On Friday (Dec. 18), Em dropped the new LP, which marks his 12th album overall, and on his new song “Zeus,” he name-drops Snoop and throws shade at him for an undisclosed reason, which likely stems from some remarks Snoop made about Slim Shady over the summer.
“As far as squashing beef I’m used to people knocking me/But just not in my camp/And diplomatic as I’m tryin’ to be/Last thing I need is Snoop doggin’ me/Man, Dogg, you was like a damn god to me/Meh, not really (haha)/I had dog backwards,” Em raps on the track.
Shady’s bars about Snoop don’t offer much context, but it’s possible Em is upset because Snoop said Em wouldn’t be on his top 10 rappers ever list. Snoop made the comment during a July interview with The Breakfast Club.
“Eminem, the great White hope,” Snoop said at the time. “White rappers had zero respect in rap. Let’s keep that one thou-wow. None. He [Dr. Dre] has probably put Eminem in the position to where he could be one of the top 10 rappers ever. I don’t think so, but the game feels like he’s top 10 lyricists and all that that comes with it. But, that’s just because he’s with Dr. Dre and Dr. Dre helped him find the best Eminem that he could find.”
Based on the lyrics about not expecting beef to come from his own camp, Em appears to be more upset about the situation because of Snoop’s connection to Dr. Dre. Both rappers were mentored by Dre back in the day. The world-renowned producer worked closely with them both on the albums that transformed their lives.
Snoop has yet to say anything about the lines aimed at him.
Elsewhere on the same track, Eminem sincerely apologizes to Rihanna for the leak of a song that makes light of her past domestic violence incident with Chris Brown. “And wholeheartedly, apologies, Rihanna/For that song that leaked, I’m sorry, Ri/It wasn’t meant to cause you grief/Regardless, it was wrong of me,” he raps.
He also makes mention of Migos, Chance the Rapper and Drake on “Zeus” when referencing how rappers can lose fans after being the talk of the town for years.
Those are just a few artists Eminem name-drops on his Music to be Murdered By – Side B album. For the project, Em mentions 38 rappers.