Eminem has admitted that he went ‘too far’ with one of the lyrics to a song he released dissing another artist a few years back.
The musician – Marshall Mathers III, to his mother – has enjoyed a long and successful career that has at times pushed him pretty close to the edge of decency and what can and cannot be said.
He’s never shied away from saying things that could be offensive, or having a pop at people that he doesn’t like, but – whilst that might have flown in his earlier days – in 2023, there are different standards.
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Things that he might have got past the record label for albums such as ‘The Slim Shady LP’ and ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ simply wouldn’t be allowed now, and for good reason.
Em has used some pretty offensive slurs in the past, particularly homophobic ones, and said some fairly regrettable stuff about women along the way, too.
But, he’s seemingly updated his opinions and tried to atone for his past errors since then, and even admitted in one interview that he crossed the line with one particular song.
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The song was released back in 2018 on his album ‘Kamikaze’ and was aimed in the direction of fellow rapper Tyler, The Creator.
Eminem and Tyler had been involved in a bit of a spat – as is so often the case in the rap game – and aimed a couple of lyrical jibes at one another.
On his track ‘Fall’ Em spat: “Tyler create nothin’, I see why you called yourself a f****t, bitch”.
Obviously, you can’t be going around using that sort of homophobic language.
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However, at least Em has now realised that and even apologized in a later interview with Sway.
OK, so he didn’t apologize to Tyler, who he presumably still doesn’t like, but he did say sorry for using the slur, which is a start.
Slim Shady 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.
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“Because in my quest to hurt him, I realize that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it.”
He continued: “It was one of the things that I kept going back to and going ‘I don’t feel right with this'.”
The discriminatory diss came after Tyler had tweeted about Em’s album ‘Shady XV’ in 2014, writing: “If you still follow Eminem, you drink way too much Mountain Dew.”
Shady explained: “I was like, really? What the f***,
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“You guys were just on tour with us, we hung out, we kicked it, made jokes.”
There’s still no need for the kind of language used to hit back at him, though.
Still, at least he admits it was too far.
Tom Wood