Eminem Could Reportedly Join Drake-Joe Budden Beef — Is It Time For Drake To Wave The White Flag?

If we’re being honest, a big part of what’s been called “the dark times of rap” probably has to do with the lack of legitimate beefs and rivalries between artists or record labels — we’re a far cry away from the days of N.W.A and Ice Cube or Jay-Z and Nas, but what’s happening right now between an owl and a man who comes from a slaughterhouse may just change things. Despite the beef really only being about a month or so long, the Drake-Joe Budden beef has quickly become the most serious and “dangerous” rap battle since — well, probably when Eminem called Mariah Carey every word in the book back in 2009.

As the Drake-Joe Budden beef continues, Budden’s label boss may be entering the action, and while that’s not too much of a big deal as that’s happened plenty of times in history, you have to remember something. Joe Budden’s label boss happens to be the deadliest rapper in history when it comes to beefs.

Budden’s boss, of course, is one Marshall Mathers, and the New York rapper shouted out the blonde bomber recently. Budden, who signed to Shady Records in early 2011 along with the rest of Slaughterhouse, rapped the following on his latest track, “Just Because.”

“We heating up, you know the fire marshall in doubt / Irony, irony, I ain’t spoke to Marshall in a while / He said, ‘Budden get your stuff together / You busy ruffling feathers’ / Bound to happen when you target an owl / Now we not enemies, he just gotta bar up now / I’m still on ‘Energy,’ let’s see if he charged up now.”

Mathers, as many longtime listeners know, has called himself the fire marshall on occasion, but only time will tell, though, if he calls himself that in a track against Drake, who reportedly could be his next target. The first to break this news, surprisingly, was not Budden or Eminem, but Hot 97’s Ebro.

“I told Drake that I heard the rumor was Eminem was going to gear up to come after him. He laughed. He was like, ‘That’s not gonna happen.’ He’s like, ‘He’d never do that. And if he did, I got something for him, too.'”

If this is true, and based on Eminem’s famous and undying loyalty to his friends, Drake may as well just wave the white flag and acknowledge defeat. Going into a war with Eminem essentially means that your career is over with a capital O because, once he hits the mic, nothing is off limits. You’re a recovering alcoholic? Em will make you want to return to the bottle. Your wife cheated on you? If the “Not Afraid” rapper doesn’t make at least two sexual remarks, then you’ve gotten off lucky.

Just for the fun of it, let’s look at some of Em’s most notable beefs and wars over the years.

• The two most notable Eminem beefs are two of the three that really have peacefully concluded: Debbie Mathers and Kimberly Scott Mathers, his mother and wife, respectively. From claiming his mother put Valium in his food and tried to disowning him multiple times, Eminem vs. Debbie was often a focal point on his albums before he apologized to her on The Marshall Mathers LP 2‘s “Headlights.”
• As for Kim, well, “Kim” should be enough of a song to explain what happened there. Insults toward Kim ceased after the two remarried in 2006, though they divorced that same year. As of 2016, the two are on good terms — though remain separated (which is probably best).
• Em’s most recent beef, which starred him against ex-girlfriend Mariah Carey, saw him absolutely tear her to shreds in the 2009 track “The Warning.” Since then, Mariah’s really been out of the hip-hop limelight, while Eminem has continued to remain a star.
• After negative reviews from hip-hop magazine The Source, Eminem and friends battled the magazine and their owner, Raymond ‘Benzino’ Scott. Three diss songs later, including the legendary “Nail In The Coffin,” Eminem had destroyed any reputation Benzino may have ever had and eventually caused the now-51-year-old to admit in 2012 that combating Mathers was a mistake.
• As infamous as Em’s beef with Benzino was, few rap wars in history were as dangerous and over-the-line as Mathers’ beef with Ja Rule was. In one of the few raps that actually featured notable comeback lines, Ja dissed Eminem’s entire family with the beyond harsh line of “Em, you claim your mother’s a crackhead and Kim is a known slut / So what’s Hailie gonna be when she grows up?” Em then took to the studio with his rap group, D12, and destroyed Ja with tracks like “Do Rae Me,” “Bump Heads,” and “Bully.” Like Benzino, Ja’s reputation was destroyed with the war and the “Always On Time” rapper’s career has never been the same since.
• Granted, George W. Bush somewhat destroyed his own reputation as a president with a horrendous second term, but Eminem helped add fuel to the fire when he took on the former Texas Rangers owner with tracks like “We As Americans” (which had him looked into by the Secret Service) and “Mosh.”

The one thing that is important to note is that while most of these opponents had done the Detroit rapper dirty at some point (or, in Bush’s case, had just been bad at their jobs), Eminem and Drake have gotten along well, as has Eminem with Drake’s mentor, Lil’ Wayne. Between performing together on Drake’s 2009 hit, “Forever,” and the Canadian star appearing at some of Eminem’s concerts, we’re not talking about a repeat of the Ja Rule incident where the two had no contact prior to the Ja-50 Cent war.

At the “Home and Home Tour” in Detroit’s Comerica Park in 2010, Drake even said the following about Eminem after their performance of “Forever.”

“Detroit! I’m so honored to be here tonight! I want to let you know that this is history in the making and I want you to make some noise for the motherf***ing legend that is Eminem!”

The other thing that’s important to note is that even for how loyal Eminem is, he notably stayed away from dissing Fat Joe and Jadakiss — two rappers Eminem had collaborated with in the past — after the two appeared on Ja Rule’s 2004 50 Cent diss, “New York.” Because Jadakiss and Joe hadn’t technically declared war on 50 or anyone else from the Shady Records family, Eminem stayed out of the beef and watched 50 take on Joe for years with no real outcome.

But, if Eminem does get involved, then Drake really has to ask himself what he has at his disposal that can defeat the “Lose Yourself” rapper in a duel. Even for how quiet Em has been in the past two years when it comes to new music, it’d be silly to think Drake — arguably the biggest current name in rap right now — could best an artist that is often called the greatest rapper of all time in a beef, especially when Em has never lost one!

Chances are, Eminem won’t actually get involved unless Drake flat out comes at him first, but make sure to stick with the Inquisitr for all updates on a potential beef between the two.

[Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images for MTV]