Royce Da 5’9 often finds himself in the position of defending his longtime friend and Bad Meets Evil collaborator Eminem. More recently, the Motor City MC got into a heated argument with The Source founder Dave Mays on the Clubhouse app, which resulted in Nickle Nine giving Mays the boot.
But Lupe Fiasco, who co-hosts the Lupe & Royce podcast with Royce, wants him to take it down a notch and stop fighting Slim Shady’s battles. During yet another Clubhouse conversation, Royce was asked about his latest e-battle with Benzino and got some advice from the Food & Liquor mastermind.
“You have no idea what I’ve been going through these past few days,” Royce said with a laugh, to which Lupe quickly replied, “You do this shit to yourself, Royce. I told you not to frolic with these muthafuckas! You down there with random n-ggas talking shit about shit, Eminem getting you in trouble. You gotta play the back sometimes.”
Royce then asked, “Lupe, if a muthafucka come to my room and start to spread hurtful, anecdotal, derogatory narratives, what am I supposed to do?” Lupe had a simple answer for that one, saying, “Sometimes you gotta let Eminem fight that shit. Fuck these n-ggas, man. Pay them n-ggas no mind. They’re upset, in their feelings. Fuck ’em.”
The Allegory architect maintained he wasn’t arguing with Benzino in an effort to defend Eminem. Rather, he was upset because Benzino called him a “bitch.”
The Grammy Award-nominated rapper then revealed he and Benzino’s longtime rivalry stretches back to the days when the former Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta personality still worked at The Source. Slaughterhouse was asked to do an interview with Hip Hop Weekly magazine, but because his manager’s wife embroiled in a lawsuit with The Source at the time, they declined.
“We didn’t do the interview,” Royce admitted. “We did not know this man would be mad. He did a little video with N.O.R.E, basically dissing us, calling us names. He said hurtful things about me, made a song about me, started pulling out guns on camera to threaten me with them. I probably shouldn’t say this on this app.”
While Royce briefly entertained a mediation between himself and Benzino, he ultimately joked about Benzino’s proposed Verzuz battle.
“He’s already started weaponizing his catalog,” he concluded. “I don’t think it’s fair. You’re going to challenge me to a duel and you have ‘I See Bootee’ and ‘Rock Da Party.’”
