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Eminem aims barbed disses at Sean “Diddy” Combs on several tracks on his new album The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce), including an extended reference to footage of the music mogul’s shocking hotel corridor attack on his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
Combs has been the subject of 10 lawsuits alleging sexual assault and sex trafficking since last November. In March, homes belonging to Combs in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by officials from US Homeland Security in connection to a federal sex trafficking investigation.
The rapper, who has repeatedly denied the allegations, has not been formally charged or accused by federal prosecutors of any crime.
On Eminem’s new track “Antichrist”, he makes references to the video of Ventura’s assault by rapping:
“Next idiot ask me is gettin’ his ass beat worse than Diddy did / But on the real, though / She prolly ran out the room with his f***in’ dildo / He tried to field goal punt her, she said to chill / Now put it back in my ass and get the steel toe”
In May, CNN aired security footage of Combs attacking his Ventura in a hotel hallway in Los Angeles in 2016. Captured from multiple angles, the video shows Combs in a towel chasing Ventura down the hallway, before attacking her near the elevators.
Eminem goes at Combs again on another song, “Fuel”, referencing the lawsuits as well as Tupac Shakur’s alleged killer, Duane “Keefe D” Davis.
“I’m like a R-A-P-E-R / Got so many S-As, S-As [Sexual Assaults] / Wait, he didn’t just spell the word, ‘Rapper’ and leave out a P, did he? (Yep) / R.I.P., rest in peace, Biggie / And Pac, both of y’all should be living / But I ain’t tryna beef with him‘ / Cause he might put a hit on me like Keefe D did / And that’s the only way you’re gonna be killing me”
Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, returns to the subject on a third song, “Bad One,” which references Combs allegedly arranging for an explosive to be planted in rapper Kid Cudi’s car while he was dating Ventura.
“The f***ing bomb with the Puffy on / I’m blowing up for Kid Cudi’s car / In front of his house where all his buddies are”
This is not the first time Eminem has taken aim at Combs. On his 2018 song “Killshot,” a diss track largely aimed at Machine Gun Kelly, he rapped:
“But, Kells, the day you put out a hit’s the day Diddy admits / That he put the hit out that got Pac killed, ah!”
Eminem concluded that song by adding: “And I’m just playin’, Diddy / You know I love you”
In a two-star review of The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce), The Independent’s Stevie Chick wrote: “In the past decade or so, critics have suggested Eminem has been outpaced by new young rap talent. But the only emcee Marshall Mathers has really been competing against is his younger self.
“The Slim Shady alter-ego behind his 1999 breakthrough LP and the many hits that followed – most notably the brattish, bombastic ‘I’m Back’ – was Mathers’ id, minus the ego. A malevolent clown persona through which the Detroit rapper felt free to indulge every forbidden thought that crossed his transom, every misogynistic fantasy, homophobic zinger, and drug-addled boast. The sort of thing, we’re told, you couldn’t get away with today. Though not for lack of him trying.”
