Eminem Challenged by Nick Cannon Amid Long-Running Mariah Carey Feud: ‘You Gotta Be Held Accountable’

Nick Cannon may have reignited his age-old feud with Eminem in a recent interview on fellow rapper T.I.’s podcast ExpediTIously. The two hip hop icons discussed Cannon’s marriage to Mariah Carey at length, and by extension, their highly publicized beef with Marshall Mathers — better known as Eminem. Now, some fans are worried that Cannon may have re-awoken the beast.

Cannon opened up about his confusing personal life in a long-form, one-on-one interview with T.I. The two talked about music, media and life in general in the interview, which was released on Thursday, Sept. 19. One clip in particular, featuring Cannon’s feelings account of his Eminem feud, has some fans nervous.

“He didn’t wanna battle me, it could have went down. I was like, whatever he wanna do, I’m with it,” Cannon said. Looking back, he thought the beef began in 2008, shortly after he and Carey got married.

“I think we were flying back on a jet from Africa or somewhere and this motherf— drops a song, like, talking s—,” he recalled. “Calling her [Mariah] all kinds of b—es and h—s. I’m like, ‘this is my wife. This is my new wife.’ I wrote a letter first, I don’t even know if Twitter had come out yet.”

Cannon believes that exchange is how the whole ordeal got started, although even he is not clear on the details.

“So, I wrote this long-a— letter pretty much saying, ‘look, I respect you as an artist,’” he explained. “‘I’m actually a fan, and I think you’re one of the best ever to do it. But from man to man, you are talking out of pocket to my wife. You gotta be held accountable for that, so I need to see you face-to-face.’”

Cannon even revealed that he “went looking for” Eminem after the song came out, even preparing to fly to Detroit to see him.

“I was like, look, if you wanna get on the phone, if I gotta go to Detroit. You done disrespected my wife,” he said. “I gotta show my wife I’m a man, number one. And two, he said my name. I said, ‘I know I’m not going to be able to out rap you, but I will whoop your ass.’”

Cannon went on to speak freely of the whole feud, from Eminem’s various mentions of Carey in his lyrics, to Carey’s response in her song “Obsessed,” to Eminem’s final diss track “The Warning.” In his eyes, Carey ultimately won the skirmish with her catchy hook, but he gave plenty of props to Eminem along the way.

Still, many social media users worried that Cannon would pay for even mentioning the feud again, and for hinting that Eminem had avoided him in person.

“He was gone headbutt nick in true white boy fashion,” one commenter wrote. “And the white boy would have won!”

So far, neither Eminem nor Carey have responded to Cannon’s interview.