Tyler, The Creator apologises to Eminem for ‘Recovery’ criticism

a composite image of Tyler, The Creator and Eminem

Tyler, The Creator has issued a public apology to Eminem after he slammed the rapper’s ‘Recovery’ album in 2010.

On the latest episode of Mavericks with Mav Carter, Tyler spoke about his initial reaction to Eminem’s 2010 album ‘Recovery’ – his second since going sober. While the album has received mixed reactions, Tyler, The Creator publicly slammed the record upon its release.

Now, however, Tyler has revealed that he’s had a change of heart and is remorseful about the things he said about Eminem and the album: “Eminem put out this album called ‘Recovery’ in 2010, I was a big Eminem fan. When that album came out I fucking hated it,” Tyler said.

“Publicly was like, ‘This shit is wack.’ Didn’t like it and after watching [2023 Netflix series Painkillers] I felt so bad about those tweets and things like that because thinking from his perspective someone like me publicly saying that stuff and him getting off drugs and being clean and getting to a point in life where that’s behind him and me implying, ‘Nah, this shit is wack.’”

 

He continued: “He probably felt like I was attacking him. I thought I was just like, ‘I don’t like the music.’ He was in a different part of his life and probably felt like I was attacking him. Now I feel so bad about saying that stuff because my perspective was so limited.”

Tyler went on to share his appreciation for Eminem and how he had taught Tyler him how to rap without even knowing it. “I love Eminem. That dude taught me how to rap,” he added. “I learned how to put words together in rhythm because of some of the Eminem stuff I was hearing and storytelling and things like that.”

“After watching that show, that gave me perspective — this was a few months ago — and I felt so terrible about some of the things I said about that ‘Recovery’ album because I realised that was a big step and meant a lot to him and my fucking young stupid ass is like, ‘I wanna hear the same song and dance and I loved ‘The Eminem Show”” he said. “But he’s not there anymore. I felt terrible. If I ever see him, I want to tell him that in person.”

Tyler The Creator
Tyler, The Creator CREDIT: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Coachella)

Eminem and Tyler, The Creator have had a rocky relationship since 2010, with Eminem going on to diss the OddFuture rapper on 2018’s ‘Kamikaze’ by calling him a homophobic slur. Later that year, in a chat with Sway, Eminem expressed his regret for the diss.

“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,” Eminem said. “Because in my quest to hurt him, I realise that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it. It was one of the things that I kept going back to and going, ‘I don’t feel right with this.’”

Most recently, Eminem released his 12th studio album. In a three-star review of ‘The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce)’, Jordan Bassett wrote for NME: “So, who killed Slim Shady? In bringing him back to the light and showing him up as irrelevant, perhaps Eminem’s done his old pal in for good. OK, we get it – Shady was a shocking character. Now that he’s dead, how about getting some new material?”

Eminem performs live
Eminem. Credit: Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images

Tyler, The Creator, on the other hand, most recently headlined Coachella 2024. In a four-star review of Tyler, The Creator’s 2024 Coachella headline set, NME wrote: “It’s a reflection of the rapper’s cult icon status and a rebuttal to those in his life who didn’t believe in him. “I told n****s I’m gonna have my Coachella one day, and they said, ‘Nope’ – they can all suck this dick right now,” he shares. After tonight, it feels unlikely that anyone will doubt him again.”

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