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Nelly has had a few beefs like his highly publicized conflict with KRS-One. There is one other beef that lingered under the surface with a rapper also known for his lyrical prowess – Eminem. But, the Eminem confusion wasn’t a conflict that would play itself out in song. AllHipHop.com asked Nelly about his situation with Eminem and how it almost got out of hand. He’s also frank about how he’s glad he’s not that wild guy anymore.

AllHipHop.com: You had a situation with Eminem a while back. Can you tell people what happened with that?

Nelly: A misunderstanding. Me being young in the game. Somebody said something that said something, and I reacted to it. Being young to the game and being real influential, and not checking to see if that’s what it was – which it wasn’t. But me, being from St. Louis. Hothead. Young kid. I got kicked out of four schools for fighting. I was just like [to Eminem], “What? Who? What’chu talking about?”

Coming in at that time with Country Grammar, you’re getting a lot of [beef], you know what I’m saying? But what people don’t understand is that when I made Country Grammar, that sh*t was gangster! I was coming “down down, baby/Your street in a Range Rover/With a street sweeper, baby/Cocked, ready to let it go.” You know what I’m saying? I didn’t change that record. The label changed that record to “boom boom/ahn ahn.”

I didn’t give a f**k. I was from St. Louis. I had a record deal, and they was gonna put this record out? Y’all can do whatever the f**k y’all want with that record. I don’t care, ‘cause y’all gon’ give me what? [holding up an imaginary check] I got this check,a nd sh*t back then, it was only like $40,000, but I didn’t give a sh*t. I was like, you guys are kidding me!

But again, that was that mentality. So, when I thought I heard something, and that something was true and someone was coming at me…I mean, I did have people coming at me at that time. I heard a lot of talk like, “He ain’t a rapper…he’s this, he’s that.” And I’m just like “Well, muthaf**ka, where ya at?”

I’m tremendously glad that that’s not my mentality now, and nothing came from it, considering if you look at how so much has happened in hip-hop from misunderstandings and things and people being influenced by the wrong things. I’m real fortunate and thankful that that’s as far as it went.