Eminem wrapped up 2020 by dropping Music To Be Murdered By — Side B, and on “Zeus,” he offered an apology to Rihanna for his leaked lyrics about the time she was assaulted by Chris Brown. He says on “Zeus,” “But, me, long as I re-promise to be honest / And wholeheartedly, apologies, Rihanna / For that song that leaked, I’m sorry, Ri / It wasn’t meant to cause you grief / Regardless, it was wrong of me.”
Em stopped by his SiriusXM channel Shade 45 over the weekend, and while chatting with Gray Rizzy, he spoke more about the leaked lyric, saying that he doesn’t even remember recording it. He said:
“When it first happened, I was like, first, I didn’t know how somebody got it. Second of all, I have no, zero recollection of even remembering doing that, that verse. The rhyme schemes didn’t even sound familiar to me. So I was caught off guard, too. I was like, ‘What the f*ck, I said that?’ And that was during early stages of the ‘Relapse’ record that I was working on. So, you know, it’s ten-plus years old, but not making excuses for it. I said it and I was wrong for saying that, it was f*cking stupid. A lot of times, especially with the Relapse record, when I first started learning how to rap again, because of the drug situation that I went through and having to relearn a lot of things, that was one of those things that it was like, well, if it rhymes, say it. I think that being able to look back — I mean, that’s not even an excuse — but I’m just saying there was a phase I was going through with that Relapse record. I don’t know. It was one of those things, I think I just said it ’cause it rhymed. And I think I’m sure looking back now, I should have thought better of it.”
Listen to Em discuss “Zeus” below.