“When Eminem came out, he just got different treatment than every other Black rapper. And I just didn’t appreciate that.”

Benzino recently claimed that he got a huge co-sign during his feud with Eminem. The 57-year-old said that Michael Jackson called him and thanked him for his commentary on the Detroit rapper’s “Just Lose It” video from 2004.

“Let me tell you, Michael Jackson called me,” the former Source co-owner said during a Tuesday (April 11) episode of The Gauds Show podcast. “I knew Mike. I met Mike through Teddy [Riley]. He called me and he thanked me. Because when Eminem dissed him with the fire situation, in the [‘Just Lose It’] video, Mike called — and I remember his assistant put him on the phone — and I sat there and listened to him. And he thanked me.”

Benzino went on to clarify his own feelings about white people in Hip-Hop. “And I’m not saying it because all white people are bad. We’re not saying that. Not all of them are devils. […] Black people got Hip Hop and we got white people to finally buy into it. […] When Eminem came out, he just got different treatment than every other Black rapper. And I just didn’t appreciate that.”

Michael Jackson and Eminem were at odds following the latter’s depiction of the former in his controversial 2004 music video. “Just Lose It” referenced MJ’s alleged inappropriate relationships with young boys, his plastic surgeries, and the time when his hair caught on fire during a 1984 commercial shoot for Pepsi.

The Thriller artist attempted to have networks stop showing the music video and BET eventually complied. Representation on Eminem’s side felt that Jackson was infringing upon the “Lose Yourself” artist’s freedom of speech and taking obvious jokes too seriously.