"If I see the motherf---er, I don't give a f--- that he's been doing weights or whatever. I'll knock his little bitch arse out. He's just a f---ing little boy."
Let's just say it's a slight understatement that Shaggy 2 Dope, one-half of Detroit hard rock/hip-hop hybrid Insane Clown Posse, is not a fan of Eminem.
The feud started 10 years ago, but reached fever pitch outside a Detroit store in 2000 when Eminem pulled a gun on Douglas Dale, a member of the Insane Clown Posse's entourage.
"That kid's like f---in' four-foot-something tall and he's going around trying to punch people," says Shaggy (aka Joseph Utsler). "He pulled a gun on my boy. An empty gun. You may as well pull out a water pistol with no water on a motherf---er, you know what I'm sayin'?"
Thankfully, Eminem will be nowhere in sight when Shaggy and his musical accomplice and childhood friend, Violent J, play their first Sydney gig in support of their 10th - and most accessible - album,The Wraith: Shangri-La.
"We're expecting the same exact audience we get in America or Europe - the underdogs, the dregs of humanity - and we have a crazy time," says Shaggy, who performs in full make-up. ("Everyone has a gimmick. Even Pearl Jam have a gimmick. Their gimmick is, they have no gimmick.")
At an Insane Clown Posse show, it seems that anything goes. Shaggy had his neck broken at a show in Cleveland, Ohio, by a Bible thrown onstage by a "fan".
For their Australian shows, Shaggy promises a string of "goons, freaks, creatures and clowns" and will grace the stage.
"You come to one of our shows and unwind," he says. "Have some f---ing fun."
But it's this propensity for fun - their theatrical stage show, ever-present make-up and anything-goes aesthetic - that has made them the rap industry's whipping boys.
Shaggy is nonplussed by the criticism.
"Rappers always talk about keepin' it real," he says. "You don't want to keep it real when you're listening to music. What we do is we keep it unreal.
We keep it fake.
"We give motherf---ers a story. We give motherf---ers something to listen to. We
give motherf---ers an image. And we'll be the first ones to say, 'F---, yeah. We keep it unreal as f---'."
Still, you get the feeling that Shaggy is more than qualified to talk about keeping it real. He and Violent J (aka Joseph Bruce) grew up in the violent south-west neighbourhoods of Detroit and spent time in prison. Violent J has been inside four times.
"We've both got the f---in' background, but every person in America has a story behind them," says Shaggy.
"But we don't need to drive around with f---in' dead bodies hangin' out of our cars - you'll just go to prison for the rest of your life. I'm trying to make some money. I ain't trying to go to prison again."
Instead, they've turned their attentions to turning Insane Clown Posse into a multimedia corporation.
They head their own record label, Psychopathic Records, have made forays into professional wrestling ("Those guys are big motherf---ers ... but I hold my own," says Shaggy) and more recently have starred in their own film.
"All these rappers were in all these films and we were like, 'F--- it. We can do that, too'," says Shaggy.
The result isBig Money Hustlers, a parody on the rap-film genre that Shaggy says has become way too earnest.
"We didn't want to do no8 Mile, no Ice Cube Desert Storm [Three Kings] shit.
We're silly-arse motherf---ers; let's make a silly-arse movie."
A sequel to the film is now in the works. Next up, though, the Insane Clown Posse are heading back to the studio to work on another album and a collaboration with labelmates Twiztid.
A collaboration with Eminem may be out of the question, but another big pairing could be on the cards.
"To be honest, if we could do something with Michael Jackson, that'd be cool," says Shaggy.
"All his personal shit aside, he's a great-arse motherf---in' musician. He's got that voice that don't stop.
"I don't give a f--- who you are and what you do. I don't give a f--- if you like boys, whatever, if Michael Jackson calls you up, you're gonna do a song with his arse."
INSANE CLOWN POSSE
Where: The Roundhouse, University of NSW, Kensington
When: Wednesday, doors open 8pm
How much: $49.40
Bookings: 9266 4800