn’t have to answer to nobody. So I felt like my message would get across.”
The 58-year-old continued, “None of [Eminem's] shit really affected me because while he’s trying to discredit me as a street n***a, I know I’m a street n***a. I’ve known the shit I’ve done, so that didn’t bother me at all. So that’s why I never looked at it like 'he ended your career,’ or ‘he killed you.’ … Now if he came with Nas’ joint, ‘Ether,’ yeah, I probably would have had to move out the country.”
Benzino said that at the time, he was at the "top of my motherfucking food chain.”
“I was the top of a damn near $75 million company when n***as wasn’t getting money like that," he recounted. "I got that big money first and I was the top of that. So when the Eminem thing came through The Source, at this point, it’s getting disrespectful. So how the fuck am I gonna have this n***a in my magazine? … You’re not gonna put nobody in your magazine and give this n***a five mics after this n***a’s being disrespectful.
Benzino then claimed he did start the beef, pointing to one line in a song he included on a mixtape, though he didn’t know how Eminem heard it.
The Boston native previously apologized for feuding with Eminem. “I can say it now, I was wrong for it. Because at the end of the day, Em is a great lyricist and he should be able to express himself in hip-hop as anybody should," Benzino told RapFix Live in 2012. "Em's still doing his thing and he's still a great influence on hip-hop. Hip-hop has bridged the cultures, white, black, Latino, Asian, it's for everybody."
Eminem and Benzino’s beef goes back to 2002, when Em’s music took a hit at The Source and Benzino accused Em of appropriating hip-hop. Benzino dissed Em on tracks like “Pull Up Your Skirt” and “Die Another Day,” and Em hit him back with “Nail in the Coffin” and “The Sauce.”
