History Characters / EminemBeefs

[[/folder]]

* AccidentalPervert: While Eminem just plain hates him in general, Kelly didn't exactly do himself any favors when he tried to drift on Hailie [[PaedoHunt without realizing that she was still underaged]].

* [[RockIsAuthenticPopIsShallow Hip-Hop Is Authentic, Pop Is Shallow, And You Are Not Hip-Hop]]: In "Killshot", Eminem points out Kells (unlike him) will never be listed with Music/TupacShakur or Music/TheNotoriousBIG, and instead will inevitably get big by crossing over into disposable pop, "next to Music/TaylorSwift and [[Music/IggyAzalea that Iggy ho]]". (A ContinuityNod to Eminem's ''irritation'' at being next to [[Music/BritneySpears a blond girl popstar]] in "The Real Slim Shady".) Eminem's prediction would [[SelfFulfillingProphecy prove correct]] - MGK drifted away from hip-hop as partial result of "Killshot" destroying his credibility, eventually winding up making PopPunk with no hip-hop elements for an audience of teenage girls and being far more successful with it than he'd ever been in rap.

The plant-based, bald-headed electronic musician Music/{{Moby}} ended up becoming an enemy of Eminem starting from the 2001 Grammys, in which, while defending Eminem's right to free speech, he called him "''a misogynist, homophobic, racist and [an] antisemite''", then accused Eminem of being secretly gay and in love with him. Eminem, looking for a new enemy after tiring of beefing with TeenPop stars, responded by dissing Moby and threatening to assault him at the 2002 [=VMAs=]. While Eminem insisted in interviews that the beef was a joke (and Moby assumed at first that it was), Eminem's hatred of the man was sincere enough to genuinely frighten Moby, make ''him'' genuinely frightened ''of'' Moby[[note]]see the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog section below for more of how ''that'' one turned out[[/note]] -- and result in Moby getting assaulted in real life by a gang of imitation Slim Shadies.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Britney Spears]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/em_brit.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:I'm the worst thing since fat bald men decided to write songs to teach Mouseketeers to sing. I stick Britney Spears in a room full of mirrors, so [[MirrorCrackingUgly she gets fifty years of bad luck!]]]]

Music/BritneySpears is a TeenPop sensation and IdolSinger. She broke out in 1998, just before Eminem blew up, and inspired a parallel moral panic amongst America's parents due to her sexual dancing and status as a role model to little girls. While she's far from the only pop star Slim has dissed, she has remained one of his most consistent and favoured anti-muses, as the icon of everything that Eminem stood against, everything Slim lusts after... and everything that fame made Eminem into.

She is mentioned in "Off The Wall", "The Real Slim Shady" (played by Slim in the video), "Marshall Mathers", "Ass Like That", "We Made You", "My 1st Single", "Same Song And Dance", the "R&B Bitches" freestyle, and numerous interviews and skits during the ''Music/TheMarshallMathersLP'' era. "Berzerk" and "Not Alike" reference her obliquely via shots at her second ex-husband, K-Fed.

!!Tropes applying to Britney:

