Q/A...
In this last crunch, what have you been working on?
I guess you would say last minute jitters of "Fuck! Are the vocals loud enough? Can you hear what I'm saying on this part? Is the beat right? Are the vocals too loud?'" If I could not have to mix any songs and just take the actual two tracks that I rapped over and put them out, I would do that. 'Cause nothing ever feels the way as when you first did it.
So why did you dye your hair blonde again?
Um, I'll say that one was [manager Paul Rosenberg's] idea. In the earlier stages of the record and developing this shit I had thought about it. And once the songs started to come together and the picture got a little more clear of what it was gonna be, he hit me with the idea and I was like "Yo, you know I thought about that, right?" And he was like, "Well you know, why not?" And I was like "I don't know how it's gonna look. I haven't had it in how many fucking years? Five, six years." I was like, "I'm so used to it being dark," you know. So I just tried it. And I was like "Fuck it."
For Recovery there was a lot of rejected stuff. You recorded 100 songs or something, or at least you had 100 beats. So was there a lot of stuff thrown in the garbage pile this time around?
I feel like right now I'm probably working harder than I've ever worked in my life. And I've probably worked harder on this record than any other record aside from maybe the time period during The Eminem Show, which is a little hazy 'cause just so much shit was going on at that time. Just being so busy with The Eminem Show and doing the 8 Mile movie, and the soundtrack and the score to the movie. This is probably the equivalent of that but all focused on the record mostly.
On Recovery, obviously the world came to you on that one. How do you feel now about that record?
I feel like that record I finally got back to where I was at maybe during The Eminem Show. Like, creatively and songwriting, I guess. I mean obviously Recovery was the first time I had ever worked with that many producers outside of our camp. Aside from working with Dre, it was like I always wanted to produce my own records, because producing is fun to me too. One of the things that was cool for me about that record was getting beats that already had choruses on them. It's kind of like a challenge to myself to be able to hear somebody else's hook and kind of interpret the words. Because my own hooks, I already know what I mean when I write them. The way that I do music is, like, regardless of what the beat is and whatever kind of appeal it may or may not have, I always want to try to go as hard lyrically as I can. So regardless if the beat feels like "Wow maybe this could be played on the radio," I'm not like, "Maybe radio would play this so I'll just wing it." Like, I always have looked at it like I want to approach every record from an MCs' aspect.
So how did you come to decide to designate this the sequel to The Marshall Mathers LP? How did you decide to make your life miserable like that?
Well here's what it is: It's not necessarily a sequel.
So did seeking out Rick Rubin come from that direction? You were like "Why don't I go back to the source?"
Paul had mentioned to me that he might be interested in doing it and he had been talking to him and I was like, "Fuck man." Another thing with this record is that I kind of got back into producing more. On Recovery, I wanted to focus more on writing, and not have to worry abut making the beats. On Relapse I think it was mostly all Dre. So I kind of started producing again a little bit. I was kind of in the middle of that when Paul had mentioned that, and was fucking around with those kind of sounds and I don't know if that's what made Paul reach out to Rick or if Rick reached out to him. But as soon as I heard he was interested I was like, "Yo, just let me finish this up and let's go see him."
You've called Rick "Yoda" – was there still stuff to be learned from him at this point in your career?
[Yoda voice] Learning I did. Um, yeah, I mean the best part about Rick's vibe is he's very Zen-like in the sense of just "Let it happen." The weird thing about it is nine times out 10, we would know instantly if something didn't work and it didn't feel right, you know. He's almost like a coach.
Did he have all the old drum machines sitting around the studio?
Oh, he's got some shit in the stash. Yeah. Definitely.
So much has changed in hip-hop since you started producing – did you find the beats you were making on your own were influenced by newer stuff?
Um, not necessarily, because like I feel like I just do whatever feels right. Obviously I pay attention to what's going on and what's out and keep my finger on that pulse. But I don't ever want to be like or do like what anyone else is doing. That's no offense to anyone else.
Basically, if there are outside influences that are current, you let that come in from the other producers, but your shit is your shit.
Yeah. That's exactly it. More current-sounding shit I leave to them. And not that I don't feel like my shit sounds current, but it's not the exact same thing. And I think I've updated as well.
On the new song "Legacy" you're talking about yourself in detail as a kid. What does it take to get back in that mindset at your age?
I always try to make my music relatable to the kid who people said, "He ain't shit" or bullied or whatever. It felt like one of them self-empowerment songs. Everybody, I believe, wants to show the world that, "One day I'm gonna be this. One day I'm gonna be that." Everybody has goals, aspirations or whatever, and everybody has been at a point in their life where nobody believed in them. Like, if you haven't been kicked or whatever, if you never went through. . .
You've praised the Beastie Boys' evolution, but it doesn't seem like you're going to have a "the disrespect for women has got to be through" moment.
