Nick Cannon Responds To Eminem's 'Warning' With Biblical Tweets

Nick Cannon
Photo: Todd Williamson/ WireImage

The ongoing back-and-forth pitting Eminem against Mariah Carey and husband Nick Cannon — which began with Em's "Bagpipes From Baghdad" and continued with Carey's "Obsessed" and then Em's "The Warning" — took an unusual turn over the weekend, as Cannon produced a series of quotes, original statements and Biblical tweets (concluding with one actually from the Bible) that, while not naming Eminem or "The Warning" directly, did seem to address the MC's latest attack on his wife.

"Quote of the day: 'Never argue with fools because from a distance people can't tell who is who,' " he tweeted Friday to kick things off. What followed was a series of inspirational quotes apparently intended to defuse the situation and ultimately put "The Warning" in the past. "Be patient in the moment of anger and escape a hundred days of sorrow!" (often erroneously cited as a Chinese proverb) he followed up. Four minutes later, he tweeted Booker T. Washington's quote, "I will permit no man to narrow or degrade my soul by making me hate him." Cannon also suggested that a reprisal from either he or Carey was unlikely. "Never take your own revenge," he wrote, quoting the Bible, "but rather give place unto the wrath. For it is written that vengeance is mine, I will repay ... PREACH!" (from Romans 12:19). Also in there was another Bible quote, "I will bless those that bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse," from Genesis 12:3.

While the tweets began as apparent attempts at keeping the peace, they became a little more pointed by the time Cannon wrapped up. "No one but a fool would measure their satisfaction by what the world thinks of him," he wrote, quoting Irish poet Oliver Goldsmith. Just after that, he tweeted, "Trying to save a hater is like trying to teach astrophysics to a wino!" (apparently an original line).

The tweets were presumably in response to "The Warning," Eminem's latest dis track against the couple. In the song, Eminem graphically addresses his alleged romantic relationship with Carey and her portrayal of a male stalker (who looks remarkably like Em) in her recent "Obsessed" video. Carey has denied having a previous relationship with Eminem; Eminem has insisted there was one.

In recent weeks, all three parties denied any hard feelings: After Cannon wrote an angry blog post about "Baghdad," he emphasized there was never any beef; Em has said the song's lyrics were "misinterpreted" Carey and Cannon both denied that the male-stalker character she plays in the new video for "Obsessed" was supposed to be a parody of Slim Shady.

"My wife doesn't beef," Cannon told MTV News recently. "She's Mariah Carey. She's not beefin', she's a vegetarian. People keep saying ['Obsessed'] was directed at certain people. To be completely honest, she did the record 'cause she's a huge fan of this movie 'Mean Girls,' and there's a line in the movie where one of the girls is like, 'Why are you so obsessed with me?' She says that at the beginning of the song, and that's where the concept came from. But, you know, art imitates life."

Carey told MTV News, "Everybody started having their own speculations about who the stalker [in the video] was. I'm like, look, when I look at that stalker and me with the beard and the whole nine yards, I look like my cousin Chris. I do. I look like my brother and my cousin Chris. So basically, you know, all the speculation about who I'm playing in the video, it's not accurate."