* AntiRoleModel: According to Slim, her hypersexualised image and StepfordSmiler attitude makes her a worse role model for kids than he is, which is saying something.
* BreadAndCircuses: In "Marshall Mathers", Slim's furious at her because she and the other TeenPop stars of the era are being happy and innocent all the time while the world itself is oppressive, disgusting and sexually corrupt.
* CatholicSchoolGirlsRule: In the music video for "The Real Slim Shady", Britney is played by Slim, wearing her famous schoolgirl outfit and pigtails. In "Same Song And Dance", Slim drools over her being a 'sexy little schoolgirl'.
* ChemicallyInducedInsanity: In "Same Song And Dance", Slim picks up the antipsychotic medication her handlers have been drugging her with, and offers to swap it with his favoured Valium. When she won't take his drugs, he shoves them down her throat.
* FallenPrincess: In "Same Song And Dance", a former wholesome pop star whose reputation is in tatters after her personal issues.
* KillAndReplace: In "Same Song And Dance", Slim appears to want to do this - after murdering her, he skins her to make a suit out of her.
* KillTheCutie: A Britney convalescing after her famous meltdown is graphically offed by Slim as she cries in "Same Song And Dance".
* LaserGuidedKarma: While on the Up In Smoke tour, Eminem was writing lyrics for ''Music/TheEminemShow'' in a Britney Spears notebook (claiming she was the love of his life), which later went missing. Despite setting up a website offering a cash reward for getting it back, the notebook was never found. While urban legends of [=MCs=] finding the notebook and getting rich off the lyrics surface from time to time, Eminem is still searching for it as of 2022, and has suggested it was Britney's revenge for his insults.
* LoveMartyr: In "We Made You", Slim suggests that instead of having her heart broken by K-Fed and having a mental breakdown, she could just date [[SerialKiller him]] and end up in hospital more efficiently.
* LovingBully: Slim claims to have lashed out at her in his songs because of his crush on her in "Same Song And Dance".
* MirrorCharacter: Despite them both having different backgrounds, Eminem's repeated use of her in his lyrics seems to stem from him relating to her. Both are sneered-at, white-trash, bottle blonds who ascend to fame via Creator/{{MTV}}. They are surrounded by TabloidMelodrama and abusive family members who try to use them, as well as family members who drug them with medication against their will. Both were prevented from seeing their kids by a vengeful (and publicly reviled) spouse, and both had issues with their mental health and drugs as a result of their fame. Admittedly, Slim's way of expressing this to her is by offering to be her [[DomesticAbuser abusive boyfriend]] or just muder her.
* MoralMyopia: It's a bit rich for '''Slim Shady''' to be dragging any other celebrity for being a bad role model to kids.
* MuscleAngst: Slim (in character as Triumph the InsultComic Dog) shames her for her muscular shoulders in "Ass Like That", then immediately admits that was an asshole comment that the audience only finds funny because he's a mere puppet.
* PeripheryHatedom:[[invoked]] In "Marshall Mathers", it's not really a surprise that a 26-year-old male hip-hop obsessive would think Britney is garbage -- why'd he spend $16 on her album?
* PlasticBitch: In the "R&B Bitches" freestyle, Slim sneers at her for having had a boob job as a teenager - a rumour in the late 90s/early 2000s - claiming it sends a bad message to teenage girls. (Britney has denied having had breast implants, but other members of her family has claimed she has had them. She also, much like Slim, claims she's not a role model.)
* SelfProclaimedLoveInterest: Starting from the 2000s and continuing onwards, Slim has called her his girlfriend and the love of his life.
* UncannyValleyGirl: In early songs, Britney's this, seemingly wholesome on the surface but a shallow puppet of an evil and exploitative culture. In later songs, it becomes more clear that Eminem doesn't view that as being her fault.
* VillainRespect: Despite his comments, Eminem's later lyrics develop a tone of being rather protective of her. In particular, he switches after getting clean from dissing her, to dissing her exploitation, and her ex-husband K-Fed for being an irresponsible husband (sometimes with the subtext that Slim would have treated her better).
* VomitIndiscretionShot: She throws up in "Same Song And Dance" while Slim force-feeds her sleeping pills.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: Slim's hatred of her stems from the fact that they were suddenly in the same ecosystem - both {{Teen Idol}}s performing at the [=VMAs=] to a pop audience, despite Eminem's HardcoreHipHop background and Britney being a former Disney child star. The fact that they later became victims of nonconsensual drugging from abusive family members appears to have also inspired him.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Triumph the Insult Comic Dog]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/em_triumph.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Psych! I joke! I joke! I kid! I kid! If I offend, I'm sorry! Please, please, forgive! For I am Triumph the Puppet Dog, I am a mere puppet! I can get away with anything I say and you will love it!]]

