House of Pain rapper Everlast engaged in a heated feud with Eminem back in 2000, just as the Detroit MC was on the eve of becoming one of hip-hop’s biggest names. Although the two weren’t seeing eye to eye beforehand, Everlast explained in a recent appearance on Talib Kweli’s People’s Party podcast that it was an accidental reference to Em’s daughter, Hayley, that really ignited their feud.
Everlast explained that while he was trying to subliminally shade Eminem on Dilated Peoples‘ “Ear Drums Pop (Remix),” he didn’t know he was referencing Em’s daughter, too. “I say something about Halley’s Comet on that,” he recalled. “I didn’t know his daughter’s name was Hailie. But he got very upset about that part.”
On the track, Everlast raps:
Cock my hammer, spit a comet like Halley
I’ll buck a .380 on ones that act Shady
It was this line that provoked Em to release “I Remember.” Everlast responded with “Whitey’s Revenge,” which featured lyrics he now regrets.
“[Eminem] was so upset he thought I had said something about his daughter, that I used that in the second diss,” Everlast said. I didn’t say anything about the child. But…that kind of jab, I wouldn’t have done that. At this age, as a parent with two daughters, I wouldn’t have done that. That’s the only part of that side that I say I regret."
On “Whitey’s Revenge,” Everlast raps about both Hailie and Em’s ex-wife, Kim Mathers:
Instead of worryin' ‘bout who you should be dissin’
You need to worry ‘bout who your wifey been kissin’
Or if you go to prison while you’re doin' your bid
I’ll look in on your old lady and do things for your kid
Make her write you lots of letters ‘bout the things that we did
Send you pictures of me chillin’ all up in your crib
He also questions Hailie’s paternity on the track:
And you can’t keep your woman from goin' astray
Better run and check your kid for your DNA
Em would go on to release one more diss track, “Quitter,” before the beef fizzled out. Despite their issues, Everlast explained that he had no intention of capitalizing off the drama. “To me, it was never about making a record to get paid off him,” he said. “That’s why I never released anything. It was digital. I put it on Napster, the actual one diss record I made.”
Still, the beef did cause him some career headaches. Everlast noted that Em’s growing popularity on alternative radio left him boxed out of some radio station shows. “I really got the feeling quite a few times that I wasn’t getting invited because they wanted Em to play,” he said. “It was just the facts and the politics of the game that we were mad at each other, and perhaps me playing that thing would have kept him from playing.”
The two rappers eventually buried their issues, with Em telling Vibe in 2010 that he had moved past it. “Yeah, me and Everlast had a pretty good beef going back then. We’ve squashed it now, but yeah, we were going after each other for a while. I was a hell of a lot angrier person back then,” he said. Em also shouted out Everlast on 2013’s “Baby,” rapping:
Only bull you should take is by the horns, a mixture of Whitey Ford
And Mighty Thor, I everlast, pen is mightier than sword
Catch up on all the lyrics to Everlast’s “Whitey’s Revenge” on Genius now.
