Eminem's battle rap bona fides are pretty impeccable.
But Shady didn't win them all. In fact, he dropped a pretty legendary battle to Chicago emcee J.U.I.C.E. at the 1997 Scribble Jam Festival
“We battled six rounds, we battled six tiebreakers. He finally got me,” Eminem conceded.
J.U.I.C.E. stopped by The Murder Master Music Show last week, and spoke on the match up with Eminem -- which is approaching its 20th anniversary.
I was lucky enough to win that particular day, and there were a lot of factors that played into why I won.” J.U.I.C.E. explains, “I started the head-games early. Like, how Floyd Mayweather does in a fight…or Conor McGregor. I started talking shit early, so I had already tried to establish that I was dominant before we even met. I was lucky enough to beat him."Later, J.U.I.C.E makes clear that if they did it again in 2017 he wouldn't need luck or gamemanship to win.
He believes the pressures of fame and drug abuse have diminished Shady's skills, whereas he's still the same.
"Yeah, I did beat him," he said. "If he ever wanted to do it again, I’d beat him again."