Tyler, The Creator regrets Eminem diss after learning about rapper’s addiction struggles

Tyler, The Creator has reflected on his past criticism of Eminem’s Recovery album from 2010, expressing regret and attributing his change of heart to a Netflix show.

Tyler revealed that after watching the 2023 Netflix miniseries Painkillers, he regretted his earlier disparagement of Recovery. He realized that his comments might have seemed like an attack on Eminem, who was recovering from substance abuse at the time.

“When [Recovery] came out I f——g hated it,” Tyler admitted. “Publicly was like, ‘This s–t is wack.’ Didn’t like it and after watching [2023 Netflix miniseries 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 off drugs and being clean and getting to a point in life where that’s behind him and me implying, ‘Nah, this s–t is wack.'”

He added: “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.”

He expressed his admiration for Eminem and acknowledged the impact Eminem had on his own rapping skills. “I love Eminem. That dude taught me how to rap,” Tyler said. “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.”

Tyler hopes to apologize in person if he ever meets Eminem. “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 realized that was a big step and meant a lot to him and my f—ing stupid a– 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.”

Despite Tyler’s earlier criticism, Recovery was a commercial success, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and winning Best Rap Album at the 2011 Grammy Awards. 

The relationship between Tyler and Eminem has been strained, with Eminem dissing Tyler on his 2018 album Kamikaze, rapping: “Tyler create nothing, I see why you called yourself a f—-t, b—h.”