I mean, listen, my sense of humor has certainly not gone away. I realize that I'm an adult, a grown-ass man, and I don't know what I'll be doing a year from now, 10 years from now, but I don't think that my tongue-in-cheekness will ever go away. I guess it's just a part of my personality. I always want to keep some type of element of fun to the music as well. If one song is darker or talking about a sad subject, I don't want to make a whole album of that, of being a downer. I don't want to make a whole album of being too uppity. You gotta try and find that right balance, and that's one of the things that the creative process was on this record as far as just experimenting. In other words, recording till I get it. And if I record 100 fucking songs and I don't have what I feel like I need yet to make the body of work, then I'm gonna keep going and keep recording.
You've written a bunch of your own hooks, and even sing some of them. Where does your sense of melody come from?
That's a good question. I would want to say that it's stemming from early hip-hop. Rappers used to fuck around all the time with melodies, at least on the shit that I grew up on. I don't know keys on a keyboard or what note this is or that is. I can only hum something. But I think it just comes from all the data that I've collected in my years of listening to music. And you know, fuck man, I think that as hip-hop started evolving, there was more melody in it, people were starting to sing hooks. Even like, early Slick Rick – [sings] "Hey young world" – those kind of things. Maybe I took it somewhere different at times, I don't know.
Having Kendrick Lamar on your album, did you have any concern that he might go in and try to upstage you?
I completely respect what Kendrick does and the fact that he's in the same camp, that he's on Aftermath, only made sense to me. He came to Detroit, we kicked it for a few minutes, you know, and I felt the vibe of what he's like and everything, and you know, he's a super cool and super humble dude. When we did that record, I think that was actually a week or two before he did the verse to "Control."
Is there advice you would give him at this point?
I don't know if he needs advice. He seems like he's got a really good head on his shoulders, man. He's very smart and you can tell by the way he put his album together for one. He's like a hip-hop head, man, he just loves hip-hop. And obviously the way that he did the "Control" verse, it was almost like if you get mad at him, then you might look foolish. He set it up so that you can't really get mad at a lot of that shit he said because it was what every other MC is already thinking. Or you should be thinking.
Fundamentally, do you feel like a rap god or do you feel like an underdog?
I think everything switches back and forth from hour to hour, day by day with me. That whole "Rap God" record pretty much from top to bottom is tongue in cheek. So I mean, do I want to feel like that? Maybe sometimes. Again, it goes back to everybody who competitive raps and does this for just purely the sport of it wants to be the best. Again, that's why Kendrick's verse worked so well because he only said what every rapper's already thinking, If you don't want to be the best, then why are you rapping?
Links:
http://www.eminem.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/EminemVEVO?feature=watch
https://www.facebook.com/eminem
https://twitter.com/Eminem
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1717081/eminem-facebook-questions-answers.jhtml
In this last crunch, what have you been working on?
I guess you would say last minute jitters of "Fuck! Are the vocals loud enough? Can you hear what I'm saying on this part? Is the beat right? Are the vocals too loud?'" If I could not have to mix any songs and just take the actual two tracks that I rapped over and put them out, I would do that. 'Cause nothing ever feels the way as when you first did it.
So why did you dye your hair blonde again?
Um, I'll say that one was [manager Paul Rosenberg's] idea. In the earlier stages of the record and developing this shit I had thought about it. And once the songs started to come together and the picture got a little more clear of what it was gonna be, he hit me with the idea and I was like "Yo, you know I thought about that, right?" And he was like, "Well you know, why not?" And I was like "I don't know how it's gonna look. I haven't had it in how many fucking years? Five, six years." I was like, "I'm so used to it being dark," you know. So I just tried it. And I was like "Fuck it."
For Recovery there was a lot of rejected stuff. You recorded 100 songs or something, or at least you had 100 beats. So was there a lot of stuff thrown in the garbage pile this time around?
I feel like right now I'm probably working harder than I've ever worked in my life. And I've probably worked harder on this record than any other record aside from maybe the time period during The Eminem Show, which is a little hazy 'cause just so much shit was going on at that time. Just being so busy with The Eminem Show and doing the 8 Mile movie, and the soundtrack and the score to the movie. This is probably the equivalent of that but all focused on the record mostly.
On Recovery, obviously the world came to you on that one. How do you feel now about that record?
I feel like that record I finally got back to where I was at maybe during The Eminem Show. Like, creatively and songwriting, I guess. I mean obviously Recovery was the first time I had ever worked with that many producers outside of our camp. Aside from working with Dre, it was like I always wanted to produce my own records, because producing is fun to me too. One of the things that was cool for me about that record was getting beats that already had choruses on them. It's kind of like a challenge to myself to be able to hear somebody else's hook and kind of interpret the words. Because my own hooks, I already know what I mean when I write them. The way that I do music is, like, regardless of what the beat is and whatever kind of appeal it may or may not have, I always want to try to go as hard lyrically as I can. So regardless if the beat feels like "Wow maybe this could be played on the radio," I'm not like, "Maybe radio would play this so I'll just wing it." Like, I always have looked at it like I want to approach every record from an MCs' aspect.
So how did you come to decide to designate this the sequel to The Marshall Mathers LP? How did you decide to make your life miserable like that?
Well here's what it is: It's not necessarily a sequel.
So did seeking out Rick Rubin come from that direction? You were like "Why don't I go back to the source?"
