Talking about his controversial 'Fall' single, the 'Lose Yourself' rapper expressed his regret for using a homophobic slur to insult his rival rapper.
- Sep 15, 2018
AceShowbiz - Eminem regrets using a homophobic slur to insult Tyler, the Creator on his new album "Kamikaze".
The "Lose Yourself" rapper surprise-released the record at the end of August and sparked outrage with the song "Fall", in which he takes aim at Tyler, calling him a "f**got" in response to the rapper criticising his 2017 single "Walk on Water".
In the next part of his interview series with Sway Calloway, the hip-hop star said he doesn't regret defending himself, but admitted he went too far with the insult.
"I was angry when I said that s**t about Tyler," he said. "I think the word that I called him on that song was one of the things where I felt like this might be too far. Because in my quest to hurt him, I realise that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it."
Following the album's release, the rapper was blasted by Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds for the slur, and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, a collaborator on the track, distanced himself from it.
Eminem explained that he kept coming back to that word when putting the album together because he didn't "feel right" about it, so his team "spun the word back" to obscure it, but he now realises everyone could still understand what he's saying.
The 45-year-old insisted he did like Tyler, but he kicked off after the rival rapper decided to publicly slate his song.
"At a certain point in time someone has their breaking point, so when Tyler tweeted out the thing about 'Walk on Water' - 'this f**king song is horrible' - I was like, 'alright, I need to say something now 'cause this is f**king stupid,'" he explained. "I'm not gonna be America's punching bag and (let) motherf**kers think it's cool and safe to say whatever they f**k they want about me."
His other targets included Machine Gun Kelly, who he blasted on track "Not Alike" for calling his daughter Hailie "hot". However, he explained to Sway that there was a "more petty" reason behind his feud.
"First what he said 'I'm the greatest rapper alive since my favourite rapper banned me from Shade 45' or whatever he said, right? Like I'm trying to hinder his career. I don't give a f**k about your career. You think I actually f**king think about you? You know how many f**king rappers are better than you?" he said.
