Nelly has issued a public apology to Eminem, years after he inadvertently sparked a feud with the rapper.
The 50-year-old shot to fame in the early Noughties with hits like “Dilemma” and “Hot in Herre”. At the time, the Missouri rapper was in his early twenties, while Eminem was at the peak of his provocative and audacious rap career.
During an appearance on MTV’s Total Request Live, Nelly took a swipe at the “Lose Yourself” rapper saying he didn’t appreciate his “sly little comments” adding: “I don’t play with candy. I eat M&Ms. I just don’t think [the] dude plan[s] on coming to tour to St. Louis.”
However, in hindsight Nelly (whose real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr), cringes at the impulsive move.
“I misinterpreted something when I was really, really new and I want to apologise to Em,” Nelly said on The Bootleg Kev podcast.
“But I was at a time where, I’m coming in, I’m the new guy, anybody talking… Well, somehow I misinterpreted that he had something to say about what we were doing.”
He put the jibe down to inexperience saying he was “still fresh from Lou” (St Louis) at the time. Looking back he understands there was a miscommunication and “that wasn’t the case,” adding that he considers Eminem “the GOAT.”
Although the diss was ill-informed, the rapper was never one to turn down a fight, and replied in his 2002 song “Invasion”. The track was mainly aimed at his rap nemeses Ja Rule and Benzino, he rapped: “Stomping in my Air Force Ones/ But you won’t be able to tell/ If it’s two pairs or one/ It’s just gonna feel like so many feet kicking you”, which was interpreted as a reference to Nelly’s song “Air Force Ones”.
But the musicians, who are both fathers now, cleared the air at an afterparty in Detroit, where Eminem was accompanied by his daughter Hailey.
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“Somebody came and was like, ‘Yo, Em wanna come through and holler,’” he recalled. “He was like, ‘Yo man, my daughter…’ I felt like such a d**k. We were Eminem fans! And just miscommunication, man.”
He concluded: “He’s a dope cat and I’m glad we got that out of the way. It’s f**ked up when people that you f**k with and that you admire on a level… it’s like, dude spits. I’m glad we squashed that. Em is a cat.”
