Despite almost having a different name, Dr. Dre‘s Aftermath Records is now a well-known brand because of the legendary producer’s solo success after his time with N.W.A. but according to King T, the label had different name at first.
In a recent interview with the Murder Master Music Show, veteran Compton emcee who goes by the name of King T recalled his brief time on the label as their first-ever act and revealed it had a whole different name then.
“I’m like one of the first artists he wanted to sign. We just ended up in the studio up at Record One, they just put on a beat and I just knocked it out. It was so easy and I was just happy to be there. The rhymes just came, Str-8 Gone was one of the best songs I’ve done in my career. I was just happy to be working with Dr. Dre.” said King T
Then he continued: “They didn’t even have the name of the label Aftermath when I did that song, they was calling it something else. I was there before the name Aftermath even came about. I think it was something like Black Market or something, I can’t remember.”
“You know what it was something like Black Market, but somebody else had it, they were trying to sell it to Dre for some buku money. They ended up putting the ‘Str-8 Gone’ song on the first compilation they ended up putting out on Aftermath, but it was a great song.” – King T added.
Wicked from the Ghetto Mafia has recently sat down with B High Atl where he listed rappers who go against Lil Wayne in a Verzuz battle and included Eminem as the main candidate.
“If we are talking one on one, my catalog against yours, Eminem can go toe to toe with Lil Wayne. Jay can go toe to toe with him. LL is another guy. LL can go against anybody. Rock The Bell album alone, every song on that album, it’s 15! Nas, you know Snoop can go at anybody. His own partner Drake too. I said Em. We can throw Kanye up there.” said Wicked
Then he continues: “If we are talking about just lyricists, I have no argument with Lil Wayne. I know some people might be upset when I say but Eminem! Em’s a bad motherf–ker. We can’t hate. You know, some people are like ‘I can’t put him in there’ but that’s bulls–t.”
“After Dre and Snoop for a moment, I don’t know their personal business, but it was a little moment that they would not f–king with each other and that’s when he came in with Em and 50 Cent. And when he came with Em like ‘Nowadays everybody wanna talk like they got something to say’ Snoop was like ‘hold on now. Snoop had to do like that for a minute and he was like ‘maybe I should talk to Dre and square this away’ so like I said, I would put Em up there, like Nas and Jay but Lil Wayne does not have to apologize for saying that. This man held down this industry for 30 plus years.” Wicked added.
In a recent interview with AllHipHop magazine, Big Daddy Kane provided an update on his forthcoming Netflix documentary, titled Paragraphs I Manifest, which boasts several high-profile interviews with everyone from Eminem and Jay-Z to J. Cole and Common.
“We’re in the editing stages right now. And hopefully, we’ll be finished within the next two months. That’s what I’m praying for, you know, because I really feel that it’s important to get this out as Hip-Hop is celebrating 50 years.” says Big Daddy Kane.
Then he continues: “The most rewarding part of this experience is hearing different artists’ perspectives. To sit with someone like Common, who I respect as a great lyricist and is someone with a unique flow other than the norm and representing a city other than New York, to hear his influences and his thought process, things of that nature. To hear Eminem talk about losing a rap battle. To hear him talking about what motivated him to write a song, who he listened to and studied, stuff like that.”
“The biggest thing I learned was something Eminem said, because I never really thought about it. When I am writing and I am doing what I do, I am just in my zone. I am listening to him talk, but as I am listening to him, I am trying to think who did it before me, and I actually could not come up with no one. I was just sitting there really blown away.”
“When we left, I actually went listening to different artists that had songs out before me to see if anyone else did that in their writing style, and I did not find no one. I am not saying that I am the first, am just saying that so far I have not found anyone. It was crazy.” Big Daddy Kane added.
In a recent interview with Vulture magazine, 50 Cent revealed that when shopping to find a home for the original “Power” TV series, a lot of the heavy-hitter companies such as HBO, Hulu, Paramount, and Showtime were not interested in the project.
“We went to all these organizations in the early stages. They probably had something else they felt was similar, or it wasn’t what they was looking for. I’m sure now they wish they didn’t pass on it.” Fiddy explained.
What’s more, when STARZ decided to take a chance on the show, the network saw proof it had made the right decision when “Power” became its biggest show, accomplishing record-breaking feats. Yet, despite the show’s success, 50 Cent said that things would get tricky when the time rolled around to renegotiate his contract.
