Michael Jackson once spent $370M to get revenge on Eminem after rapper disrespected him in 'Just Lose It'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Recently, Tennessee artist and country star Jelly Roll hailed Eminem as the GOAT and talked about how he revolutionized the rap game, but Slim Shady achieved this level of fame by offending some musical legends. Most fans would recall the epic rivalry between Eminem and the King of Pop Michael Jackson in the 1990s. Let's take a look at the petty feud between the two musical greats in light of the fact that country rapper Jelly Roll was inspired by Marshall Mathers III.
There is no denying that Eminem and Michael Jackson are two of the best artists to ever bless our ears. However, the feud between the two occurred before the King of Pop died in 2009, and Jackson's anger caused him to act in an extremely unexpected way. The fight between the two was sparked by Eminem's 2004 song 'Just Lose It', which at the time stirred up a controversy owing to its apparent mockery of Jackson. Eventually, the King of Pop bought the rights to Eminem's songs in 2007.
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Why was Michael Jackson feuding with Eminem?
According to BroBible, Eminem dissed MJ in his song 'Just Lose It' in 2004. In the song video, Marshall Mathers plays MC Hammer, Pee-Wee Herman, and Michael Jackson, among other well-known figures from pop culture. In the song, Eminem made allusions to Jackson's child molestation case, his plastic surgery, and the awful event in 1984 when Jackson's hair caught fire during a Pepsi advert.
'Just Lose It' included a lyric that read, "Come here little kiddies, on my lap/Guess who’s back with a brand new rap/And I don’t mean rap, as in a new case/Of child molestation accusation aah aah aah aah aah/No worries, papa’s got a brand new bag of toys/What else could I possibly do to make noise, I done touched on everything/But little boys/And that’s not a stab at Micheal, that’s just a metaphor/I’m just psycho/I go a little bit crazy sometimes/I get a little bit out of control with my rhymes."
To further underline this allusion, Eminem dressed like MJ in the song's music video, featuring faux plastic surgery and hair that was set on fire. That was another allusion to Michael's actual experience in the 1980s when he had a strange accident that caused him to lose much of his hair while being filmed for a Pepsi commercial. A week after the single 'Just Lose It' was released, Jackson came into Steve Harvey's radio show and referred to the song as "disrespectful".
How did Michael Jackson respond to Eminem's song diss?
As per Daily Express, MJ blasted the rapper at the time for how he portrayed the singer and demanded that the song be taken off the music video TV stations. Jackson said in an interview, "I've admired Eminem as an artist, and was shocked by this. The video was inappropriate and disrespectful to me, my children, my family, and the community at large."
"I am very angry at Eminem’s depiction of me in his video. I feel that it is outrageous and disrespectful. It is one thing to spoof, but it is another to be demeaning and insensitive," MJ added.
In a different interview, MJ declared, "I've never met Mr Eminem, and to have - I've always admired him - and to have him do something like that has been pretty painful." At the time, Michael's estate declared "to sue" Eminem for the music video.
Three years later, in 2007, Jackson's firm Sony/ATV paid $370 million for Famous Music, making MJ the legal owner of Eminem's entire catalog. Of course, 'Just Lose It' was featured in this. He now had ownership of all of Eminem's music as a result of this purchase. Up until his death in 2009, The King of Pop retained ownership of Eminem's music.
What happened to Eminem's music after Michael Jackson's death?
Even though Michael died in 2009, Eminem did not receive the catalog back for many years. Eminem acknowledged the fervor around Michael's fury by apologizing in an interview. In 2016, Eminem reportedly repurchased the publishing rights to his music, as reported by Boss Hunting.