“Grandpa Shady is just depressing to me,” the conservative pundit tells EW in response

Eminem has publicly feuded with celebrities ranging from Snoop Dog to Insane Clown Posse to Nick Cannon over his 20-plus year career. Now, conservative pundit Candace Owens joins the list.

“And Candace O, I ain’t mad at her,” Eminem raps on “Lucifer,” the sixth track on his album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace), which was released today. “I ain’t gon’ throw the fact bitch forgot she was Black back at her, laugh at her like them crackers she’s backin’ after her back is turned.”

“Lucifer” continues with Eminem, 51, referring to Owens as “this MAGA dirtbag in a skirt” and proposing a few new nicknames for her, including “Grand Wizard,” “Klandace,” and “Grand Dragon.”

Eminem and Candace Owens.KURT KRIEGER/CORBIS/GETTY; JASON DAVIS/GETTY

The rapper, who is one award away from an EGOT, also name-checks Owens on “Bad One,” the album’s 16th track, rapping that “she turned her back on her own race.”

Owens wasted no time hitting back, telling Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive statement, “I was honored when Dave Chapelle made fun of me, because Chapelle is in his prime. Grandpa Shady is just depressing to me. Eminem should retire or evolve.”

The Donald Trump supporter and vocal critic of the Black Lives Matter movement continued, “He is clearly stealing from black Twitter, calling me Klandace, to pander to black people, and it’s not going to work.”

Owens also jumped onto her YouTube channel hours after the album dropped, to call Eminem an “out-of-touch elitist” and “the white rapper that we all used to listen to when we were prepubescent and we wanted to feel edgy.”

 

“He is a lesson to a lot of people out there that you need to know when it’s time for you to retire,” she said on the video alongside an acknowledgment that she had listened to the songs.

The Owens-Eminem bad blood has been percolating since August 2023, when the 8 Mile star sent American businessman Vivek Ramaswamy a cease-and-desist letter to prevent the then-Republican presidential hopeful from using his music on the campaign trail.

In response to the letter, Owens lashed out at Eminem on her YouTube channel, criticizing his age and speculating about his sexuality.

“Some people also say that when we get older we get grayer. We know that’s true,” she said at the time. “But for Eminem, the once hardcore rapper, it seems that he is getting older and gayer. Yes, Eminem might be gay.”

Owens, 35, was fired in May from The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro’s conservative news outlet. But she has remained consistent in her support of Trump, telling EW in her statement about Eminem, “What is just as sad is he is calling white MAGA supporters ‘crackers.’ He is very clearly the one who hates his own race. What happened to the Eminem who rapped about two trailer park girls going round the outside? It’s sad!”

The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace) is the 12th studio album for Eminem — nee Marshall Mathers III — and is his latest release since 2020’s Music to Be Murdered By.