After addressing his beef with Machine Gun Kelly and Joe Budden in Part 2 of his Kamikaze interview with Sway, Eminem opened up about more hot topics during the third installment.
During the 15-minute interview, Shady sounds off on Donald Trump and shares his support for Colin Kaepernick following his contentious Nike ad. He also addresses one of Kamikaze‘s other targets: Tyler, the Creator.
At the end of “The Ringer,” Eminem says that the President of the United States called the Secret Service on him. “‘Cause Agent Orange just sent the Secret Service / To meet in person to see if I really think of hurtin’ him,” he raps.
According to Em, the Secret Service did actually show up at his place. “They came to my studio and they were just basically asking me questions about my lyrics to see what the intent was behind them and if I was making an actual threat or just expressing myself,” he said.
Kaepernick’s Nike ad has been a source of controversy, which baffles Em. “It’s infuriating. Like really? Nike supports people who kneel for the anthem. At this fucking point, come on. Seriously? You gotta be a fucking moron to think that’s just what it’s about and it’s that fucking cut and dry. There’s a meaning behind this shit and there’s real pain behind this shit. And you’re burning a fucking pair of shoes? When you go about your fucking day and you got your job and you’re thinking of all this other shit, that’s what really fucking bothers you?”
He continued, “People ain’t gonna stop watching football. They’re just not. Football, to me, is the best sport there is. What draws you to the game should not be–if that’s how you feel about your country and you feel like you should stand for the anthem, stand for the anthem. That’s fine. But you also need to realize that this is America and people have died for these rights to be able to protest and to be able to take a knee. Stop making it fucking personal about yourself. You have nothing to do with this.”
The conversation also turned to Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt, who Em dissed on Kamikaze. “Tyler create nothin’, I see why you called yourself a fa***t, bitch,” he raps on “Fall.”
“I really did like [Odd Future],” said Em. “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 shit that ended up happening after that, like the tweet he put out talking about SHADYXV and why can’t people that are close to him tell him that his shit 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 shit is trash. I chalk it up to them being young and just kids. I been there. I was a dick when I first came out. I feel bad about it. I’m sorry if I ever was a dick to you.”
He felt they 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. And I’m just like really? Like, what the fuck? 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.”
But what really set him off was when Tyler dissed his Beyoncé collaboration “Walk on Water.” “When Tyler tweeted out the thing about ‘Walk on Water.’ ‘This fucking song is horrible.’ I was like, alright, I need to say something now ’cause this is fucking stupid. But at the same time, I’m not gonna be America’s punching bag and motherfuckers think it’s cool and safe to say whatever the fuck they want about me.”
He does, however, regret using a homophobic slur on “Fall.” “I was angry when I said the shit about Tyler. Every time I saw this kid, always so cool to you. I loved his energy. He was a funny dude. He’s super charismatic and shit. But I’m sitting back like, man, at what point do I have to say something just to defend myself? And I think that 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.”
He continued, “In my quest to hurt him, I realized that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it. At the time I was so mad it was just whatever. But in the midst of everything else that was going on on this album, the things that it took to pull this album together. It was one of the things that I kept going back to going, ‘I don’t feel right with this.’ Before the album came out, I had a conversation with Paul [Rosenberg] and we spun the word back. But now I realize people can hear what I’m saying anyways.”