If there was any doubt that Eminem is one of the best freestyle rappers in the world, this video of Shady spitting hot fire will confirm him as the king.
The clip dates from 1999 - back when he truly began to make his presence felt in the rap world, thanks to The Slim Shady LP and the all-conquering hit 'My Name Is' - where Eminem can be seen freestyling along to a car stereo with his friend, the late rapper Proof.
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The video comes from an interview that was done with Kurt Loder on MTV, which saw the pair (at the time, both members of the Detroit 'horrorcore' hip-hop collective D12) showing off their rhyming skills in a remarkable finale.
The video has recently resurfaced, going viral following a seemingly endless beef between Shady (real name Marshall Mathers) and Machine Gun Kelly which has seen diss tracks are flying around left, right and centre.
The diss-athon kicked off when Eminem dropped his 'surprise' album Kamikaze, on which he doesn't pull any punches when it comes to his rap rivals - including the 28-year-old rapper MGK.
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"Shut the fuck up," Eminem begins, in his song 'Killshot' before turning his attention specifically to MGK's appearance, rapping: "How you gonna name yourself after a fucking gun and have a man bun?"
His musings also address their ongoing beef, adding: "Your reply got the crowd yellin' 'Oo' so before you die / Let's see who can out-petty who with your corny lines."
Then there was also the pointed kiss-off: "I'm 45 and I'm still out-selling you."
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Of course, Kelly hit back with his own diss track, "Rap Devil" - a song that is just 4.45 minutes of shade.
In the song MGK goes after Slim Shady for his 'weird' beard (hey, that rhymes! Mad skills) and for being 'sober and bored', also suggesting his last four albums were 'as bad as your selfie'. Truly trenchant criticism here, guys; not sure how either of them will be able to cope with such vicious insults flying around.
The row between the two goes all the way back to 2012 ,when Kelly called Eminem's daughter Hailie 'hot as fuck'.
But even with all the heat between Eminem and Machine Gun Kelly, the skeptics among us couldn't help but wonder whether this was all a weird set-up to get both rappers as much attention as possible.
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And it looks like some people weren't overly surprised to see that this darkest of conspiracy theories could actually be A Thing, after seeing that Ronald Spence Jr. - otherwise known as 'Ronny J' - produced all the diss tracks released by both Slim Shady and MGK.
Whether it's a set-up or not, MGK might be the upcoming kid on the scene, but Em is still slaying at 45 - so won't the real Slim Shady please stand up and take a bow? He's earned it.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: rap, Entertainment News, News, Music, machine gun kelly, Eminem