Benzino has claimed the late, great Michael Jackson once personally phoned him and thanked him for roasting Eminem on wax.
In a clip from The Gauds Show podcast shared on Thursday (April 13), the former Source co-owner said he got the blessing from the King of Pop for his show of Black solidarity.
“Let me tell you, Michael Jackson called me,” Benzino told hosts Ray Daniels and Tamira Smith. “I knew Mike. I met Mike through Teddy [Riley]. He called me and he thanked me. Because when Eminem dissed him with the fire situation, in the [‘Just Lose It’] video, Mike called — and I remember his assistant put him on the phone — and I sat there and listened to him. And he thanked me.
“He started talking about Tommy Mottola. And it was one of the greatest moments of my life. And I’m not saying it because all white people are bad. We’re not saying that. Not all of them are devils. But Mike was referring to the situation in the music industry, and he was just going on a rant. But I’ll never forget that.
He continued: “I was at a point in my life that I didn’t have to answer to nobody. Everything I said was true. I said that Black people got Hip Hop and we got white people to finally buy into it. And now, they wanna give white people something that they can buy into. When Eminem came out, he just got different treatment than every other Black rapper. And I just didn’t appreciate that.”
Check out Benzino’s appearance on The Gauds Show podcast below:
Though Benzino vowed in 2022 to stop antagonizing Eminem after years of ridiculing the diamond-selling MC, the Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta star still seems to want the smoke with Slim Shady, especially after sniping about his 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
In May 2022, Coi Leray‘s father hopped on his now-suspended Twitter account to slam the Rock Hall for overlooking Black Hip Hop artists who paved the way for Eminem.
“Rock and roll hall of fame is just like the Grammy’s,” he wrote. “They have no respect for our culture, Black or Hip Hop and if you don’t agree, you’re racist, period point blank.”
Someone at Rolling Stone evidently felt similarly and pointed out in another tweet, “Eminem has now been inducted to the Rock and Roll of Fame before countless Black hip-hop pioneers who paved the way for his success. What message does that send?”
Sharing the tweet, Benzino added, “So where’s Nas, Eric B. and RAKIM, Kool Moe D, EPMD, Fearless Four, Fat Boyz, Laur[y]n Hill, [Lil] Kim, OutKast and 100s other Black rappers?? GTFOH.”
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