Tyler, the Creator apologizes for Eminem criticism after watching Netflix's Painkiller: 'I feel so bad'

The long-simmering beef between Tyler, the Creator and Eminem is letting off a little steam.

The rapper, fashion designer, and former Odd Future leader appeared on an Aug. 14 episode of Maverick Carter’s show Mavericks to discuss a wide range of topics, from how his beat-making process has changed to his relationship to the next generation of rising musicians.

When the conversation turned to Eminem, Tyler got real about harsh criticisms he'd leveled at the rapper's past work: "I feel so bad about saying that stuff because my perspective was so limited.”

When Eminem released his seventh album Recovery in 2010, it debuted at the top spot of the Billboard 200, sold like hot cakes, and earned the rapper glowing reviews for the softer, more introspective turn in his lyricism. But Tyler wasn't impressed.

“When [Recovery] came out I f---ing hated it,” Tyler told Carter. He recounted posting tweets saying, essentially, "'This s--- is wack.’" It wasn't until he watched Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster's 2023 Netflix miniseries Painkiller that he was able to see his decade-old comments — and the album itself — in a new light.

"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 s--–t is wack.' He probably felt like I was attacking him," he said.

What Tyler intended as mere, if blunt, aesthetic criticism now seems an undeservedly personal attack. He continued, "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."

Tyler admitted to feeling "so bad" about his criticism, revealing how important Eminem was for his own development as a rapper. "I love Eminem. That dude taught me how to rap. I learned how to put words together in rhythm because of some of the Eminem stuff I was hearing, and his storytelling," he told Carter.

Eminem didn't take the criticism lightly, hitting back at Tyler in a widely condemned lyric from his 2017 song "Fall," which goes in part, "Tyler create nothin', I see why you called yourself a f-----, b----." He apologized for the lyrics a year later in an interview with Sway, saying of Tyler and his Odd Future collaborator Earl Sweatshirt, "I really did like 'em. I thought their movement was really cool. I just felt like there was a mutual respect.... Listen man, you don't have to like it and it can really suck, but being that somebody really was cool to you, you would expect some kind of reciprocation."

Eminem tapped Odd Future to support him at a Wembley Stadium show in 2014, so the criticisms from Tyler and separate criticisms from Earl came across as betrayal. The wider damage done from employing anti-LGBTQ epithet to hurt Tyler wasn't lost on Eminem, either. "In my quest to hurt him, I realize that I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it," he said.

When Tyler was asked "What was it like to be called that?" by The Guardian in 2019, he replied, “OK,” adding, "Did you ever hear me publicly say anything about that? Because I knew what the intent was. He felt pressured because people got offended for me. Don’t get offended for me. We were playing Grand Theft Auto when we heard that. We rewound it and were like: ‘Oh.'... And then kept playing.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

"After watching that show, that gave me perspective," Tyler told Carter. "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."

It seems the fractures in the relationship between two of the 21st century's great rappers may be on the path to mending. For Tyler's part, he's open to full reconciliation: "I felt terrible. If I ever see him, I want to tell him that in person.”