“Canceled: Invitation” by Nick Cannon

“Canceled: Invitation” was the third diss track Nick Cannon has launched against Eminem within the timespan of less than two weeks in December of 2019. And whereas the two of them have had a relationship akin to a rivalry for years, this most-recent spat was actually prompted by Eminem’s verse on a song entitled “Lord Above” (6 December). It should be mentioned that on “Lord Above”, Em dissed the bejesus out of Cannon as well as his ex-wife, popular songstress Mariah Carey.

But unlike the previous two tirades, this time around Nick has not enlisted the services of any other artists to support him – unless you consider Eminem himself as a collaborator on this track. For Cannon has dug deep into the articles to sample an unreleased Slim Shady tune from damn near three decades ago. And on that song, Eminem is, succinctly put, negatively criticizing Black women, even going as far as referring to them as “b—–s”.

Now that particularly demo, if you will, had already surfaced back in 2003. And when such had been revealed, it had in fact caused a bit of a commotion. But Eminem promptly apologized for recording such a tune and attributed it to he being an “angry, stupid kid” at the time he had done so. And for the most part it seems that the world forgave and forgot. The general understanding is that Eminem is not a racist.

But as we’ve pointed out in the past, this recent battle between him and Nick has had its low spots. And one of them is Nick (and his cohorts) bringing the issue of race into the equation. And such is most prominently the case in “Invitation: Canceled”.

Content of “Invitation: Canceled”

In “Invitation: Canceled”, Cannon samples the aforementioned early-Eminem song, in which he calls “Black girls…” the B word and “dumb”, and basically uses it as the chorus of “Invitation: Canceled”. Indeed the title alludes to the idea that Eminem has been “a guest in this house”, i.e. a White artist who has directly benefited from Black culture, but up until this point the Black people themselves were cool with it.

But now Cannon is asserting that such is no longer the case. In fact Nick is actually portraying Eminem as a flat-out racist. And basically what he is saying is that he does not forgive Eminem for that demo, with the implication being that Shady has and always will be a racist. And in the course of such, as expected, he basically accuses Em of being a culture vulture. So he is basically saying Em profits from Black culture but doesn’t actually give a damn about Black people.

Indeed in the third verse, the rapper even gets historical and namedrops the like of “Rosa” Parks (1913-2005), “Coretta” Scott King (1927-2006) and “Assata” Shakur, i.e. prominent African-American women, as examples of why he is not going to sit back idly while Eminem, again being a culture vulture, negatively criticizes Black women. So basically, Nick has taken it upon himself to expose Eminem as a racist.

Does Nick Cannon have a point?

With all of the above being said, it is likely that after all of these years in the spotlight if Eminem were actually a racist, that would have been exposed a long time ago. And overall, Slim Shady has never been what any logical person would define as a model of overall intellect. So many fans perceive Cannon bringing up something from so long ago, which Eminem has already apologized for, as being yet another cheap shot landed in this ongoing feud between the two artists. 

Or another way of looking at it is that Nick has indeed been offended by Eminem, as he even stated before this current round of fights began. So this is definitely personal. But at the same time, he’s going to capitalize from this beef as much as he can while it’s still trending.

“Foolish Pride”

The demo expounded on above is an underground recording Eminem made called “Foolish Pride”. Its exact date of origin is a matter of dispute. However, it comes from somewhere between 1989-1993. This was a few years before Em released his first EP in 1997.

Samples in “Canceled: Invitation”

And outside of that, Cannon actually sampled two other Eminem songs on this track. The songs in question are:

• “The Warning” (2009)
• “Bagpipes from Baghdad” (2009)

This is in addition to also sampling the aforementioned “Lord Above” (2019).

Release Date of “Canceled: Invitation”

“Canceled: Invitation” was released on 20 December 2019. 

Song’s Predecessors

The other two Nick Cannon tracks which serve as its predecessors are “The Invitation” as well as “Pray for Him”. The songs were respectively released on 9th and 10th December, 2019.

Other Notable Black Women mentioned in “Canceled: Invitation”

Besides the previously-mentioned prominent African-American female figures, others which Nick Cannon namedrop include the following:

• “Loretta” Lynch
• “Betty” Shabazz (1934-1997)
• “Angela” Davis
• “Mahalia” Jackson (1911-1972)
• Mary McLeod “Bethune” (1875-1955)
• “Sojourner” Truth (1797-1883)
• “Oprah” Winfrey