Eminem surprised music fans last night with the surprise release of Kamikaze, a new album whose title refers to someone about to kill themselves by dive-bombing into an enemy. Fitting, then, that album guest Bon Iver has decided to dive-bomb the track he appears on, blowing it up into a very public disavowal.
Justin Vernon, a.k.a. Bon Iver, registered his dislike of the song “Fall,” on which he contributes some vocal melodies, this morning on Twitter, while responding to a fan complimenting Big Red Machine, the new band and album from Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner. After saying he “wasn’t in the studio” for the track, claiming his contribution instead came from a session with “Fall” producer Mike Will Made It, Vernon called the track’s message “tired”:
Perhaps sensing this was tantamount to starting beef with one of the world’s most notoriously thin-skinned rappers, Vernon quickly followed up with another post trying its best to thread the needle of criticizing the art while praising the artist. He more or less succeeds, though we suspect Eminem may not take it that way:
For those curious, the slur he’s referring to is presumably from Eminem’s verse where he goes after Tyler, The Creator. “Tyler create nothin’, I see why you called yourself a faggot, bitch,” is the line, which, yeah, not a great look, but also very on-brand for Eminem. The irony of dissing a diss track you appear on aside, Eminem has yet to respond to Vernon’s criticism, though putting down money that his next album has some Bon Iver insults would be the safe bet. Weirdly, there’s one last tweet from Vernon, saying, “I was wrong and we are gonna kill this track”—but seeing as how the album’s already been released, it’s a little unclear what he means.