Eminem’s brand has been closely tied to controversy for over 20 years. He made a name for himself by dissing rappers, popstars, and politicians on his earliest projects like 1999’s The Slim Shady LP and 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP.
The Shady Records boss’s deluxe version of his latest studio LP actually included a mea culpa for his “Love The Way You Lie” and “The Monster” collaborator Rihanna. Em was offering remorse for bars from “Things Get Worse” which made fun of Chris Brown assaulting the R&B superstar in 2009.
On the track “Zeus” off of the recently released Music to Be Murdered By: Side B, Eminem raps, “And wholeheartedly, apologies, Rihanna For that song that leaked. I’m sorry, Ri. It wasn’t meant to cause you grief. Regardless, it was wrong of me.”
The 48-year-old Hip Hop veteran further addressed his unfavorable lyrics about the Rihanna and Chris Brown ordeal during an interview on Sirius XM’s Shade 45. He talked about “Things Get Worse” song from the Relapse era leaking without his knowledge.
“First, I didn’t know how somebody got it. Second of all, I have zero recollection of even remembering doing that verse. The rhyme schemes didn’t even sound familiar to me,” said Eminem. “I was caught off guard too. I was like, ‘What the f###? I said that?'”
Em went on to talk about how he was learning how to rap again during that time period because of his drug addiction. The man born Marshall Mathers added, “It’s 10 plus years old, but I’m not making excuses for it. I said it. I was wrong for saying that. It was f###### stupid.”
In addition, Eminem answered a question about his reference to fellow Dr. Dre disciple Snoop Dogg on “Zeus.” The Detroit representative explained he took issue with Snoop’s tone when he discussed Em not being on his list of the top 10 rappers of all time while on The Breakfast Club.
“I’m like, ‘Where is this coming from? I just saw you. What the f###?’ It threw me for a loop. Again, I probably could’ve got past the whole tone and everything, but it was the last statement when he said, ‘As far as music I can live without, I can live without that s###.’ Now you’re being disrespectful. It just caught me off guard,” offered Eminem.
With the release of the Side B edition, Eminem’s former No.1 Music to Be Murdered By rose back into the Top 5 of the Billboard 200 album chart for a week before slipping back to #10 on the most recent rankings. The project moved more than 1 million units in 2020.