Anyone who knows Eminem aka Slim Shady, knows he is no stranger to beef. Since his start way back in the mid to late 90's up til now Em has fought on wax with a number of artists including Cage, Ja Rule, Mariah Carey, Everlast, Canibus, Benzino, hell even his mother. And anyone who has gone at him has paid the price heavily. Lets face it, Marshall is a lyrical demon and knows exactly how to get under your skin and what to say.
We all remember his classic diss tracks from "Nail In The Coffin" to "Quitter/Hit 'Em Up" to "The Warning" and even "Hailie's Revenge". But how many of us remember a good diss to the king of beef himself? Sure they all tried and may have even pinched a nerve before embarrassing themselves and getting totally annihilated lyrically on a track, but in the end nobody cared about any diss record any of them put out. It seemed no one could knock the battle wax king off his throne or even come close to making a viable diss towards him.
So I'm here to talk about that one track, that one diss record that got overshadowed and overlooked and may well be the best Eminem diss ever! Let me take you back to about 1997/98 when Em was promoting his "The Slim Shady EP" and made flyers for the record release party. He claimed ICP (Insane Clown Posse) would maybe make a special performance appearance, and while passing them out he actually ran into the clown faced duo themselves who didn't appreciate him lying about them showing up to the release and when asked right then and there they said "Fuck No". Em taking offense to them getting mad sparked many years of beef between the two Detroit natives.
ICP, consisting of Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J, have built up a huge name for themselves up til that point having released 4 studio albums independently with the help of Island/Def Jam for two of them. They became one of the faces of Detroit's underground scene along side Kid Rock and Esham. So Em, being inspired by their buzz, decided to use their name as credentials to help garner fans to the party.
During radio interviews Em has stated his hatred for the two after the incident and even mentioned their names in "Drastic Measures" which he featured on with Indigenous Tribe and a loosie joint "Till Hell Freezes Over" produced by Dre in 1998 after getting signed to his Aftermath label.
Like this weed is laced ain't it, it tastes tainted
The whole place fainted, I woke up with my face painted
Spaced out like Sci-Fi TV, "Fuck ICP, buy my cd!"
That's what I'm screaming while I'm handing out promo tapes of my debut
Naturally ICP retaliated, but it's what and how they did it. During that time they signed fellow Detroit act Twiztid who helped them come up with the "Slim Anus" concept. Now back then it wasn't common to parody anyone, unless you were Weird Al. It was creative! Just like the way Sporty Thievz rebuttal to TLC's "No Scrubs" around that same time.
"Slim Anus" saw the collective poking fun at Em's debut and breakout single "Hi, My Name Is" by flipping the rhymes and concept to that of being a homosexual. They used the same exact track cutting themselves in and out acting as Slim, rearranging the rhymes into some crazy sexual innuendos and puns.
The track itself wasn't a huge successful hit being that it was just the rise of the internet and it's nowhere near it's social stature that it is today. As well as it was the beginning of Eminem's career and being a commercial success compared to the non commercial stature of ICP. The diss appeared on a compilation album "Psychopathics from Outer Space".
Now Em catching wind to it led him to a mention on "Get You Mad" and the single "Marshall Mathers" as well as a Ken Kaniff skit on the same LP where he has the duo performing oral sex on the fictional character and pissing him off by saying Eminem's name. ICP eventually released a couple more disses but nothing more humorous or even remotely close to their initial record.
Now I'm not a fan of those two but after years of hearing a ton of battles on wax between Em and many others, I'd have to say that "Slim Anus" was the best diss ever and next to Everlast's "Halie" comment, it hit Em the hardest which led to a decade long feud. Even today after clearing things up, Em still mentions the face painted twosome in his lyrics as he did in 3 tracks on his latest "MMLP2" album. So this is my statement. Throughout all the beefs and records that has sparked many controversy with one of the greatest rappers of all time, ICP's "Slim Anus" stands out, to me, as the greatest Eminem diss.
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