Upon the release of his new album Kamikaze, Eminem was met with criticism for using a homophobic slur in his track “Fall.” Among Shady’s loudest critics were Imagine Dragons’ frontman Dan Reynolds and Em’s own collaborator on the track, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.
The line in question is a diss directed at Tyler, The Creator: “Tyler create nothin’, I see why you called yourself a f----t, b****.” The line was his response to tweets from Tyler about Eminem’s “Walk on Water.” When that track came out, the Odd Future rapper posted “dear god this song is horrible, sheesh how the f***.”
Now, in a multi-part interview with Sway, the rapper has admitted that while he doesn’t regret standing up for himself, he regrets using the word: “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,” he said. “Because in my quest to hurt him, I realize that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it.”
Mathers added that as he finalized his album, his use of the slur did bother him, and he eventually did decide to slightly obscure the word, but he now realizes that people can still understand what he’s saying.
