Everlast Made His Comeback Album With a Shady Records Alum, and the Eminem Beef Never Came Up
Embers to Ashes, Everlast's first album in eight years, was produced by Yelawolf, who spent five albums signed to Eminem's label. On The Almanac of Rap, the host put that to him directly. Everlast's answer is the most he has said about the 2000 beef in six years, and it turns on a mutual friend, a lyric he read as a compliment, and two men he describes as hermits.
By @bradleymines ·
The producer of Everlast's new record spent eight years and five albums on Eminem's label. Nobody in the room seems to have found that awkward, which is the story.
Embers to Ashes arrived on August 28, 2026. Seventeen tracks, recorded in Nashville, mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, out on Everlast's own Martyr Inc Records with Thirty Tigers and Regime Music Group. It is his first album in eight years.
It was produced by Yelawolf, who signed to Shady Records in January 2011 and left in 2019 after five albums.
On Okayplayer's The Almanac of Rap, host Donwill did the obvious thing and asked about it.
The three-minute cut Okayplayer posted on September 2. Quotes below are from this clip.
How Yelawolf got the job
Everlast dates the friendship to around 2010, at Warped Tour, "when he popped the trunk." They circled each other for years through a mutual friend in Travis Barker. Then, at a show in Berlin, Yelawolf made an offer that Everlast misread.
"He just happened to mention, hey, one day I would love to cut a record with you. Which, you know, I didn't realise till much later that he wanted to produce a record. I thought he wanted to do like, hey, let's do a rap record together."
"It all came full circle. That's how life goes with me."
Embers to Ashes. Seventeen tracks of Americana and roots-rock, produced by a man Eminem signed in 2011.
What he actually said about Eminem
Donwill was careful about it, saying he was not asking Everlast to "re-exhume the body." Everlast cut in before the question finished: "A while ago. A long time ago."
Then the substance, and it is more specific than it first sounds.
"I think the only time I really ever spoke on it was on Talib's podcast. But something happened where he said something after a long time, and I couldn't find any disrespect in it. I was like, that sounds almost complimentary. And we have some really good friends in common, and one of them was like, nah nah, he's all good. And then not that long ago he big up House of Pain, and there's a mutual respect."
Three separate things there. A lyric Everlast read as a compliment. A mutual friend passing along that Eminem was fine. And a public nod to House of Pain.
He does not name any of them, so here is what he is most likely pointing at. The lyric is almost certainly "Baby," a bonus track on the deluxe Marshall Mathers LP 2 in 2013, which contains the line "a mixture of Whitey Ford and Mighty Thor, I everlast." Whitey Ford is Everlast's alias. It is wordplay, not a shot. The House of Pain mention is his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech on November 5, 2022, where Eminem read a long alphabetical list of hip hop acts he wanted the Hall to consider and put House of Pain in it. Worth noting he named the group, not Everlast.
The Talib reference is People's Party in April 2020, where Everlast explained that the line fans read as a shot at Eminem's daughter was about Halley's Comet, and that he had not known her name.
What the beef actually was
For anyone who was not there: this was one of the ugliest exchanges of Eminem's career, and it ran almost entirely through 2000.
| Record | When | What it was |
|---|---|---|
| "Ear Drums Pop (Remix)" Dilated Peoples, with Everlast | May 2000 | The subliminal fans read as the opening shot. |
| "I Remember (Dedication to Whitey Ford)" Eminem | Late 2000 | Mocked Everlast's career, his age, and his 1998 heart attack. |
| "Whitey's Revenge" Everlast | Dec 2000 | Went at Kim and at Hailie's paternity. He has since said he regrets those lines. |
| "Quitter" Eminem and D12 | Dec 2000 | Interpolated "Hit 'Em Up" and threatened him for mentioning Hailie. Ended it. |
Everlast's framing now is that it was ordinary. "I never said that guy wasn't one of the greats. We had our little rap beef, man. We had an exchange. One of us took umbrage and we do what rappers do. That's all it was."
Two hermits
Donwill's last point was that the two of them have never actually spoken, that it has all been word of mouth. Everlast said that is not avoidance.
"I'm a hermit, man. Honestly, for this last decade at least. And I'm pretty sure he's a hermit. So it's kind of hard for hermits to link."
Which is as good an explanation as any for why a beef that ended twenty-five years ago has never had a photograph attached to it. It also tracks with everything else about how Eminem operates. He has never commented on six years of Verzuz callouts either.
Sources. Quotes are from "Everlast on Squashing His Feud With Eminem | The Almanac of Rap," posted to Okayplayer's channel on September 2, 2026, running 3:02; the same exchange sits at 13:46 to 15:35 of the full 37-minute episode, posted August 27, 2026. Embers to Ashes released August 28, 2026, 17 tracks, produced by Yelawolf, mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, on Martyr Inc Records with Thirty Tigers and Regime Music Group. Yelawolf signed to Shady Records in January 2011 and departed in 2019 after five albums. "Baby" (Marshall Mathers LP 2 deluxe, 2013) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame speech (November 5, 2022) are the two mentions Everlast describes without naming them on the tape. Everlast's People's Party appearance was April 2020.