Eminem revealed why he kept 'dissing' Hollywood star who he's name-checked 44 times in songs

Eminem has had his fair share of feuds over the years, but none of them compare to his 'beef' with this late actor.

Forget his messy fallout with Mariah Carey and his back-and-forth with Machine Gun Kelly, as this star is supposedly the rapper's number one rival.

Well, that's what a lot of fans are led to believe after listening to the 52-year-old's extensive music catalogue that's laden with Christopher Reeve-related puns.

That's right, the late Superman actor has been the object of Eminem's ridicule at least 44 times, according to attentive listeners on Reddit, who believe this might be the 'ultimate rap beef'.

A lot of social media users reckon that's quite a large amount of jibes to direct at a generally unproblematic person who ended up paralysed from the neck down.

As well as being remembered for his film credits, Reeve's name became synonymous with tragedy after his 1995 accident in Culpeper, Virginia.

He was thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition, which destroyed his first and second cervical vertebrae as well as damaging his spinal cord.

Reeve was left wheelchair-bound and relied on a ventilator to breathe, before he passed away on 10 October, 2004, at the age of 52.

Christopher Reeve is constantly referenced by the rapper (Warner Bros. Pictures/Getty Images)

In a strange way, Eminem - who himself has a song called 'Superman' - has kept the actor and activist's memory alive for the last two decades by repeatedly referring to Reeve in his tracks.

But the Missouri-born musician doesn't exactly approach the subject with sensitivity, so a lot of people presume he has some kind of deep-rooted grudge against Reeve.

For example, Eminem made his first dig about Reeve on the D12 track 'Purple Pills', before slipping other taunts in his 2000 track 'Who Knew' and 'My 1st Single' in 2004.

Another brutal barb appears on the song 'Medicine Ball' from his Relapse album, as he raps: "Put Christopher Reeves on a unicycle with a kickstand, kick it up and push him and lead him right into quicksand.

"Here, you need a hand, big man?"

Although people have thought up their own theories about the rapper's alleged resentment of Reeve, Eminem actually revealed the reason for the constant citations himself.

In the track 'Rain Man', he explained that the comments stem from a childhood memory of the actor, saying: "And let's clear this up too; I ain't got no beef with him either.

"He used to be like a hero to me, I even believe I had one of those 25-cent stickers on my refrigerator, right next to Darth Vader."

And on 'Medicine Ball', Eminem adds in reference to Reeve: "Now everybody's p***ed at me like it's my fault his name rhymes with so many different words, jeez!"

So, it seems the Superman star's surname is just easy for the rapper to weave into his rhymes, especially when he adds the non-existent 's' on the end of it.

Eminem explained the reasoning behind his comments about the Superman star in a few of his songs (Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

The 8 Mile star, real name Marshall Mathers, then made it clear that Reeve remains on his mind to this day when he released The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) last year.

In the track 'Brand New Dance', Eminem kicked things off by saying: "Get up, everybody on the dance floor, come on. That means you too, Chris. Haha."

He adds later on: "On the count of three, everybody do the Christopher Reeves. One, two, three, follow me, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, slipped, fell, landed in a garbage can."

"It's a brand new dance, this is my Chris anthem," Eminem says later. I'm givin' Chris Reeves his chrysanthemums."