A Rivalry with beginnings that harks back to 1995, a stage before Eminem was signed and trying to build a reputation for himself. While ICP were performing in Detroit, Eminem had set up a stall which held many Flyers he was handing out for a party he was to host and planned to perform in. Among a list of Rap groups/artists to appear, the flyer stated 'ICP Might Appear .. Maybe'. This annoyed Violent J, a member of the Posse who came across the flyer and told Eminem to 'fuck off', clearly not wanting Marshall to use their name to get known.

This left a negative vibe between Eminem and ICP, with the situation only getting worse when Eminem insisted the group never turned up at his party after D12 had chased them out of a night club and shot at their van with paintball guns. This did happen but was but denied by the Insane Clown Posse on a track that was made a while later on a Howard Stern interview entitled 'Nothing but a bitch thang' which states that the 'only club ever chased anybody out of was a gay bar'.

Eminem had previously verbally attacked with a few insults thrown on various tracks such as 'Get You Mad' and 'Drastic Measures' in which Eminem claims the group are over-rated, but surprisingly with no dedicated diss track. A humorous event at the 'Up In Smoke Tour' had Eminem come out on stage with a clown-faced, rather large mouthed inflated doll which orally pleasured him showing there was no hard feelings.

During this time Eminem had made an appearance on the Howard Stern radio show and answered 'Who?' when asked his thoughts on the Insane Clown Posse. An obvious diss suggesting ICP are unknown, which relatively was true. He also remembers them as dudes who got their asses beat 'all the time, back in the day'.

To be given an opportunity to respond, ICP were invited to the show the very next day and obviously angered by the insult they stated 'We Don't even know that bitch' when referring to Eminem. They then released the track 'Nothing but a bitch thang' as said earlier, and another with a group ICP has signed by the name of Twiztid and collectively called 'Slim Anus'. A parody of 'My Name Is' which appeared on the Slim Shady LP.

Eminem took things up a level by including a skit on his 2nd release The Marshall Mathers LP which enacted Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, two members of ICP performing Oral Sex on Ken Kannif and confidently saying 'Eminem' when Ken asked them to say his name. This came after the track 'Marshall Mathers' which assaulted ICP lyrically which such raw emotion which we hadn't heard of since Marshall went at Everlast with Quitter.

Here Eminem cleared the situation by mentioning the paintball gun incident and pressed the rival crew were faggots when referring to the track 'Slim Anus'. Explaining rather bluntly that damn right his anus was slim as unlike that of ICP it had not been penetrated. A touch of class may I add.

In the same track Em claims the group calls themselves 'Clowns cause they look queer' and even going as far as threatening them physically with the line 'Cause I don't wrestle, I'll knock you fucking faggots the fuck out'. Although stating he found the ICP disses funny and doesn't take them seriously cause he don't consider them artists it's clear he was not playing here.

A few months later, perhaps without considering the consequences, Eminem ran up on an ICP associate with an unloaded gun and pistol whipped the guy known to be John Guerrera who was kissing Kim, the wife of Marshall. A skit 'The Kiss' on the Eminem Show, is as close to a reconstruction as we'll get of how the incident went down with an atmospheric military drum roll thrown in for good measure.

The track Business, also on the Eminem Show, contains what some believe to be subliminal disses as the chorus goes 'must be a circus in town, let's shut the shit down on these clowns'. This can be referring to ICP, a theory which has added back up with the carnival theme being coincidentally familiar to those who own the 'Dark Carnival' album by the Insane Posse. The circus and clown metaphor is what I believe to be one describing the current hip hop situation but I'll let you decide.

The next album from ICP 'Bizaar' also has a diss track aimed at Eminem called 'Please don't hate me'. A tongue in check track, giving Marshall a taste of his own medicine in a sense with different scenarios played out between his mother Debbie and ICP.

With no response from Eminem's forth album 'Encore' and no word on the beef for over a year now, it's safe to say the beef has pretty much died down. Although those with a sharp mind may have noticed Eminem spit the line in 'Monkey See Monkey Do' which goes 'When I come back I'll be shooting more then just paintballs trust me'. Although not a diss in itself, it does still show Eminem is insisted as ever of the previous shooting incident although this hasn't and most likely won't spur on any reaction from ICP. But who knows if another lyrical shot will be triggered and set it all of again ...