Eminem’s sights are set on gunning down Machine Gun Kelly.
Eminem’s new diss track “Killshot” dropped on Friday. It’s the latest entry in the Em-MGK feud, which sparked after Eminem took shots against Kelly in his recent surprise album, Kamikaze (although, in fairness, Kamikaze pretty indiscriminately took shots at...well, everyone). In the song “Not Alike,” Eminem brought up a 2012 tweet by Kelly (now deleted) commenting that his daughter, Hailie, was “hot as fuck” — which the veteran rapper clearly still takes issue with, six years after the fact.
Kelly quickly responded to Kamikaze and “Not Alike” with his own diss track, “Rap Devil,” an inversion of Eminem’s 2013 single “Rap God.” Per Billboard, Kelly has accused Eminem of blackballing him from appearing on certain outlets, which he went into on “Rap Devil.” He claimed that Eminem called to demand an apology for the tweet, and also took aim at the 45-year-old rapper’s fashion choices, his ex-wife Kim, and his age, suggesting that Eminem is out of touch, past his prime, and close to retirement.
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And now, 11 days after Kelly’s move, we get the dense, heated “Killshot” from the Rap God himself. As Billboard reports, “Killshot” is an very detail-oriented diss: Em goes after Kelly’s former hairstyle of choice (“But how you gonna name yourself after a damn gun / And have a man bun?”), touts his own comparative commercial success (“But I'm 45 and I'm still outselling you / By 29 I had three albums that had blew”), and belittles MGK’s experience in the rap game, calling on his fans in Kelly’s hometown of Cleveland, OH (“Got more fans than you in your own city, lil' kiddy, go play / Feel like I'm babysitting Lil Tay”).
Eminem also name-drops a few others when tearing Kelly down — and it gets even messier.
He goes after MGK’s romantic life, taunting him for being in love with Halsey while she dates fellow rapper G-Eazy (“You're fuckin' salty / Cause Young Gerald's balls-deep inside of Halsey”). G-Eazy, for the record, is of course Team Eminem on this one, considering his own ongoing beef with Kelly.
Em also evokes a few other prominent young, white, blonde artists when suggesting that even if Kelly does sell out stadiums, he’ll never be taken seriously as a rapper (“You ain't never made a list next to no Biggie, no Jay / Next to Taylor Swift and that Iggy ho, you about to really blow”). Iggy Azalea swiftly took to Twitter to critique the line, calling Eminem’s writing “lazy.”
Kelly hasn’t taken this lying down, but he seems totally unfazed. On Friday night after the track dropped, he sent out a series of tweets: one announcing his upcoming Binge EP, dropping September 21, and another referring to Eminem’s track as a “legshot,” followed by some toilet and trash bin emojis.