When You Come for the King
Be prepared for the backlash
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The giant's woke, eyes open, undeniable
Supplyin' smoke, got the fire stoked
Say you got me in a scope, but you grazed me
I say one call to Interscope and you're Swayze
- ‘Killshot’ by Eminem
Anyone who has listened to the podcast over the years will know that myself and Pete are big hip hop fans. Almost every podcast episode gets its title from a hip hop song and every newsletter opens with a couple of lines from a relevant song.
I believe that some of the greats of hip hop have a way of creating poetry that is above and beyond what many musicians from other genres can create.
Often with hip hop, each line has multiple meanings hidden in the line and it is only after listening to it in detail that you can grasp the ultimate meaning.
There are many greats out there, but my all-time favourite will always be Marshall Mathers aka Eminem.
Having grown up in the time when Eminem first arrived on the scene in 1997, I have been a fan since the ‘Slim Shady LP’ came out.
What often gets lost in the noise of his lyrics and behaviour over the years is that he is an exceptional lyricist and wordsmith and he regularly features in the all time Top-5 rappers voted on by industry experts.
Despite stepping back to a degree from the industry in the past few years, he came back with force in September 2018 to squash a pretender to his throne in way that showcased the levels of his skill.
On September 3, 2018 a rapper by the name of Machine Gun Kelly released a diss track called Rap Devil after Eminem called him out in one of the songs on a previous album.
Kelly was a relatively well known rapper in the US but was better known for acting and punk music than for any high profile rap success.
Other rappers haven’t typically called out Eminem in public given his profile and skill and Rap Devil made a lot of noise publicly, racking up millions of views on YouTube in it’s first week. (Its actually quite a decent diss track!)
Eminem was silent for a period before he released Killshot on September 14, 2018.
Killshot gained over 38.1 million views within the first 24 hours of releasing on YouTube, making it the most views ever for an audio only release on the platform.
It was also the biggest YouTube debut for a hip hop video ever and to date has been viewed on YouTube over 364 million times.
As well as being an epic attack on Kelly and a detailed response to Rap Devil, Eminem had a number of subliminal attacks in the song, such as
The underlying beat for Killshot is based on the beat from Rap Devil being played in reverse and Eminem used the same producer as Kelly had used
The title ‘Killshot’ is taken from a 2008 movie of the same name in which a criminal named Colson (Kelly’s real name) is tracked by a hitman and killed by a police Marshal
Eminem includes the line I say one call to Interscope and you're Swayze. The release date of Killshot was Sept 14th, which is the anniversary of the death of the actor, Patrick Swayze
Needless to say, Kelly didn’t respond with any further diss tracks and has since moved on from rap music.
Why Should you Care?
As a startup, you will have a target market in mind. You believe your product is better than what is already out there.
Your product won’t be perfect but you will be keen to get it out into the market.
That market will have a large incumbent, or a number of incumbents, and they will be in your sights.
The incumbents have deeper pockets.
They have better distribution and can get in front of a large number of clients quicker than you can.
If your product is as good as you think it is and it meets a real customer need, expect a response.
Expect the giant to awaken.
Expect them to come out swinging.
Don’t be afraid or back down. The market will decide the winner.
Don’t let it be a Killshot.
Tell me why I’m wrong…
- Eoin
Left Field
How do I describe ‘Left Field’? It’s a place to put the content (newsletters/articles, etc) that we have amassed over recent weeks or previous years that really make us think or change our thinking on a particular topic. All the content will offer an alternative view of some topic in financial services, technology or sport (or a combination of all three!)
I love this story about a journalist, A.J Jacobs, who decides to commit to the idea of ‘Radical Honesty’ for a period of time as part of a story he is doing. As you can imagine, he gets himself into all sorts of problems but it does raise questions about the lies we tell in our daily life.
Anyway, I won’t give away too much. Enjoy the article and feel free to get in touch to discuss more!
- Eoin
Can’t Sleep?
MoneyNeverSleeps podcast episode from this week:
Brian Mac Mahon, Head Honcho at Expert DOJO, joins us to riff on solving America’s entrepreneurship problem, the Israeli model as best practice for a startup nation, his objective to scale those solutions globally….and starting fires for the betterment of all!
Podcast Recommendation: Highly recommend checking out ‘The Founder’s Journal’ podcast where Alex Lieberman, the co-founder and CEO of Morning Brew, takes 10 minutes each day to reflect on his experience as a founder.
Book Recommendation: I highly recommend the book, ‘Thinking Fast & Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman. This is one of my all-time favourite books that reveals how our minds are tripped up by error and prejudice (even when we think we are being logical), and gives you practical techniques for slower, smarter thinking.
This newsletter has been written by Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend
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