Triumph the InsultComic Dog is a canine CigarChomper {{Candid Camera Prank}}ster, originating as a skit on Creator/ConanOBrien's ''Series/LateNightWithConanOBrien''. A [[StylisticSuck deliberately crappy]] hand-puppet operated by the comedian and writer Robert Smigel, Triumph would appear at award shows to roast celebrities, which brought him into conflict with Eminem at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards. Showing up to mock Eminem, the rapper instead pinched the puppet's jaw shut and pushed him out of his face, followed by his hypeman Proof taking his operator's script and throwing it at him. This made Eminem appear to be a fragile bully unable to even take criticism from a silly puppet -- which, along with his unwarranted hostility to Music/{{Moby}} at the same event, resulted in him getting booed when he went to get his award.
\\\

\\\

\\\

\\\

* CanadaEh: Eminem claims in both "Can-I-Bitch" and "Square Dance" that Canibus is Canadian. There is no evidence for this.

-->Heavy artille—ry, Godzilla harsh with a hard shell

* AngryBlackMan: Eminem accuses him of acting like a Black nationalist despite being half-white -- often addressing him as if from one white rapper to another.

Ray Benzino, former editor of ''The Source'', entered a beef with Eminem in the early 2000s. Eminem, who had been making swipes at ''The Source'' since they gave a mediocre review to Young Zee's ''Musical Meltdown''[[note]]Zee was a member of Outsidaz, a New Jersey collective of which Eminem was also a loose member[[/note]], had claimed ''The Source'' was biased against him for his race when the magazine gave ''Music/TheEminemShow'' a [[EightPointEight four out of five mics]][[invoked]], resulting in Benzino repeatedly dissing him on the basis that Eminem was a [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy racist stealing hip-hop]]. Eminem's attempts to [[DissTrack take Benzino down]] and clear his name was largely successful, highlighting Benzino's unsavory editorial practices and getting him deposed from his magazine by his own staff. While Eminem would not emerge from the beef with his reputation unscathed, Benzino's ended up [[MemeticLoser in tatters]], now mostly remembered for inspiring several of Eminem's meanest and funniest songs. And a couple of his most mature and meaningful. And several of his silliest.

* ArcFatigue:[[invoked]] Eminem eventually became really, ''really'' sick of Benzino due to viewing him as an unworthy opponent and use of his time, while his own pettiness prevented him from being able to leave him alone. His last few songs and verses released as part of the beef are increasingly bored pleas for Benzino to accept the beef is over and leave him alone. This contributed to ''Encore'''s AlbumFiller issues, since tracks addressing the beef were removed in order to replace them with "Like Toy Soldiers", which lyrically (and visually, in the video) shows him laying down his mic and walking away from the beef. Benzino self-declared himself to be Eminem's ArchNemesis and continued slinging insults at him on-and-off for several decades. He was still insulting Eminem on Twitter as late as 2022, dragging in his [[WackyParentSeriousChild unfortunate]] daughter Music/CoiLeray when it turned out that even ''she'' took Eminem's side in the beef over his.

* GameBreakingInjury: While Eminem signed the death certificate of Benzino's career, Benzino inflicted a serious wound on Eminem by leaking [[OldShame some racist freestyles he did as a teenager]]. While Eminem did not face the same level of scrutiny for these freestyles as he likely would have today, they were instrumental in the accusations of racism Eminem faced for mocking Music/MichaelJackson on his ''Encore'' lead single "Just Lose It", contributing to the mixed reception to ''Encore'' and ending Eminem's imperial phase.

* TheGrovel: Reviewers of Eminem's book ''The Way I Am'' noted that -- despite all his bad behaviour over the years -- the emotional high point is the detailed, thoughtful and compassionate apology for his assault of Triumph. In fact, the extent to which he goes out of his way to apologise for a ridiculous incident with a puppet and not for, say, the rampant MuseAbuse that ruined his personal life was seen by some as a further insult to those he harmed.

* AntagonistInMourning: In both "Rain Man" and "My 1st Single" on ''Encore'', Slim expresses grief and shame about the death of his favourite punchbag, Creator/ChristopherReeve, sadly [[LibationForTheDead pouring one out]] for him after making fun of him in his songs. The ghost of Reeve warns him that when Slim dies, he'll kick his ass.

