Eminem is a legendary artist in the rap industry who is often considered to be one of the greatest of all time. Another legend, Snoop Dogg, recently spoke about Eminem and compared him to a legend in a different industry, Larry Bird. Rap and basketball are two completely different talents, but there may be more similarities between Bird and Eminem that Snoop Dogg alludes to.

Eminem and Snoop Dogg recently became friends again

Eminem and Snoop Dogg are both titans in the rap industry who emerged in the music world in the 1990s. However, the two developed a feud that began in 2000. In an interview with the Sirius XM podcast — the podcast hosted by Eminem’s longtime manager Paul Rosenberg — Eminem revealed that the beef began between the two rappers after Snoop appeared on “B**** Please II,” a track on Eminem’s 2000 album, , that also featured Dr. Dre and Xzibit.

“I think that there was a miscommunication at the time in regards to him being on my album,” Eminem shared. “I think he had wanted to do something with me [in return for appearing on Eminem’s album], and maybe gave you [Rosenberg] the idea… you said something to the effect of, ‘Well, let’s hear what the song is first,’ and he said the way that he took it was… that I don’t f*** with him.”

The “Lose Yourself” rapper says the two decided to reconcile after Dr. Dre had an aneurysm in 2021 that was almost fatal.

“When that thing happened with Dre, we were like, ‘Bro, this is stupid,’” Eminem stated. “This is stupid as hell to be feuding right now.”

Snoop Dogg compared the rapper to Larry Bird

Since making amends, the two have collaborated on a few projects, including the single “From the D 2 the LBS,” which appears on Eminem’s second greatest hits album, . Snoop recently shared his admiration for Eminem in an appearance on the podcast . Snoop compared the Detroit rapper to Larry Bird, the NBA Hall-of-Famer who played Forward for the Boston Celtics.

“He’s like Larry Bird cuz,” Snoop shared. “Remember when n****s used to act like ‘that’s white boy s***’ then all of a sudden that motherf***** put 40 on your a**? Hey man, you know what, Larry Bird is a bad motherf***** man.”

Snoop knows all about Bird because he is a hardcore Los Angeles Lakers fan and grew up watching the bitter rivalry between Magic Johnson and Bird. His comparison isn’t too far off either because both are legends in their respective fields who defied expectations.

Larry Bird and Eminem have more in common than one might think

While playing basketball and rapping are polar opposites, Larry Bird and Eminem share similarities in how they impacted their fields. Bird was influential in the NBA, not only because of his tremendous s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 but also because he was a great white player in a league made up primarily of black athletes. Similarly, Eminem made great strides as a white artist in a genre filled with primarily black artists.

Both defied expectations because they weren’t the traditional figures many imagined when thinking about legends in these fields. More importantly, both are still regarded as greatest of all time’s in their fields, regardless of their race.