Though Eminem has claimed that he and Mariah Carey briefly dated in 2001, she has done her best “I Don’t Know Her” about Slim Shady by denying the alleged romance ever took place. It appears that Mariah, 50, isn’t going to be any different in her upcoming memoir. While talking about The Meaning of Mariah Carey to Vulture, the subject of this rumored fling came up and whether it’ll be in the book. “There’s some songs that I can sing in response to that, but I will not do it,” Mariah said in response. “If somebody or something didn’t pertain to the actual meaning of Mariah Cares, as is the title, then they aren’t in the book.”
Meaning, Eminem won’t be in The Meaning of Mariah Carey, because for nearly twenty years, Mariah has said that Em doesn’t mean anything to her. Eminem (aka Marshall Mathers) first made these claims in 2002 on “Superman,” off of The Eminem Show. “What you trying to be, my new wife? / What you, Mariah? Fly through twice.” On another track, “When The Music Stops,” he insinuates that he’d “beg Mariah to take me back.” In light of these allegations, Mariah went on Larry King Live and tried to shut it down. “I hung out with him, I spoke to him on the phone,” she said. “I think I was probably with him a total of four times. And I don’t consider that dating somebody.”
Nevertheless, Em persisted in claiming he dated Mariah Carey. “There’s truth to that,” he said to Rolling Stone in 2002 when discussing this alleged relationship. “I don’t want to say anything disrespectful because I respect her as a singer, but on the whole personal level, I’m not really feeling it. I just don’t like her as a person. I gotta be honest; I learned a lesson from it: Don’t believe the hype. I have respect for her, but she doesn’t really have it all together. I’ll just say that and that she’s a beautiful woman.”
Mariah became the first pop star to respond to Eminem’s trademark trash-talking in 2003, according to Uproxx. On “Clown,” from her Charmbracelet album, Mariah sings, “I should’ve left it at ‘I like your music, too’ / I should’ve never called you back when you pursued me … I should’ve never listened to your woeful stories / The ones I’m sure you told a thousand times before me / You should’ve never intimated we were lovers / When you know very well we never even touched each other.”
Since this is Eminem — who came up in the battle rap world and thus, can’t let someone else get the last word in – he fired back at Mariah. During his 2005 Anger Management tour, he played voicemail clips that were allegedly from her. He also took shots at her on 2006’s Eminem Presents: The Re-Up and on 2009’s Relapse, telling Nick Cannon (after Mariah married him) that he should “better back the f-ck up / I’m not playin’, I want her back, you punk.”
Mariah responded with “Obsessed.” The song, off of her Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, is considered the knockout blow in this beef. Not only did Mariah release a music video in which she dressed up like Eminem to talk a version of herself (though she never mentions Slim by name), but the song was also a hit, reaching No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though Eminem would fire back with “The Warning”—a diss track that alleged they were together for six months, that they’d had sex, and other claims – many gave the win to Mimi.
Things stayed quiet for about a year until Eminem dissed Mariah and Nick on Fat Joe’s track, “Lord Above.” Em rapped that, “I know me and Mariah didn’t end on a high note / But that other dude’s whipped. That P—y got him neutered.” This prompted Nick to fire back with a trio of diss tracks — “The Invitation,” “Pray For Him,” “The Invitation: Canceled,” and “Used To Look Up To You” — which Em, for the most part, ignored.