For him, the amount that he was receiving per show did not properly reflect the time, effort, and energy put into the series. In fact, 50 Cent says the lowball payment would not have flown in the music industry.
“There’s no one that could come and tell me to take $17,000 to act and executive produce and make music. I gave them the theme song for ‘Power.’ I gave them the things that connected, hopefully, in a different way for it. You see what I’m saying? All those things for $17,000 per episode? I get paid more to go to the nightclub and wave.” – 50 Cent
American radio executive, record producer, artist and author Damizza has recently sat down with Mr. Criminal where he recalled the stories about Mariah Carey, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and much more.
Damizza was ranked by The Source Magazine as one of the five most powerful people in Hip Hop in 1999, with his ties to radio as the senior director of programming and artist relations at Power 106 in Los Angeles.
During the new interview, Damizza told the untold story of how Eminem’s “My Name Is” first aired on west coast radio stations.
“I almost got fired so many times it was stupid. When Dr. Dre called me and invited me at his house he said ‘I need some advice’ I was like ‘DR. DRE CALLED ME FOR ADVICE? WHAT THE HELL!’. I showed up and he points to Eminem in the booth and says ‘how do I break the white boy?’ And I’m like ‘Dude, you tell me the story of N.W.A. from beginning to end and I’ll break the white boy for you.” Damizza said.
Then he continues: “I sat on his washer and dryer, he sat on his little stairs from like midnight to 6 a.m. he told me whole story of N.W.A. and Eminem comes out about six o’clock in the morning from the studio tired of waiting and he looks over and says ‘I’m going home’ and I said ‘No, you are not, you are going Baker Boy’s show on Power 106. You are going to announce that you are doing Friday Night Flavors 10th year anniversary. Give me that record, Hi My Name Is.”
“My boss said ‘put that white boy on stage and you are fired! Dr. Dre is over! That white boy…have not you heard of Vanilla Ice!?’ and all that kind of stuff. Everybody was looking at me like ‘are you really going to put white boy on stage? You crazy?’ I said ‘It’s Dr. Dre’s new artist.’ They all looked at me so before I knew it everybody’s on side of the stage. I’m there with Coolio, rest in peace, all of these guys are there and watching. Eminem got through the first part of that song ‘F–k You’ and that place went to s–t!”
“I walked in the office next morning. I literally had a box and I was putting my s–t in the box thinking I’m getting fired and then my boss came in and she was like ‘you are lucky that white boy killed it, bring me the record.’ And then we played Hi My Name Is. That’s how Eminem got started.” Damizza added.
The internet went crazy attempting to identify his lover after SteveWillDoIt shared a video of him and his girlfriend Celina Smith playing Minecraft in 2021.
We all know SteveWillDoIt as a popular gaming YouTuber with a huge following of almost 9 million subscribers. He’s known for his daring and sometimes outrageous challenges, like eating a Tide Pod or snorting an entire bottle of cinnamon. But fans have also noticed a woman accompany him in his mind-boggling escapades. Who is SteveWillDoIt’s girlfriend, Celina Smith?
As she claims, she’s a cousin of Eminem. In an interview last month, Celina Smith said: “Eminem is my cousin. Eighth cousin. Came up on my ancestry thing. I swear. And yeah, even my grandma was like ‘you know, that’s your cousin.’ Like way… Should I reach out? He would not believe me, I’m not gonna message him and be like ‘We are cousins.'”
In a recent interview with AllHipHop magazine, Grammy Award-winning producer who goes by the name of Smitty, who has previously worked with both Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, gave some insight into the studio sessions and overall energy surrounding Snoop’s forthcoming album titled Missionary, which is being entirely produced by Dr. Dre.
“It’s gonna be great music. That’s not even the given. What people won’t expect is the level of execution that Snoop is committed to. Snoop’s in his bag. I was in Hawaii working with other projects last week. Snoop Dogg called me — I’m three hours behind, it has to be 8 in the morning — he’s like ‘Man, this is Snoop. Little bro, I ain’t seen Dre this excited since The Chronic. He’s really excited about what we’re doing.’ I said, ‘Nah, you think?’ He said, ‘Y’all ain’t got what we got. Y’all go on trips on yachts with him, record and all that shit,’ because that’s how we started.” Smitty said.
