Eminem has told MTV that the track 'Like Toy Soldiers' on new album 'Encore' (which is the one that includes the Martika sample) is his attempt to publicly end the various feuds that have existed between the Shady camp and other players in the hip hop community, in particular Ray Benzino and the Source magazine team, and Ja Rule and the Murder Inc roster.
Shady explains: "When I say 'toy soldiers', the phrase, it's symbolic of all of us in the rap game just being pawns almost, it feels like. A lot of times when rappers have beef, their sales incline. So meanwhile, big record labels and heads of record labels, they benefit off this. They go home at night and they can sleep. They can rest their heads, and they can rest easy knowing that they are selling records. Meanwhile, we're really out here. We're out here, and when we're not out here, some of our people are out here. Usually, nine times out of ten, somebody out of somebody's entourage meets up with someone from somebody else's entourage. Usually, the innocent people that really ain't got much to do with it - besides affiliation - end up getting hurt or killed. So (the song 'Like Toy Soldiers') was, metaphorically speaking, my way of saying, 'before this goes any further, I'm done with it'."