Of Gods and Ghouls: A Mediocre White Guy’s Take on MGK’s “Rap Devil”

C.D. Christensen
Sep 4, 2018 · 6 min read

There comes a time during every man’s life when something shakes them so hard to their core — something so deeply profound and existentially animating — that they are availed of no other solution than to pursue the gentlemanly means of writing a blog about it. Or at least that’s what I told my roommate this morning with inspired indignation as we both choked on our morning coffees whilst listening to Machine Gun Kelly’s new diss track about Eminem.

Like most of you, MGK’s latest venture shooketh my ears by way of the Twittersphere’s kind regards and fond farewells to the Cleveland rapper as we await the funeral procession that will be Eminem’s response to “Rap Devil.” And, probably like most of you, I had to turn to google to figure out precisely why anyone in their right mind would ever go after ole Marshall like that; after all, I, like most of you, thought the one thing the entire hip-hop world agreed upon was you don’t fuck with Eminem. Somewhere the Tupac hologram is pouring one out in approval.

But MGK doesn’t play by the rules, and the result of his temerity is a diss track of mythic proportion. Let’s be honest here, the song is straight fire. It had me jumping up and down in my kitchen with my hand over my forehead checking for fever like those dudes reacting to street magic on YouTube. When he said “Dropped an album called Kamikaze / so that means it killed him / Already fucked one rapper’s girl this week / don’t make me call Kim,” I was fanning myself like a backrow-Baptist. “Knees weak of old age / the real slim shady can’t stand up.” Oh lawd, he’s done something great here — terrible, yes, terrible but great.

On its own, “Rap Devil” is a tour de force, a clapback par excellence. That is, until you listen to the Eminem track that inspired MGK’s blasphemous rebuttal. I suspect I’m not alone in this: hearing MGK’s diss track and then either reading about the conflict between the two rappers and/or taking the time to listen to Em’s “Not Alike.” Basically watching the fight in reverse. And while most reports on The Battle of the White Boys focus on the one line in “Not Alike” in which Eminem explicitly names MGK, there’s several obvious (and damning) points they seem to miss.

First, if you’re like me and thought “Rap Devil” was hella-fucking-balls-to-the-walls-fire without having heard “Not Alike,” then Eminem has already won. What’s that you say? “How can such a devastating indictment not produce a verdict in favor of MGK?” Oh, I’ll feed you, baby birds. You see, if you weren’t really aware that there was beef between the two rappers, but you appreciated the power of all the shit MGK spat about Em, then that speaks to the gravity of Eminem’s dossier not the self-proclaimed rap devil’s lyrical skill. In other words, if shit-talking makes sense outside of the context of the shit — outside the proverbial beef — then the common denominator isn’t the shit-talker. We jump up and down in our kitchens listening to the terrible greatness of “Rap Devil” not because anything it says is uniquely original but because Eminem’s cultural ubiquity is what makes us appreciate that it is a terribly great act. Put a different way, if you felt like “Rap Devil” was both sick and seemingly out of the blue, it’s because Eminem is ‘the blue.’

Second, every single analysis I’ve read focuses on the same line from Eminem’s “Not Alike”: “If you wanna come at me with a sub, Machine Gun / And I’m talkin’ to you, but you already know who the fuck you are, Kelly / I don’t use sublims and sure as fuck don’t sneak-diss / But keep commenting on my daughter Hailie.” If you take this one bar in isolation then, yeah, it seems like MGK straight up housed Eminem in response. But if you, I dunno, actually listen to the entire song, then you know that this line is literally the weakest in the whole verse. “I respond rarely, but this time Shady ‘bout to sound off / Like a fuckin’ cocked semi Glock, demi-god / Let me put a fucking silencer on this little non-threatening blond / fairy cornball takin’ shots at me.” Where’s that quoted at?

This is where the first and second points intersect: Eminem’s rebuke of MGK is iconic Slim. The dude does shit with words that mere mortals cannot fathom. “Not Alike” might be a diss track, but it is one that carries with it all the unique elements of Eminem’s lyrical style that have immortalized him as one of hip-hop’s All-Time Greats. One can listen to “Not Alike” and jump up and down in their kitchen because it is a sick beat on its own terms. “The only thing we have in common is I’m a dick and you suck / Otherwise one has nothin’ to do with the other.” Somebody call 9-1–1! Whereas the only real force of “Rap Devil” is the sheer audacity of its references to Eminem. So, we’ve got an MGK track that is only good in relation to Eminem, and an Eminem track this is good in relation to, well, Eminem.

Here’s a test: Just ask yourself which song you’re more likely to quote in your next Facebook/Twitter/internet fight. “But just in case you forgot really and need Ja memories / Jarred like strawberry or pineapple / apricot jelly” [inserts screenshot of previous shit opponent said here].

And this brings us to our third and final point: Machine Gun Kelly isn’t so much the ‘Rap Devil’ as he is the ‘Rap Ghoul.’ MGK is clearly trying to set himself apart as Eminem’s antithetical opposite with his hellish appellation. That’s too obvious to be interesting, really. But when you situate “Rap Devil” in the context of “Not Alike,” there’s really no contest. Eminem slayed MGK, head-shot, shot clock, runnin’ outta time he got dropped. (See, any mediocre white guy can do this). Put differently, MGK had already been put down by Eminem — as in, when your parents send your dog to ‘the farm’ — by the time we were entertained by his comeback. So, while everyone is posting dank memes with ‘RIP’s to MGK in anticipation of Eminem’s response, the battle is already over, the war has been won. The God of Rap destroyed his would-be adversary, and what we have with “Rap Devil” are the phantasmal murmurings of a fallen rapper.

Plus, close your eyes, think of the word ‘ghoul,’ and then open your eyes and look at a picture of MGK. It just works, right?

In the end, I do hope Eminem deigns to drop another can of lyrical whoop-ass on Machine Gun Kelly. Mostly because I really enjoy jumping up and down in my kitchen gesticulating that my mind is being blown. But, to be sure, if he does, we’d better interpret this gift as an Encore to his already game-ending rebuke of the Gunner — a double-tap, not a comeback, bap bap! RIP MGK, indeed.

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