Then he continued: “He took us on a yacht trip to Croatia. We were recording every day, we had three records for Snoop. When we came back, Snoop said ‘Yo, this could be something!’ That’s what set the plug, that’s what started it. That’s the last thing Snoop said to me: ‘Man, he’s really excited.’ And Snoop’s commitment to execution makes us all humble.”
“I’ve seen Snoop come in and not be in the mood to record, and he’ll still give it his all. Because a lot of people are intimidated to record with Dre. I’ve seen some of the biggest names not want to record with him because he’s that meticulous. He’ll make you do the line over and over a thousand times, then tomorrow say, ‘Yeah, I was wrong.’ That’s him. It takes a certain level of commitment to even rock with him.” he added.
LL Cool J has recently sat down on Way Up With Angela Yee where the legendary hip-hop artist revealed that his new album was originally produced by Dr. Dre but it was scrapped. Plus he talked about his new album with Q-Tip, being married, shooting his first concert and much more.
“So, the real story is that, I did about 30-40 songs with Dr. Dre and in doing those songs I felt like – the music was amazing what Dre was bringing to the table was super dope – but I felt like the writing, what I was brining to these songs didn’t feel strong enough to me. I didn’t feel like I was expressing, I was getting out of me, what I was feeling. In my mind, I didn’t feel like it was written properly.” said LL Cool J.
“So, I took a pause. Me and Dre just kinda paused for a minute. And I ended up having a dream and in this dream Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest came to me. When he came in my dream he was like ‘yo, that album you gonna do with Dre is gonna be dope’ and I’m looking at him and he’s smirking a little bit. He had funny look at his face. And then when I woke up, I just felt like Q-Tip was on my spirit. So I just called him. He picked up and I told him that I wanted to do an album. We went and did the record and the rest is history.” He added.
LL previously revealed that he got Eminem featured on his upcoming album. It’s highly possible the song is produced by Dr. Dre.
Royce 5’9″ has recently sat down with Cipha Sounds and Peter Rosenberg on Juan EP Is Life podcast, where the Detroit legend talked about Hip-Hop Shop days with Eminem, how their friendship formed, meeting Dr. Dre for the first time, his career highlights and more.
About Hip-Hop Shop
“After the school graduation, I started going to Hop-Hop Shop. First time I went to Hip-Hop Shop I rapped and I got gonged. I almost was not a rapper. That killed my confidence. I thought I was not ready. I walked in there and I seen Proof, Elzhi, Marshall, all of them killers. Hip-Hop Shop was an open mic slash clothing sore that was owned by Maurice Malone. So what you do is, you stand around in the circle and Proof is like the host, he just passes the mic around. If you get it, you gotta rap. And DJ Head is up top on the ones and twos and if you don’t get reaction fast enough then he puts on gong music and you gotta pass the mic. Proof was known as the best emcee. When I walked in there, I didn’t know anybody. I already heard about Proof. Marshall did not rap that day.”
After Hip-Hop Shop / meeting Eminem
“After I succeeded at the Hip-Hop Shop, I just kept going. Bad Meets Evil the vinyl was probably the first thing that I was a part of. Around ’97. I heard ‘Infinite’ before I met Marshall. ‘Infinite’ and ‘The Slim Shady EP.’ Mr. Porter produced the whole ‘Infinite’ album. Me and Eminem get close as soon as we met. I met him the night my son was born. We have already heard about each other. I was opening up for Usher at the show. He heard me kick the acapella on stage. And he asked me to meet me. So, we met each other, exchanged numbers and we started talking on the phone and that’s how the song Bad Meets Evil ended up happening. Once we did that, he took a liking to me, he got his deal with Dre and the rest is history.
About Bad Meets Evil deal
John Schechter, he’s a good friend of mine but he was introduced me through Paul Rosenberg who’s Em’s partner. I already had friendly relationship with Paul Rosenberg. I can’t remember exactly all the particulars but Paul wanted to set it up to where Em can do things outside of his deal. Also to help build me. So we just kept doing s–t together. And at that time, I also became Em’s hypeman for a minute. We were just together all the time. We were just building.