* QuicksandSucks: In "Medicine Ball", Slim puts Christopher on a unicycle, rolls him into a patch of quicksand, and then [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown offers him a branch to grab onto with both hands]].
* TheChewToy: Not even death can spare Christopher Reeves from Slim's harassment and slander.

* DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound[[invoked]]: When asked in a 2005 interview for what the most annoying sound in the world is, Eminem rapped the first few bars of Benzino's "Pull Your Skirt Up" (a diss directed at him) in a near-perfect imitation of Benzino's voice and cadence.

* MirrorCharacter: Despite them both having different backgrounds, Eminem's repeated use of her in his lyrics seems to stem from him relating to her; both were sneered-at white-trash bottle blonds who ascended to fame via Creator/{{MTV}}, were surrounded by TabloidMelodrama and abusive family members who tried to use them, both had family members drug them with medication against their will, both were prevented from seeing their kids by a vengeful (and publicly reviled) spouse, and both had issues with their mental health and drugs as a result of their fame. Admittedly, Slim's way of expressing this to her is by offering to be her BastardBoyfriend, or just murdering her.

"Reeves" makes appearances on "Get You Mad", "Who Knew", "I'm Back", "Purple Pills", "My 1st Single", "Rain Man", "Medicine Ball", "Underground", "Campaign Speech", and basically every single ''Relapse'' Shady freestyle.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: In real life, while Bailey did bully Marshall Mathers as brutally as shown here, some details (like their ages) were embellished while others (the teachers and principal helping Bailey, and Slim taking violent revenge with a broom) are clearly fiction. The real-life Bailey tried to Sue Eminem for defamation of character after "Brain Damage" came out, only for the judge to dismiss the case via impromptu rap freestyle ([[https://hiphophero.com/when-eminems-childhood-bully-tried-to-sue-him-and-failed/?amp yes]], [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer this really happened]]) partially on the grounds that the song's content is so transparently fictional that no sensible person would ever believe it.

* BackhandedCompliment: "Role Model"'s opening lyric "''I'm cancerous, so when I diss, you wouldn't wanna answer this if you responded back with a battle rap you wrote for Canibus''" puzzled Bus as he couldn't figure out if it was an insult or not. On the one hand, the boast only makes sense if Canibus's battle raps were the strongest rhymes available. On the other hand, it implies Canibus uses ghostwriters – especially nasty considering Eminem's accusation of ghostwriting for LL.

The school bully of a young Marshall, once batteringa him so severely he ended up comatose from a cerebral haemorrhage (which both Eminem and his mother has claimed was responsible for some of his mental health problems). He appears in the song "Brain Damage", a LifeEmbellished account of the incident. Eminem never mentioned him again in his music, but he made a vague allusion to the lawsuit Bailey slapped him with in "Without Me".

Ray Benzino, former editor of ''The Source'', entered a beef with Eminem in the early 2000s. Eminem, who had been making swipes at ''The Source'' since they gave a mediocre review to Young Zee's ''Musical Meltdown''[[note]]Zee was a member of Outsidaz, a New Jersey collective of which Eminem was also a loose member[[/note]], had claimed ''The Source'' was biased against him for his race when the magazine gave ''Music/TheEminemShow'' a [[EightPointEight four out of five mics]][[invoked]], resulting in Benzino repeatedly dissing him on the basis that Eminem was a [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy racist stealing hip-hop]]. Eminem's attempts to [[DissTrack take Benzino down]] and clear his name was largely successful, highlighting Benzino's unsavory editorial practices and getting him deposed from his magazine by his own staff. While Eminem would not emerge from the beef with his reputation unscathed, Benzino's ended up in tatters, now mostly remembered for inspiring several of Eminem's meanest and funniest songs. And a couple of his most mature and meaningful. And several of his silliest.

