Jesse Collins, the genius behind some of the biggest shows in hip-hop history, shares his groundbreaking journey with Sway In The Morning. From crafting unforgettable moments at the Super Bowl with Usher to celebrating 50 years of hip-hop and beyond, Jesse reveals the vision and hard work that goes into producing legendary events. He’s the man who erased color lines and elevated the game to new heights. At one point of the interview, Jesse Collins talked about “Rhythm + Flow” and Eminem‘s involvement in it.
“After season 1 we were going into season 2 and I remember we were in production for a week when Covid started and it was the beginning of Covid so it was like ‘oh, we are going home for two weeks.’ And then it went another two weeks and another two weeks and it was like ‘okay, we are done.’ And they shut it down for years and then it popped in France and then we just brought it back. It comes out in November.” said Jesse Collins.
Then he continued: “We had your guy. The rapper that you may have had something do do with. EMINEM! When he did the show, this incredible episode, and he’s talking about being in LA for the battle that he lost. And he was saying that he was getting evicted from an apartment and he really needed that money. So he went out and did that battle. And lost to someone I can’t remember the name. Somebody that had a lot of local affiliations. So, it didn’t matter how he did, he was going to win. So, Em lost and was not going to get that money. F–ked this whole thing and gave that tape. And that mixtape got through and got to Dre and whole thing and the rest is history.
During the conversations, Sway interrupted and said that rapper that defeated was Juice but Collins was obviously talking about Otherwize. Eminem talked about the battle on his Genius Annotation: “We had pressed up The Slim Shady EP and it was doing pretty well in Detroit. At some point, Wendy Day called me and said “I want you to be on the battle team. I got you a ticket to the Rap Olympics in LA.” said Eminem.
Then he continued: “I went to the Olympics, got all the way to the end, and then lost to the last guy. The guy who won was Otherwize, from LA. It was a local thing. They had a bunch of crowd support there. When I rapped, he went and hid behind a video screen. He walked away while I was rapping. I didn’t have anyone to battle! I’d never been in a situation like that before. I went through a lot of people to get through to the end, and then he walked away while I was rapping. I’m like, “What the f–k do I do?” I was devastated.
“I come off stage. I’m like, that’s it. It’s over for me. This kid from Interscope, Dean Geistlinger, walks over and he asks me for a copy of the CD. So I kind of just chuck it at him. It was The Slim Shady EP. We come back to Detroit, I have no f–king home, no idea what I’m gonna do. Then, a couple weeks later, we get a call. Marky Bass said, “Yo, we got a call from a doctor!”” Eminem added.
More than four years after Rhythm + Flow debuted on Netflix, the hip-hop music competition series is back with a second season featuring new judges, DJ Khaled, Ludacris and Latto. The streamer also announced Eminem as a special guest who will join the battles round “from a surprise location.” Additional music industry guests for the show, in which a panel of judges aim at discovering the next generation’s rap star, will be revealed at a later date.
