Justin Vernon Vows to ‘Kill’ Eminem Track On Which He’s Featured

After immediately distancing himself from the just-released Eminem track on which he appears, Bon Iver creator Justin Vernon is taking it a step further — alleging plans to "kill" the track.

The track in question, "Fall," comes from Kamikaze, a surprise album Eminem dropped Friday morning. On it, Eminem insults fellow rappers, including Tyler the Creator, who he refers to with a homophobic slur. "Tyler create nothin’, I see why you called yourself a faggot, bitch / It’s not just ’cause you lack attention / It’s ’cause you worship D12’s balls, you’re sacrilegious / If you’re gonna critique me, you better at least be as good or better," Eminem spits.

When it made its debut Friday, Vernon tried to set the record straight on his involvement as he responded to fans who saw the incident overshadowing his recently released album Big Red Machine with the National's Aaron Dessner. "Was not in the studio for the Eminem track... came from a session with BJ Burton and Mike Will. Not a fan of the message, it’s tired. Asked them to change the track, wouldn’t do it. Thanks for listening to BRM," Vernon tweeted.

But over the course of the next 90 minutes, Vernon seemed to get increasingly worked up. He quickly followed up his first tweet with a note of admiration for Eminem's skills, while simultaneously critiquing the homophobic angle. "Eminem is one of the best rappers of all time , there is no doubt. I have and will respect that. Tho, this is not the time to criticize Youth, it’s the time to listen. To act. It is certainly not the time for slurs. Wish they would have listened when we asked them to change it," Vernon wrote.

About an hour later, he was less diplomatic about it. "I was wrong and we are gonna kill this track," he tweeted.

Fans responding to his comments, however, were unclear what it means for Vernon to "kill this track," and many were unforgiving of the collaboration at all, given that Eminem has a history throwing shade on other artists and taking a homophobic stance.

Eminem faced a firestorm after the 2000 release of Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP, which featured anti-gay sentiments on several songs. But the following year he performed one of those songs at the Grammy Awards, alongside none other than the openly homosexual Elton John, who reportedly became a close friend.