Meeting Dr. Dre
I remember sending out my demos to Marshall when he was out in Cali so he can listen to the songs. I get the call one day, my dad comes into the room and says ‘Ryan, It’s Dr. Dre on the phone for you.’ I answered the phone like ‘hello’ and he’s like ‘Yo what’s up, it’s Dre.’ I’m like WOW. So, Marshall basically played my s–t for him and he was feeling my s–t. So he was like ‘would you be down to come out here and work with us?’ I said ‘hell yeah.’ So I went out to Cali and we started working on The Chronic two (2001). From there, I ended up signing a deal with Tommy Boy where my album was executive produced by Marshall.
“Eminem really never say nothing. Eminem is the type of ni–a that could watch you, he will make a diss record to destroy you and then just chill in the crib. Shout out to Eminem.” said Yayo.
Then he continues: “We were called House Ni–as for f–king with Eminem. The Source, they would take it to whole another level. That’s when the disrespect for me was like. Damn, what does color have to do with music. What does the color have to do with people. I don’t care what color or religion you are. We from New York, we grew up with all kinds of people. I don’t give a f–k what color you are. I don’t look at you as a culture vulture because you are white. That could be somebody else’s opinion. It’s not mine.”
“Melle Mel said something about Eminem. That’s his opinion. My thing is, Em and Fifty did more for me than anybody has ever done in my career. I’mma always shout out Eminem. Eminem would never be on no list if he was not f–king lyrical tyrant. If he was not f–king nice with it. No disrespect to Melle Mel, I know he’s a legend in the game but at the end of the day, Eminem is lyrical.” Tony Yayo added.
Country singer Jelly Roll has recently gave an interview to Detroit Free Press where he revealed that he was inspired by Eminem and called him the greatest of all time.
The 38-year-old Tennessee native made an underground name in the 2010s with a series of hick-hop releases, forging a music career after spending much of his teens and early 20s in prison. He began his country transition in 2020, winning fans with soul-baring, therapeutic music that has been celebrated for honest rawness.
Friday in metro Detroit, he knew he was near the stomping grounds of a personal musical hero and influence, Eminem, who emerged from similar tough family circumstances to find his own redemptive arc.
“Eminem is the greatest of all time. There’s no denying that. I grew up feeling the same way. He inspired kids like me. He was early to infuse rap and rock, and I remember early on thinking you could mix genres based solely on what Marshall did. So he’s always been a big pivotal thing on what we’ve done. Plus, being a white-trash kid, you can’t help supporting another white-trash kid. I hope he feels the same about me.” Jelly Roll said.
“I think his music has always been cathartic because even when he was in his addiction, he was constantly crying for help out of it when you listen back to those records. Once he got past his first album, he just opened up the super-emotional side of him, and I think it changed the game for everybody. And he was one of the first rappers who did that.” he added.
Nick Cannon has recently sat down with Bootleg Kev where he talked about living with 12 kids, the Eminem beef, quitting AGT, Wild N’ Out, Prank Wars and more.
At one point of the interview, he was asked if he ever regretted bringing out his Wild N’ Out boys into the beef with Eminem, on which Nick replied: “No. I thought that was amazing. Your attention is my currency baby, keep it going. All those guys are a lot more popular now than they were before they started it. That was just for the media. I was just trying to get people to watch Wild N’ Out.”
Then he continues: “I think I won the battle. If somebody picks a fight but does not show up to the fight…I was the one who was responding. He was on Fat Joe’s record. I love Eminem, he started f–king with me and then ran off like a little b–ch. It was all sport man. I love Em. But I won the battle. He did not respond!”
“In the third diss record, I started bringing race into it. That’s why I went too far. I should have stopped at the second record. I was planning putting Benzino on the next record [Laughs]…But we all know Eminem is the GOAT. He definitely a top 5. But I think Drake is coming for the spot. Drake is better song maker than majority in the music industry. If we talking about punchline, bar for bar and lyricism, I’mma go with Drake. Eminem is the king of flow. Eminem is great storyteller. Might be one of my favorite story tellers in hip-hop. Eminem is probably number one storyteller cause ain’t nobody topping “Stan” and “Lose Yourself.”
“I was in Detroit last week with my man Royce. It’s all love. I think MGK made same mistake that I made. We were probably too excited and overzealous that we got to battle with the GOAT. We got to get in the ring with one of the best to ever do it. I was so excited. I was like ‘OH S–T, HE PAID ATTENTION!’ And the whole goal was to get attention.” – Nick Cannon added.
