It’s been a week since Royce da 5’9” casually mentioned how Snoop’s album “Doggystyle” is important to him and the drama is getting out of control.
Royce framed his statement, explaining that Eminem is ranked higher than Snoop Dogg on his personal chart but “Doggystyle” is something that he cannot possibly live without. And yes, he mentioned that this is absolutely subjective.
It is not surprising that the album that was released when Royce was 15 and was the most successful and influential hip hop album at that moment is something that Royce treasures more than the work of his friend that was being created in front of him and partly with him.
However, Royce’s love confession opened a door to a barrage of harassment from a certain part of the fandom. Royce was called a backstabber, a traitor, an ungrateful and disloyal fake friend and, notably, a racist.
Royce snapped at them more than once and it was not pretty but neither were actions of people who thought that their indignation reflected Eminem’s feelings.
Some stans got offended on Em’s behalf, something that caused a lot of trouble to Em himself when people were after him because they thought that he had offended somebody in need of their protection. Does Eminem need to be protected from Royce da 5’9”? From a person who was his friend and collaborator since pre-fame time? Whom he just made his right hand at Marshall Mathers Foundation putting in charge of frontline work with a community? Who is still at his side in a recording studio and on tour?
Surprisingly many people think exactly that, they feel that they are the last line of defence between Marshall and the hostile world that Royce represents for them now. And Royce keeps getting engaged in conversations with them, the conversations that often get heated and do not really clear the air or settle things.
Royce took to his social media once more, trying to set the record straight and posted o photo of one of his responses to a fan that called him a backstabber.
It is emotional and it does not look like it will be the end of the conversation. Royce’s other comment, however, might hit closer to home. He wrote to a fan that suggested that Royce “dissed Em a little bit”:
I’m not tryna change your mind on anything man please feel free to have a blast with this. Just understand that y’all dragged this whole topic all the way to the edge of the cliff with your unnecessary speculation.
It is time to stop inflating this topic. Eminem has an incredible fanbase – loyal, passionate and sometimes defensive beyond reason. Eminem knows that we have his back but he knows how to stand up for himself and it is unlikely that he really needs to stand up against his friend, member of Shady family.
We have a purpose now to put our efforts in, we should focus more on voting for Eminem’s MTV VMAs nominations and stop looking for enemies where there are none.
