Opinion
Eminem’s ongoing feud with entertainment impresario Nick Cannon, 39, has escalated through two diss tracks from the latter, and it appears tensions will never be eased.
The 47-year-old rapper is said to be committed to a prolonged battle with Mariah Carey’s ex-husband, mainly behind Cannon’s decision to include 23-year-old daughter Hailie Scott Mathers in his first diss track, “Invitation.”
But now that Cannon has involved civilians, fans should (probably) expect a long war.
“Eminem is not going to support anything that Nick Cannon has his hands on, they are not friends, they will not be friends, and Em will never in a million years appear on Nick’s radio show, television show, or anything else Nick is involved in,” a source explained to Hollywood Life. “Some beefs last forever and this is absolutely something that will last. Nick mentioned Hailie and that is completely off-limits. This is going to get a lot worse and there is no end in sight for the back-and-forth disses that are coming up.”
Their ongoing feud reignited last week when the “Renegade” rapper responded to Cannon’s remarks on T.I.’s ExpediTIously podcast from September, and Em appears to have real estate in Cannon’s head, living there rent-free.
Cannon said, on the show, “I said, ‘I know I’m not gonna be able to out-rap you, but I will whoop your ass.’” Eminem charged back on the entire back half of Fat Joe’s “Lord Above”: “Almost got my caboose kicked? Fool, quit. You not gonna do shit. I let her chop my balls off too ‘fore I lost to you, Nick.”
(Or eunuch, get it? Double entendres—there are many on this verse. Eminem’s got a future in this rap thing. Also, he should only rap on beats like these, but that’s a conversation for another day.)
Cannon, as previously reported, has already lobbed over another salvo toward the multi-platinum-selling Detroit MC, called “Pray for Him.” The track, like “Invitation,” features battle rap veterans and Wild N’ Out members Charlie Clips, Hitman Holla, and Conceited.
This latest diss, like “Invitation,” is interesting given how Cannon leans directly into his help. He understands he isn’t a battle rapper, so he uses his employees, err, friends to illustrate how the white boy isn’t from the culture, etcetera, and so on. He understands it, not only as a chance to take shots at an avowed enemy, but to boost the careers of Smack/URL/KOTD alumni Clips, Hitman, and Conceited into the mainstream, albeit off Eminem’s name.
However, unless the bad press is still good press, it doesn’t seem to be working the way he’d hoped. For one, Eminem definitely has support from other, much greater, more important rappers and industry insiders. While his content, often regressive and almost always problematic, gets him side-eyes and rebukes, the technical ability is unquestioned. So Cannon was facing an uphill battle, as in Everest.
https://twitter.com/Condor34__/status/1204218541433593856?s=20
https://twitter.com/nolanlafrance/status/1205176961653444609?s=20
Secondly, putting your boys on a diss track is probably the worst thing to do. It’s not just weak, it’s completely against the rules—short Tupac’s “Hit ‘Em Up,” which was a very special circumstance. Third, and most importantly, he sounds like an amateur.
Nick Cannon: “Elvis Pussley”
— Hokage of Halloweentown 🎃 (@BHancz) December 12, 2019
The mic: pic.twitter.com/UYQmUa8vPe
Being laughed at can’t be the desired outcome for Cannon, and it sounds like Eminem is winding up to flush what remains of his rap career down the drain. Given the response to Cannon’s tracks—though highly unlikely—he may not respond at all and will have won the war in the process. The “Lord Above” verse was more than enough.
https://twitter.com/KollegeKidd/status/1205129263382290433?s=20
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