After getting slammed for using homophobic language (again) on his latest album, rapper Eminem has now addressed the debacle expressing regret over his choice of words.
First, let’s recap – on the track “Fall” from the new release Kamikaze, Eminem took a verse to swipe at rapper/producer Tyler the Creator.
It seems Eminem was angry over criticism leveled his way by Tyler who had publicly criticized his Beyoncé collaboration, “Walk on Water,” from Eminem’s 2017 release, Revival.
With that in mind, Eminem dropped this in “Fall:”
Tyler create nothing, I see why you called yourself a faggot, bitch / It’s not just ’cause you lack attention / It’s ’cause you worship D12’s balls, you’re sacrilegious / If you’re gonna critique me, you better at least be as good or better
Immediately, the music industry and the LGBTQ community clapped back at the 45-year-old rapper.
“It’s never ok to say a word that is filled with hate,” said Imagine Dragons frontman (and LGBTQ ally) Dan Reynolds.
it’s never ok to say a word that is filled with hate. I don’t care what year you were born in or what meaning it has to you.
if it contributes to hate and bigotry then it is hateful. period.
there is never an ok time to say the word fa**ot
I don’t care who you are.
— Dan Reynolds (@DanReynolds) August 31, 2018
Even Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, who appears on the track, took pains to distance himself tweeting, “Was not in the studio for the Eminem track… came from a session with BJ Burton and Mike Will. Not a fan of the message, it’s tired. Asked them to change the track, wouldn’t do it. Thanks for listening to BRM.”
“This is not the time to criticize youth, it’s the time to listen, to act” added Vernon. “It is certainly not the time for slurs. Wish they would have listened when we asked them to change it.”
Which brings us to yesterday as the 15-time Grammy Award winner sat down for a lengthy video interview with rapper/reporter Sway about the new project.
During the chat (which has already garnered over 2.2 million views in a day), Sway asked about using the word “faggot” on the track.
“With the Tyler the Creator thing, man, I realize now, I realize I wasn’t, in the mind frame of – I realize I was angry when I said the sh*t about Tyler,” says the Slim Shady rapper.
“The word that I called him on the album, 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 realized that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it.”
This isn’t the Oscar winner’s first trip to the homophobic rodeo, though.
His sophomore album, Marshall Mathers LP, received similar criticism for his repeated use of the word "fag."
The issue reared its head again when he used the term on the track “Rap God” in 2013.
At the time, he said he didn’t think of it as a slur, just a word he’d grown up using as a put-down in rap battles.
One has to wonder, though, in 2018 – at the age of 45 – couldn't Marshall Bruce Mathers III learn to step away from the homophobic rhetoric?
What do you think, readers?
You can watch Eminem explain below.
