Eminem apologises to Rihanna over song ‘siding with Chris Brown’ as he drops surprise album

Eminem has apologised to former collaborator Rihanna after a leaked song saw him rapping about ‘siding’ with Chris Brown.

Last year a seven-second snippet of a song Eminem had recorded in 2009 with rapper B.o.B, was leaked. In it, Eminem was allegedly heard rapping: ‘Of course I side with Chris Brown, I’d beat a b***h down too.’The lyrics were in reference to Chris assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna during an argument in their car after a Grammy pre-party in February 2009. Chris was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty to felony assault and was sentenced to community service and mandatory anger management classes, as well as probation and a restraining order against Rihanna Now, after he dropped a surprise album on Friday, Music To Be Murdered By: Side B, Em – real name Marshall Mathers – has offered an apology to Rihanna. On one of the 16 new tracks, Zeus, Eminem raps: ‘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.’

Eminem was reportedly intending to use the unreleased song for his 2009 album Relapse, but B.o.B eventually released it in 2011 under the title It Gets Worse.