Nelly admitted he “felt like a dick” after starting beef with Eminem when he was younger, all because of a simple misunderstanding.
The 50-year-old rapper recently opened up on The Bootleg Kev podcast about their brief tension in the early 2000s, explaining that he misinterpreted one of Eminem’s lyrics.
“I misinterpreted something when I was really, really new and I want to apologize to Em,” Nelly said. “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.” Play
To backtrack, the “Hot In Herre” hitmaker went on TRL and declared he didn’t appreciate Eminem’s “sly little comments.” “I don’t play with candy. I eat M&Ms…. I just don’t think dude plan on coming to tour to St. Louis,” he added.
Eminem clapped back on his 2002 track “Invasion,” rapping, “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 (this being a reference to Nelly’s popular song ‘Air Force Ones’).”
Nelly told podcast host Bootleg Kev that he made those comments when he was “still fresh” from St. Louis. He now acknowledges Eminem wasn’t trying to start beef, and even called the Detroit icon “the GOAT.”
He explained they eventually linked at a Detroit afterparty where he realized he’d blown everything out of proportion. “Somebody came and was like, ‘Yo, Em wanna come through and holler,'” Nelly shared. “He was like, ‘Yo man, my daughter…’ I felt like such a dick. We were Eminem fans! And just miscommunication, man.”
“He’s a dope cat and I’m glad we got that out of the way,” Nelly added. “It’s fucked up when people that you fuck with and that you admire on a level… it’s like, dude spits…. I’m glad we squashed that. Em is a cat.”
Nelly revealed on The Bootleg Kev Podcast (March 25) why he married Ashanti shortly after she became pregnant with their first child, Kenkaide “KK” Haynes. The couple, who welcomed their 10-month-old son in 2023, got married before Ashanti became a first-time mom. He also discussed their reunion after spending a decade apart and dating other people.
