On August 31, Eminem shocked us all by releasing his tenth studio album, Kamikaze. Completely unpromoted and previously unannounced, it topped charts in the United States, as well as many other countries, but was met with mixed reviews from critics.
One of the reasons many people disliked the album? The homophobic slur on a track called Fall.
In the offending verse, Eminem attacks fellow rapper Tyler, the Creator by rapping: "Tyler create nothing, I see why you called yourself a fa**ot, bitch/It’s not just ‘cause you lack attention/It’s ‘cause you worship D12’s balls, you’re sac-rilegious/If you’re gonna critique me, you better at least be as good or better."
Many fans were outraged at the verse, which appeared to directly discriminate against the See You Again star, who hinted that he is either gay or bisexual on his latest album Flower Boy. In fact, the incident created a backlash so large, it threatened to overshadow Eminem's album's surprise release.
However, now the 45-year-old rapper has taken a backslide and claimed that he regrets his use of the homophobic comment. Speaking during his multi-part discriminatory series with Sway, he admitted he had gone "too far", saying: "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... at the time I was so mad... It was one of the things that I kept going back to and going 'I don't feel right with this'."
In addition, the returning star explained his reasoning to hit out at his rival, claiming he did it after Tyler and Earl Sweatshirt both criticised him in interviews and on social media.
Tyler had tweeted saying "If you still follow Eminem, you drink way too much Mountain Dew" and the final straw apparently came when Tyler criticised his Beyonce collaboration, the song Walk On Water. After its release Tyler tweeted, stating: "Dear god this is horrible sheesh how the f***."
The Lose Yourself star said:
"I really did like [Odd Future]. I thought their movement was really cool too. We didn’t make music, but I just felt like OK, there’s a mutual respect. And a lot of the s**t that ended up happening after that, like the tweet he put out talking about Shady XV and why can’t people that are close to him tell him that his s**t sucks and it’s trash."
"OK, listen, man. You don’t have to like it and it could really suck, but being that somebody really was cool to you, you would expect some kind of reciprocation. And just don’t go public with it and publicly express your opinion and how much my s**t is trash. I chalk it up to them being young and just kids. I been there. I was a d**k when I first came out. I feel bad about it. I’m sorry if I ever was a d**k to you.”
He continued to state that he felt they had turned their backs on him. "I liked him and then Earl Sweatshirt gets in an interview after Tyler trashes me and Earl Sweatshirt, 'anybody who listens to Eminem is drinking too much Mountain Dew,' he said. 'And I’m just like really? Like, what the f**k?' You guys were just on tour with us. We hung out, we kicked it, made jokes. I know a lot of this shit, I could come across as being very petty. But at a certain point in time, someone has their breaking point."
Hopefully, the rapper has learned his lesson and will never feature a homophobic slur on one of his songs again.
