Eminem vs Royce Da 5'9"

This beef probably has been the most personal Eminem has had so far. Before Eminem was signed to Aftermath, he and Ryan Montgomery, better known as Royce Da 5'9", had been close friends in the Detroit underground scene. They worked together as the rap duo Bad Meets Evil, and appeared on each other's debut LP (Eminem on Royce's "Detroit Rock City", and Royce on Eminem's "Bad Meets Evil").

Problems first arised between the two in 1999 when Eminem introduced Royce to Dr Dre. At first Dre and Royce worked well together and Royce was scheduled to appear on Dre's critically acclaimed 2001 LP and to ghost write some of Dr Dre's verses. It was believed that Dre was going to give a record deal to Royce after 2001 came out but sadly their connection was severed when Royce's manager did a radio interview talking up Royce's position with Dre and made it out to sound like Dre was nowhere near as good as Royce. This offended Dr Dre so much that he immediately pulled all of Royce's material from the album and rescinded any record deal to Royce. Afterwards it was believed that the reason that Eminem never gave a record deal to his friend Royce was that he was afraid of also offending Dr Dre. There was also a strong amount of tension from the fact that members of Eminem's group D12 and Royce did not get along either. Members of D12 were afraid of losing their connection with Eminem and it does appear so when seeing that early in Eminem's career he used Royce as his hypeman instead of Proof (his current hypeman) and that Royce appeared on the Slim Shady LP, though no one from D12 did. Royce and Eminem have also worked on many songs together including "Scary Movies", "She The One" and the original version of "Renegades".

The friendship finally ended in 2003 when Eminem signed 50 Cent to his label while he had recently denied signing Royce claiming that he was too busy. This annoyed Royce and the beef began on the Anger Management Tour Mixtape. It was a highly disputed line from Royce on a freestyle on the DJ Green Lantern mixtape where Royce said "Fuck Anger Management, I'll hire someone to deal with my problems." Members of D12 immediately took this as a diss and talked Eminem into cutting off his old friend. Royce complained about D12 "getting in Em's ear" and changing his close friend to separate the two. Diss tracks between the two ensued over the next year which led to issues between Royce and Eminem. Following the line by Royce da 5'9', "quicker than Eminem can pinch Elton's ass," (poking fun at Eminem and Elton John's performance at the Grammys). Eminem has never officially come back - however, he 'subliminally' dissed Royce on the Invasion 3 freestyle:

"Rhinestones, are so nice, they shine so bright Especially at night, after a hit of ecstasy, ain't that right Rooooooooyyyyy---whoo wait a minute I'm ramblin'"

(Royce is known for wearing rhinestone-covered bandanas)

However, D12 (minus Eminem who has remained silent on the subject other than the previously mentioned diss) have only taken small shots at Royce, as on the song "Smack Down", a remix of 50 Cent's "Back Down" which they released on a limited edition mixtape on the internet; neither Eminem or Proof had any lines in the song. D12 never officially dissed Royce again, though Proof's "Many Men" remix does subliminally take shots at Royce. Violence has been a part of this beef as in Detroit Proof's ex-group Goon Squad, lead by the infamous Trick Trick, rushed Royce on stage who was doing a show for family members. Though never confirmed, rumors had it that Royce, a member of M.I.C., and Royce's own mother were forced to go to the hospital from the attack. The beef ended after a situation in Europe where D12 and Royce happeneded to both be touring at the same time. Rivals Proof and Royce got into a confrontation which lead to both men pulling guns on each other and both being arrested. While in jail the two squashed the beefs and there haven't been anymore diss tracks from either sides though Eminem and Royce have not worked again since. Royce has shown to be finished with his beef, showing love to Eminem on songs on the Death Is Certain LP and also on Independent's Day. Many speculated that Eminem talked about the sad beef on the D12 song "How Come" though Kuniva of D12 confirmed that his verse was about Proof.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.