Eminem opened up to his SiriusXM channel Shade 45 about a controversial lyric he recorded that was as a diss on Rihanna, referencing Chris Brown’s 2009 assault on the pop star.

The 48-year-old artist, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, was heard in a leaked 2019 track called Things Get Worse (Rihanna Diss), in which he rapped the lyric, ‘I’d side with Chris Brown, I’d beat down a b*** too.’

The Detroit native has gone on to apologize to the Umbrella singer, 32, in the song Zeus on his latest album Music to Be Murdered By: Side B.

Eminem told host Gray Rizzy that he was initially confused by the pushback when the song leaked out.

‘When it first happened, I was like, first, I didn’t know how, how somebody got it,’ the Grammy-winning rapper said. ‘Second of all, I have no, zero recollection of even remembering doing that, that verse, like the rhyme schemes didn’t even sound like familiar to me.

So I was caught off-guard too – I was like, “What the f***, I said that?”‘

The Real Slim Shady artist said that the time-frame when he recorded the track remains a cloudy memory amid his recovery from drug addiction at the time.

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Regret: The Stan rapper said, ‘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’

Recollection: The Real Slim Shady artist said that the time-frame when he recorded the track remains a cloudy memory amid his recovery from drug addiction at the time

‘That was, you know, that was during early like stages of the Relapse record that I was working on,’ he said. ‘So, you know, it’s 10 plus years old, but not making excuses for it. I said it and I was wrong for saying that it was f***ing stupid, you know, 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.’

He continued: ‘I think that being able to look back, I mean, that’s not even an excuse, but I’m just saying like that there was a phase I was going through with that Relapse record … I don’t know, it was one of those things.’

The Stan rapper said, ‘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.’

On the track Zeus, Eminem raps his apology to the Umbrella singer, who he has collaborated with on tracks like Love The Way You Lie and The Monster.

He rapped: ‘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.’