Eminem's Most Controversial Moments Revealed: Shocking Lyrics, Famous Feuds and More

Eminem’s freestyle in the music video “Shady Cxvpher” made headlines after he rapped about punching Lana Del Rey. “But I may fight for gay rights, especially if they d–e/ Is more of a knockout than Janay Rice/ Play nice? Bitch I’ll punch Lana Del Rey right in the face twice, like Ray Rice in broad daylight in the plain sight of the elevator surveillance/ ‘Til her head is banging on the railing, then celebrate with the Ravens,” he rapped. For what it’s worth, Lana previously said she was a fan of Eminem’s music and said he was “the master of lyrics.”

In December 2018, Eminem dropped an 11 minute-long freestyle that broached topics including drugs, sex, rap and other NSFW topics. He also included a few fellow artists such as Justin Bieber, Jada Pinkett Smith, Christina Aguilera and Ariana Grande.

Back in November 2014, a leaked snippet featured Eminem throwing major shade at Iggy Azalea. “Back to basic / Unless you’re Nicki, grab you by the wrist / Let’s ski, so what’s it gon’ be? / Put that s–t away, Iggy,” Eminem rapped while seemingly praising Nicki Minaj and her curvy body.

It’s the feud pop culture fans couldn’t get enough of! The rappers were caught up in a war of words back in September 2018. It partially stemmed from drama that ignited back in 2012 when Machine Gun Kelly tweeted about Eminem‘s then-teenage daughter Hailie’s looks. Some music lovers, however, questioned just how real the feud was.

Eminem’s contentious relationship with his mother has come up in his music. With The Slim Shady LP, Eminem alleged that his mom Debbie Mathers was an abusive, drug-addicted parent. She subsequently sued for defamation (which was settled out of court).

The rapper came under fire after fans learned he had used a homophobic slur to describe rapper Tyler, the Creator. On the track “Fall,” the Grammy-winning star rapped, “Tyler create nothin’, I see why you called yourself a (f—-t), bitch/It’s not just ’cause you lack attention/It’s because you worship D12’s balls, you’re sack-religious/If you’re gonna critique me/You better at least be as good or better.” Eminem would later express regret about his word choice. “I think that the word that I called him on the album was—on that song—was one of the things where I felt like this might be too far because, in my quest to hurt him, I realized that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it and, at the time, I was so mad it was just whatever, but in the midst of everything else that was going on in this album, the things that it took to pull this album together and all that kind of s–t, it was one of the things that I kept going back to going, ‘I don’t feel right with this,'” Eminem admitted.  

In music and interviews, Eminem has been frank and upfront about his struggle with alcoholism and prescription drug addiction. Back in 2011, he told Rolling Stone that he was “taking so many pills that I wasn’t even taking them to get high anymore…I was taking them to feel normal.” But after a near-fatal overdose in 2007, Eminem committed himself to getting clean. In April 2018, he posted a photo to Instagram of his 10-year Alcoholics Anonymous chip commemorating a decade of sobriety. Well done, sir.

After a Reddit user posted a seven-second snippet, titled “(SNIPPET) Eminem – Things Get Worse (Rihanna Diss),” fans couldn’t help but question the audio allegedly featuring Eminem’s voice. “I’d side with Chris Brown, I’d beat down a bitch too,” the rapper allegedly said in the track.