New Good Music | Eminem – Houdini

Eminem is back in Slim Shady mode. There are lots of different ways to tell. For one, the rapper’s new album will be called The Death of Slim Shady. The music video for his lead single, “Houdini,” features the classic, bleach blond Slim in action. The most telling side effects of a Slim Shady sighting, however, are the lyrical insults.

Eminem’s alter ego loves to take shots at his peers, his predecessors, and pretty much any other person he can think of. He targets multiple people in “Houdini,” but the most notable is far and away Megan Thee Stallion.

Eminem turned the zaniness up to ten on the new single. He tells Dr. Dre to “f*ck off,” and does to the same to his children (one of whom just got married). Both Dre and his family are been topics of scorn and adoration over the years, however. Megan Thee Stallion is someone new.

The rapper flipped a line about scoring a guest verse from Megan into a double entendre about Tory Lanez shooting her in the foot.

It’s a clever turn of phrase, but a topic that has not been well received by the rap community. Rappers who have poked fun at Megan Thee Stallion have either been scorned by fans or Megan herself, in the form of a diss. Megan managed to win her battle with Nicki Minaj while dropping a number one single, “HISS,” in the process. The diss song, which dropped in January, is actually relevant to the current Em situation. Megan Thee Stallion made an oblique reference to Slim Shady on “HISS.” “I feel like Mariah Carey (Mariah Carey),” she rapped. “Got these n**has so obsessed (Damn).”

The line is meant to address Megan’s haters, but it’s also a reference to the 2008 Mariah Carey diss song “Obsessed.” The target of Mimi’s diss was, infamously, Eminem. The tension between the pop superstar and the rapper ran throughout the 2000s, and many feel like the former won out with a hit single.

Eminem dissing Megan Thee Stallion over a subliminal actually makes a lot of sense. Eminem knows how to hold a grudge against rappers who slight him. He waited years to respond to MGK on record, and when he did, he demolished the pop-punk artist. It’ll be interesting to see if Megan Thee Stallion takes the bait.