Eminem Claims He Doesn't Remember Rapping Controversial Chris Brown, Rihanna Lyric

Eminem is coming clean about how his recovery from drug addiction affected his rap career and admits he doesn't remember rapping a controversial lyric about Chris Brown and Rihanna.

During an interview on Shade45 with radio show host Gray Rizzy on New Year's Eve (Dec. 31), Em discussed a number of topics including how the diss toward Snoop Dogg on Em's song "Zeus," featured on his Music to Be Murdered By – Side B (Deluxe Edition) album, came to be. Within the conversation, Eminem also gave an explanation for mentioning Chris Brown and Rihanna's 2009 domestic violence incident on a leaked song, which hit the internet in 2019.

"When it first happened, I was like, first, I didn't know how, how somebody got it," Eminem said of the leaked song that included the lyric about Chris and Rihanna. "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 fuck, I said that?'"

The controversial lyric from the unreleased song, on which Slim Shady casually brings up the domestic violence incident, finds him rapping, "I'm not playing Rihanna where'd you get the V.D. at?/Let me add my two cents/Of course I side with Chris Brown/I'd beat a bitch down, too."

The leaked song, reportedly titled "Things Get Worse," was allegedly recorded back in 2009, while Em was working on his Relapse album, which dropped in May of 2009. Shortly after the song surfaced on the internet, a rep for Eminem offered XXL a statement. "This is a leak of something that’s over 10 years old. After Eminem recorded it, he scrapped it, and rewrote it. Obviously he and Rihanna have a great relationship," the statement read.

As Em continued the interview about the leaked song and his new album, the rhymer explained that he had to relearn how to rap after committing himself to his sobriety.

"I said it and I was wrong for saying that, it was fucking stupid," the Detroit MC said. "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."

Eminem recently celebrated 12 years of sobriety this past April.

Check out Eminem's interview about the leaked song below.