Chris Kirkpatrick took time to appreciate that Eminem was able to rhyme his name when he heard his diss on “Without Me”.
When Bizarre informed everyone on D12’s “Ain’t Nuttin’ But Music” that “Eminem doesn’t like N’Sync” it did not come as a surprise. Just a year before Em proclaimed on “The Real Slim Shady”: “I’m sick of you little girl and boy groups” and there were not bigger boys groups back then than NSYNC and Backstreet Boys.
None of them clapped back at Eminem though, except for NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick who called Eminem a “crocodile hunter” on Total Request Live MTV. Chris claims that it was said in jest and he was back then and still is a big Eminem fan, but Marshall did not take his comment lightly. Em retaliated on “Without Me” focusing his wrath on Chris specifically this time:
A tisk-it a task-it, I’ll go tit for tat with
Anybody who’s talking “this shit, that shit”
Chris Kirkpatrick, you can get your ass kicked
Worse than them little Limp Bizkit bastards
Now Kirkpatrick talks in length about these events on Chris Van Vliet’s podcast.
He sort of agrees with the host that being called out by Eminem personally means that you are certainly worthy of attention but he also presented another perspective:
Yeah, either you really made it or now you’ve got beef with somebody that you look up to and you’re like, “What the?.. What happened here?!”. At first, I was kind of freaked out and then… of course, nowadays I think it’s amazing because that song is one of my favourite songs, and then to have my name in it too. It’s just like I did something, right or wrong.
Chris remembers vividly the day he found out that Eminem mentioned him on wax:
We were in Miami doing a show, we were on the bus coming back from Orlando and I started getting all these text messages and everybody was like, “Yo, have you heard the new Eminem song? He makes fun of you in it”. And I’m like, “Yeah, well, he always does and “sync” rhymes with everything”. They’re like. “No, you”. I’m like, “What do you mean me?”. They say, “Chris Kirkpatrick”. I’m like, “He says Chris Kirkpatrick in a song? What the hell rhymes with it?” And then I heard “get your ass kicked” and I’m like, “Oh yeah, I guess that does rhyme”.
The host was curious about their relationship after that encounter, considering that they were around each other a lot, bagging awards at the same award shows. Did they talk?
No, not really. Yeah, we did [cross paths] but I never got a chance to meet him. For me it’s kind of the ultimate flattery because like I said, I worship… Eminem is one of my favourite artists and I’ve always been a big fan and it was just to be in the song… Whether or not he wants to kick my ass, that’s fine. But to be in the song was just… If he really hates me then he did the absolute opposite of what he should’ve done to get me back.
It took Chris some time to figure out why Eminem would go after him personally and he decided that this TRL incident was the reason:
I had to retrace my steps and figure out why he picked me out and I think the only thing I can remember is that Joey and I were hosting [Total Request Live] when TRL was in its heyday, and I think we were talking about [Eminem] and I said something about how he was like the crocodile hunter, like, he liked the controversy, he liked to get in, you know, with the crocodiles and that’s why people listen to him. In my mind, I was thinking, “And he’s got great music”. But you know, he probably took it as I was just saying that the only reason he’s popular is because he’s controversial.
Watch the video below:
