Mariah Carey and Eminem’s years-long feud throughout the mid-2000s may have ended with Em’s vulgar “The Warning,” but it was Carey’s “Obsessed” that sparked Eminem’s beef-ending track in the first place. Carey released the song in 2009 as the lead single for her 12th album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, and it immediately sparked widespread speculation that she was responding to Eminem’s lyrics about her on his Relapse song “Bagpipes From Baghdad.” Em’s track was just the latest salvo in their feud, which began after Carey denied that they had dated in 2002 and continued for the better part of a decade.
The Eminem speculation was soon confirmed after she dropped the song’s official music video, which came complete with Carey dressed up as an Em-esque stalker. While it was no secret that the song was about Eminem, one person directly involved in its creation didn’t know until after its release. The-Dream co-produced and co-wrote the song with Carey and Tricky Stewart, but as he explains in a Genius annotation, he wasn’t aware who the song was about until after he saw the music video:
“Obsessed” peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was eventually certified Platinum. It was also Carey’s most direct lyrical confrontation of Eminem since 2002’s “Clown,” which played a big role in the early part of their beef. Soon after “Obsessed,” Em would release his scorched-earth diss track “The Warning.” Although Nick Cannon responded to “The Warning” a year later with “I’m A Slick Rick,” Carey never did, and the song effectively put their rivalry to bed. You can catch up on the whole history of their beef here.
Listen to the track above and read all the lyrics to Mariah Carey’s “Obsessed” on Genius now.
