Entertainer Nick Cannon is playing down press reports about his renewed war of words with Eminem, insisting he's not poking fun at the rapper in his upcoming TV comedy special - but the fuss over their feud.
New dad Cannon took aim at his rap rival in 2009 when he accused the superstar of disrespecting his wife Mariah Carey in the lyrics of Relapse album track Bagpipes From Baghdad.
In the tune, Eminem opens up about an alleged romance with Carey, rapping, "Mariah whatever happened to us/Why did we ever have to break-up?"
But when he turned on Cannon in the song, urging him to "back the f**k up," adding, "I'm not playing, I want her back, you punk...." and "I wish you luck with that whore", the entertainer decided it was time to fight back.
In a post on his blog, Cannon wrote, "(Eminem is) still obsessed with my wife, the same female that wouldn't let him get to second base from eight years ago."
Cannon called Eminem "Slim Lamey" and offered him a challenge, writing, "Man to man, let's meet up and deal with this like adults... This is my invitation to you, whenever and wherever you like, sir. So when you come out of your introverted hiding place and ask your bodyguards if you can go out and play by yourself, I'm here Pimp!"
And he further teased Eminem by stating, "Your legacy has now been tainted from this day forth! You will now be known as the rapper who lost to corny-a** Nick Cannon!"
The angry post was later removed, but sources at U.S. cable network Showtime recently revealed the comedian would take aim at Eminem again in his special, which debuts in America on Saturday (14May11).
He insists that's not the case, stating, "I'm not taking him on. When you watch it (the special), you see what it is. It's really me talking about how silly the entire thing was.
"I kinda come from... the character of my grandfather... and how he felt about me 'beefing' in hip-hop... It wasn't really a real beef.
"He's (grandfather) kind of an old-school gangster, so (he'd) talk about how he would have handled it."
