Nick Cannon's late 2000s feud with Eminem was one of the strangest feuds of the era, but it was dead serious for Cannon at the time. The entertainment mogul was married to pop superstar Mariah Carey, and Cannon took exception to Eminem dissing Mariah in his lyrics to the song "Bagpipes Over Baghdad" back in 2009. Their back-and-forth continued for several years, and sometimes it felt lighthearted; but Cannon recently told HipHopDX that his initial reaction was not playful at all.

“I was a little overzealous,” Cannon says. “I was a little heavy-handed. I’m going to say a couple of things. First of all, I love Eminem as an artist. Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP — those are some of my favorite albums. But I think there was a lot that went on there. One, the whole goal was to get him to come on Wild ‘N Out and acknowledge it. So there was a mission to it because I was like, ‘Yo, that’d be the most amazing show ever.’ It was an invitation to come on the show. But also, a little bit, what was that, 2018 or something like that or whatever, I was playing the game. In 2008, I was really upset about what he had said about my wife at the time."

“And I was legitimately hot and wanted to fight and all. I was a different guy. So I was mad. And then I think a lot of that started to get stirred up again where the line of, I got so much to say, but I had to know this is entertainment. And there’s a mission here. But at the end of the day, I ain’t going to stand for no disrespect either. So in hindsight, I probably would’ve been a little bit more strategic and let maybe one or two of them linger. But to me, I showed up with a cannon to a knife fight."

Things got re-heated in 2019 after Cannon addressed Em on T.I.s ExpedT.I.ously Podcast. Cannon dropped the Em diss "The Invitation," in 2019, which featured none other than Suge Knight. And Cannon mocked Em constantly on IG.

“And he started it [laughs]. I don’t say anything. But I was like, ‘I got time today, Marshall.'” Cannon has also admitted that he was hoping to bait Em into appearing on Wild 'N Out.