PUBLISHED BY EL SCRIBES •JULY 27, 2017 

Though Royce 5’9 and Eminem would have listeners convinced they are the living embodiment of all that is bad and evil, on the mic, Slim Shady and Nickel Nine are a match made in heaven. Em’ is generally revered as a “Rap God,” but the equally skillful Royce takes “Second Place” to no MC. As a duo, their chemistry is undeniable, and has been since Bad Meets Evil first linked two decades ago, in 1997.

How did bad and evil meet? Perhaps not the likeliest of settings for a group spawned in hellfire: at an Usher concert. Royce, then relatively unknown, was opening for the singer at the Palladium in Detroit on one of the most eventful nights of the rapper’s life, detailed in the autobiographical song “Tabernacle” on his 2016 album, Layers. Before rushing to the hospital, only to miss the birth of his son and learn that his grandmother had just passed in the same building, Royce performed at the nightclub and was subsequently introduced to Em. The “Low Down, Dirty” rapper, who was already somewhat established on the scene, was selling cassettes of his seminal Slim Shady EP from a booth in the audience and was impressed by Royce’s lyricism and stage show. “I heard him rhyme on stage that night, and was like, ‘Who the f*ck is this dude?’” Slim told Complex. “He rhymed with no beat and then he dove in the crowd or some sh*t! We linked up shortly after that and did a song together.”

The song would be none other than the namesake of their long-awaited 2011 collaborative project as Bad Meets Evil, Hell: The Sequel. On “Bad Meets Evil” the song, and the eventual 1999 remake, Royce ends the last hook, “See you in hell for the sequel.”

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