Paul had mentioned to me that he might be interested in doing it and he had been talking to him and I was like, "Fuck man." Another thing with this record is that I kind of got back into producing more. On Recovery, I wanted to focus more on writing, and not have to worry abut making the beats. On Relapse I think it was mostly all Dre. So I kind of started producing again a little bit. I was kind of in the middle of that when Paul had mentioned that, and was fucking around with those kind of sounds and I don't know if that's what made Paul reach out to Rick or if Rick reached out to him. But as soon as I heard he was interested I was like, "Yo, just let me finish this up and let's go see him."
You've called Rick "Yoda" – was there still stuff to be learned from him at this point in your career?
[Yoda voice] Learning I did. Um, yeah, I mean the best part about Rick's vibe is he's very Zen-like in the sense of just "Let it happen." The weird thing about it is nine times out 10, we would know instantly if something didn't work and it didn't feel right, you know. He's almost like a coach.
Did he have all the old drum machines sitting around the studio?
Oh, he's got some shit in the stash. Yeah. Definitely.
So much has changed in hip-hop since you started producing – did you find the beats you were making on your own were influenced by newer stuff?
Um, not necessarily, because like I feel like I just do whatever feels right. Obviously I pay attention to what's going on and what's out and keep my finger on that pulse. But I don't ever want to be like or do like what anyone else is doing. That's no offense to anyone else.
Basically, if there are outside influences that are current, you let that come in from the other producers, but your shit is your shit.
Yeah. That's exactly it. More current-sounding shit I leave to them. And not that I don't feel like my shit sounds current, but it's not the exact same thing. And I think I've updated as well.
On the new song "Legacy" you're talking about yourself in detail as a kid. What does it take to get back in that mindset at your age?
I always try to make my music relatable to the kid who people said, "He ain't shit" or bullied or whatever. It felt like one of them self-empowerment songs. Everybody, I believe, wants to show the world that, "One day I'm gonna be this. One day I'm gonna be that." Everybody has goals, aspirations or whatever, and everybody has been at a point in their life where nobody believed in them. Like, if you haven't been kicked or whatever, if you never went through. . .
You've praised the Beastie Boys' evolution, but it doesn't seem like you're going to have a "the disrespect for women has got to be through" moment.
I mean, listen, my sense of humor has certainly not gone away. I realize that I'm an adult, a grown-ass man, and I don't know what I'll be doing a year from now, 10 years from now, but I don't think that my tongue-in-cheekness will ever go away. I guess it's just a part of my personality. I always want to keep some type of element of fun to the music as well. If one song is darker or talking about a sad subject, I don't want to make a whole album of that, of being a downer. I don't want to make a whole album of being too uppity. You gotta try and find that right balance, and that's one of the things that the creative process was on this record as far as just experimenting. In other words, recording till I get it. And if I record 100 fucking songs and I don't have what I feel like I need yet to make the body of work, then I'm gonna keep going and keep recording.
You've written a bunch of your own hooks, and even sing some of them. Where does your sense of melody come from?
That's a good question. I would want to say that it's stemming from early hip-hop. Rappers used to fuck around all the time with melodies, at least on the shit that I grew up on. I don't know keys on a keyboard or what note this is or that is. I can only hum something. But I think it just comes from all the data that I've collected in my years of listening to music. And you know, fuck man, I think that as hip-hop started evolving, there was more melody in it, people were starting to sing hooks. Even like, early Slick Rick – [sings] "Hey young world" – those kind of things. Maybe I took it somewhere different at times, I don't know.
Having Kendrick Lamar on your album, did you have any concern that he might go in and try to upstage you?
I completely respect what Kendrick does and the fact that he's in the same camp, that he's on Aftermath, only made sense to me. He came to Detroit, we kicked it for a few minutes, you know, and I felt the vibe of what he's like and everything, and you know, he's a super cool and super humble dude. When we did that record, I think that was actually a week or two before he did the verse to "Control."
Is there advice you would give him at this point?
I don't know if he needs advice. He seems like he's got a really good head on his shoulders, man. He's very smart and you can tell by the way he put his album together for one. He's like a hip-hop head, man, he just loves hip-hop. And obviously the way that he did the "Control" verse, it was almost like if you get mad at him, then you might look foolish. He set it up so that you can't really get mad at a lot of that shit he said because it was what every other MC is already thinking. Or you should be thinking.
Fundamentally, do you feel like a rap god or do you feel like an underdog?
I think everything switches back and forth from hour to hour, day by day with me. That whole "Rap God" record pretty much from top to bottom is tongue in cheek. So I mean, do I want to feel like that? Maybe sometimes. Again, it goes back to everybody who competitive raps and does this for just purely the sport of it wants to be the best. Again, that's why Kendrick's verse worked so well because he only said what every rapper's already thinking, If you don't want to be the best, then why are you rapping?
"For further and deep info: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/eminem-q-a-exclusive-the-making-of-the-marshall-mathers-lp-2-20131101#ixzz2lpbG6WMy "
Links:
http://www.eminem.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/EminemVEVO?feature=watch
https://www.facebook.com/eminem
https://twitter.com/Eminem
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1717081/eminem-facebook-questions-answers.jhtml
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