Jelly Roll has a dream, and its to be the one to bury the beef between Eminem and Machine Gun Kelly.
Sharing his desire to deescalate the drama between the two during his recent appearance on the Flagrant podcast, the singer (who’s collaborated with both stars in the past) said he hopes to "bring them together one day.”
“I see so much more of them in each other than they know," Jelly Roll expressed. "They're gonna get together one day eventually. I think that they're gonna find each other's heart more than they don't. And if they never do connect that way, [the feud] did more for both of them than it did to hurt either one of them.”
“I haven’t really brought it up to Marshall yet, 'cause I’m just still kind of glad that I’m still in that circumference to be able to have those conversations,” Jelly added. Noting that he did however offer “some perspective” on the situation to MGK.
"We all grew up watching Eminem take over the game early,” he said. “If you got mentioned in an Eminem song, it was like being mentioned in a comedy special. You’re on f***ing fire. You couldn’t be hotter.”
For those unaware of the long-standing feud between Eminem and MGK, here are the key points.
The bad blood began brewing in 2012 when MGK took to X, back then Twitter, to share his thoughts on Eminem's daughter Hailie Jade. “Ok so I just saw a picture of Eminem’s daughter… and I have to say, she is hot as f***, in the most respectful way possible cuz Em is king,” he wrote at the time.
Many years later, Eminem decided to say something about it in his August 2018 release "Not Alike,” calling out Kelly for his out of pocket comments. “And I’m talkin’ to you, but you already know who the f*** you are, Kelly / I don’t use sublims and sure as f*** don’t sneak-diss / But keep commenting on my daughter Hailie,” he rapped on the song.
Kelly fired back days later with "Rap Devil" and also claimed that Eminem had him barred from his radio channel Shade 45.
“Mad about something I said in 2012 / Took you six years and a surprise album just to come with a diss / Homie we get it, we know that you’re the greatest rapper alive / F***ing dweeb, all you do is read the dictionary and stay inside,” he rapped on the diss track. “Yeah I’ll acknowledge you’re the GOAT / But I’m the Gunner b****, I got you in the scope (Brra) / Don’t have a heart attack now (No) / Somebody help your mans up (Help) / Knees weak of old age / The real Slim Shady can’t stand up.”
Following the release of “Rap Devil,” Kelly took to social to say that with the track he was "standing up for not just myself, but for my generation.” Adding, “im doing the same s*** you did back in ur day. life is still real on my side, and i had to take time from the grind to defend myself from someone i called an idol. love, Rap Devil.”
The next month during an interview with Sway Calloway, Eminem addressed the reason for his late response, revealing that he hadn't heard about Kelly's comments until long after the fact.
“It never hit my radar and then one day, you know, you go down the f***ing wormhole of YouTube or whatever right? So I see ‘Machine Gun Kelly talks about Eminem’s daughter.’ So, I’m like ‘What the f***?’ I click on it… he starts doing a press run basically about Hailie. I’m like, ‘What the f***? Yo, my man better chill.’”
“The reason I dissed him is actually a lot more petty than that,” Em went on to say. “The reason that I dissed him is… first what he said, ‘I’m the greatest rapper alive since my favorite rapper banned me from Shade 45,' or whatever he said, right? Like I’m trying to hinder his career. I don’t give a f*** about your career. You think I actually f***ing think about you? You know how many f***ing rappers are better than you? You’re not even in the f***ing conversation.”
Meanwhile, it’s still September 2018, and Kelly claimed he apologized to the "Houdini" rapper, during an appearance on The Breakfast Club. “Truth be told, we had handled it behind the scenes six years ago,” he said, adding that while he didn't speak to Eminem directly, he did speak with his manager and agreed to take the 6-year old tweet down.
Things kind of mellowed out for minute, and then in 2020, Eminem name-dropped Kelly on his track “Unaccommodating."
“But when they ask me is the war finished with MGK? Of course it is,” he rapped. “I cleansed him of his mortal sins / I’m God and the Lord forgives / Even the devil worshippers.”
Which leads us to know. With Jelly Roll adamant that despite the over decade long drama, a truce between his two friends is “inevitable.”
Listen to Jelly share his thoughts on Eminem and MGK’s feud and more on Flagrant above, and watch the entire episode below.
Listen to Jelly Roll Radio, Eminem Radio, Machine Gun Kelly Radio and more on the free Audacy app