The school bully of a young Marshall, once battering him so severely he ended up comatose from a cerebral haemorrhage (which both Eminem and his mother has claimed was responsible for some of his mental health problems). He appears in the song "Brain Damage", a LifeEmbellished account of the incident. Eminem never mentioned him again in his music, but he made a vague allusion to the lawsuit Bailey slapped him with in "Without Me".

* ComplimentBackfire: MGK's strategy of creating a dramatic APupilOfMineBeforeHeTurnedToEvil dynamic by calling Eminem "the greatest rapper alive", his former hero and inspiration, praising the diss track he made about him, gushing about his greatness, the movie they made about him, etc., just results in Eminem mocking him for being a [[LoonyFan Loony Stan]] in love with him.

** While Eminem does not view MGK as a worthy opponent, he compliments "Rap Devil" twice in "Killshot" -- first giving it "''a B for the effort''", and second, by thanking MGK for writing it in the first place, giving him the retroactive justification for having gone in on him. It's worth making the observation that Kells may have got his praise for being the first rapper of note to drop a full AnswerSong in response to getting insulted on ''Kamikaze'' -- and as it turned out, the only one. All other responses to the album were tweets or similar public statements.

* ComplimentBackfire: MGK's strategy of calling Eminem "the GOAT", his idol, praising the diss track he made about him, gushing about his greatness, the movie they made about him, etc., just results in Eminem mocking him for being a [[LoonyFan Loony Stan]] in love with him.

* HollywoodHomely: Kells called Eminem 'ugly' in "Rap God", so Eminem responds by saying Kells is better dressed but not better ''looking'', describing him as a "little white toothpick" ripping off Eminem's blond-hair-and-earrings look. Objectively speaking, both men are [[SlidingScaleOfBeauty professionally handsome]] and both were [[PrettyBoy cute enough]] to have careers as {{Teen Idol}}s in their late 20s and 30s.

* [[RockIsAuthenticPopIsShallow Hip-Hop Is Authentic, Pop Is Shallow, And You Are Not Hip-Hop]]: In "Killshot", Eminem points out Kells (unlike him) will never be up there with Music/TupacShakur or Music/TheNotoriousBIG, and instead will inevitably get big by crossing over into disposable pop, "next to Music/TaylorSwift and [[Music/IggyAzalea that Iggy ho]]". (A ContinuityNod to Eminem's ''irritation'' at being next to [[Music/BritneySpears a blond girl popstar]] in "The Real Slim Shady".) Eminem's prediction would [[SelfFulfillingProphecy prove correct]] - MGK drifted away from hip-hop as partial result of "Killshot" destroying his credibility, eventually winding up making PopPunk with no hip-hop elements for an audience of teenage girls and being far more successful with it than he'd ever been in rap.

* PeripheryHatedom: In "Marshall Mathers", it's not really a surprise that a 26-year-old male hip-hop obsessive would think Britney is garbage -- why'd he spend $16 on her album?

* ArcFatigue:[[invoked]] Eminem eventually became really, ''really'' sick of Benzino due to viewing him as an unworthy opponent and use of his time, while his own pettiness prevented him from being able to leave him alone. His last few songs and verses released as part of the beef are increasingly bored pleas for Benzino to accept the beef is over and leave him alone. This contributed to ''Encore'''s AlbumFiller issues, since tracks addressing the beef were removed in order to replace them with "Like Toy Soldiers", which lyrically (and visually, in the video) shows him laying down his mic and walking away from the beef. Benzino self-declared himself to be Eminem's ArchNemesis and continued slinging insults at him on-and-off for several decades. He was still insulting Eminem on Twitter as late as 2022, though he eventually declared the beef was over due to it [[WackyParentSeriousChild embarrassing]] his daughter Music/CoiLeray.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece[[invoked]]: On many levels. Triumph's current-events pop culture jokes made him this already, and in 2004 he was already seen as past it. Smigel in fact cited "Ass Like That" as giving Triumph's career a boost, allowing him to continue to reappear during the later part of the 2000s and intervene in political events in the late 2010s.

* StrawVegetarian: In "My Name", Eminem claims the day he lets Canibus get one over on him is the day Moby is able to beat him in a fight.