NME magazine has recently started new campaign where they quiz an artist on their own career to see how much they can remember. This week: the musician, songwriter and documentarian, Moby, takes the ultimate test where he talks about Eminem and what was the advantage of Eminem dissing him on “Without Me.”
“The only time me and Eminem ever ran into each other was famously documented at the 2002 MTV Music Awards when my friend Robert Smigel, who voices Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, thought it would be funny to speak to Eminem and I together – Eminem spent the evening scowling at me and got so upset he punched the puppet! I hope if we met up now, he’d laugh about that because it was bizarre and strange!” said Moby.
Then he continues: “Half-way through the awards ceremony, he told me ‘You’re dead’ and gave me an unusual drawing. I kept the picture — I had it framed! He handed me a drawing of him strangling me, and it was a really great illustration! What was endearing was that on the back-side of the paper, he had started drawing it then decided it wasn’t good enough. So he had a first draft on one side and then the fully-executed version on the other.”
“For the longest time, no matter where I went, someone would yell out of a car window: ‘Nobody listen to techno!’. So I’d like to thank Marshall for introducing me to his legion of 13-year-old, future-Trump-supporting fans. None of these people were running out to listen to my music, so it did in a negative way introduce me to a weird demographic of right-wing Americans who otherwise I would probably have had no contact with.” he added.
Eminem dissed Moby back in 2002 on a song “Without Me” which later become the biggest hit of the year. In the song, Em raps: And Moby? You can get stomped by Obie / You thirty-six-year-old baldheaded f–, b–w me / You don’t know me; you’re too old, let go / It’s over, nobody listens to techno / Now let’s go, just give me the signal I’ll be there with a whole list full of new insults.”
American rapper and former Fox television personality Dee Barnes has slammed the Grammys for honoring legendary producer Dr. Dre at the 2023 Grammy Awards, after claiming that the Compton rapper abused her back in 1991.
During the exclusive interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Barnes talked about Grammys’s decision to award Dre with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. As Barnes revealed, iconic hip-hop artist assaulted her at a record release party in Hollywood back in January 1991 after she hosted one of the episodes of Pump It Up!
“Everybody wants to separate the art from the artist, and sometimes that’s just not possible. Most people without a knowledge of [Dr. Dre’s] history are going to say, ‘Oh, he must deserve that. He must be such a great person for them to put an award in his name.’ But they named this award after an abuser,. It wasn’t just a one or two-time thing; these are choices. The first time, it’s maybe a mistake. The second time, okay. The third time, it’s a choice. I’m not saying he is the same person now, though. I don’t know. I’m not around him anymore. I haven’t talked to him. But to name an award after someone with that type of history in the music industry, you might as well call it the ‘Ike Turner Award.'” – Barnes said.
Then she continues: “He said it himself in the documentary The Defiant Ones: I’m a ‘blemish’ on who he is as a man. Well, what do you do with a blemish? There’s a whole industry created—skincare lines and vitamins and rituals—to get rid of blemishes,” she continued. “And, in a sense, there’s a whole network to keep me hidden.”
For the full interview of Dee Barnes, visit Rolling Stone magazine.
50 Cent has recently covered Billboard magazine’s latest issue where the New York legend revealed that he’s working on new album with Dr. Dre and Eminem.
Fifty has recently partnered with WeTV to launch the investigative series Hip-Hop Homicides. Hosted by Van Lathan, the show examines the shocking deaths of rising stars in the genre like XXXTentacion and King Von. Fifty also inked a three-project partnership with Lusid Media for an unscripted crime series slated to debut later this year on Peacock. Additionally, he and Eminem are working on a TV adaptation of the latter’s 2002 semi-autobiographical film, 8 Mile.
As Billboard reports, 8 years after selling his radio income stream to Kobalt Music Group in 2015 (worth $6 million), Fif is now working on a studio album with Dr. Dre and Eminem has sent him new songs to collaborate on, and Nas has tapped him for a feature on his forthcoming King’s Disease 4 album. [Video of this part of the interview is not available yet]. And after a string of one-off shows and a subsequent international run last year, 50 is also planning to tour in the United States for the first time in 13 years. He is already set to perform at Las Vegas’ Lovers & Friends Festival in May, 2023.
In the interview, 50 Cent also praised Eminem: “Em’s not going to say the s–t the way I say it because it just is what it is. There’s his humble nature — he’d call me and ask to do him a favor and rap with him on a song. Like, “You know I am on your label, right? Yeah, whatever you need me to do.” He would always ask me, “Could you do me a favor? I always thought it would be dope if we did this together.” I’m like, “All right.”
In a new interview with PANDA CHOP! News, the former head of security for Death Row Records, Reggie Wright Jr, talked about Eminem getting extorted but protected by Boo Yaa Tribe on the West Coast and Death Row Records confronting Eminem at the Source Awards 1999.
Interviewer: At the 1999, The Source awards, Death Row approached Eminem and they were gonna beat him down until you intervened and said to kick back that he had noting to do with it. Suge was in jail at that time. Did Suge personally call and say to go after Eminem because of his affiliation with Dre?
Reggie Wright: About Source Awards, it was like ‘you all ni–as be out here you all gotta represent. How you gonna go to Awards Show in LA and nobody is from LA there? Or performing or anything? You all go there, represent LA, stand up.’ It was not about beef. It was not about the beef with Dre or anything. But there was this dude Dean, the young assistant of Jimmy Iovine who was with Em and Dean looked at me like ‘Reggie what’s going on?’ Suge ain’t never really had no problems with Em to be honest. Suge always liked him, he always said he was a funny guy. He always kinda liked Em.
Interviewer: What was Eminem’s reaction when he got approached by all them dudes?
Reggie Write: He just looked and said nothing. It was not like he was scared or s–t but he was like ‘WHAT’S GOING ON.’ Then Dean jumped in and saw me. They know I was the only peacemaker. More importantly, Dean knew that I needed Em, that was my key to Jimmy whenever I needed to. It was like 10-20 of them standing there and three or four jumped in and they were about to do something bad to Eminem but fortunately they were listening to me and they just kept walking.”
Bubba Sparxxx has recently sat down with VLAD TV where the 45-year-old rapper reflected on his career and at one point talked about Eminem and what he though about Eminem dissing him on the leaked “GOAT” track.
Bubba said: “I hit Paul [Wall], obviously I did not directly contact Eminem at that time. That record was leaked. He had another record too. Me and Paul, we were shinning. It was Paul Wall time. Paul had told me about his addiction and what he was going through. And I get it. So when I heard that song, first of all, I never did Coke, I don’t know where this information came.”
Then he continues: “I never had a problem with cocaine. Timbaland has also addiction problems. So, with Eminem, I always felt like ‘After so many years, you gonna sneak attack me when I’m at lowest point in my life? I’m not even popping!’ and he explained to me how the song was older but I felt like even he dissing me he was actually paying quit a bit of respect. So, I didn’t really trip off of it.”
“Later on Eminem also mentioned me on his “Campaign Speech” song when Trump was running for office. He mentioned me in a freestyle then. I just know on a personal level that he is always a quiet guy. He would not say much about setting he would be in and at the end of the day he is like ‘how’s Bobby doing?’ I know the type of respect he has for me. I have every bit of respect him as well. It’s just, we all get pissy sometimes.” Bubba added.
Bubba Sparxxx also admitted that he failed to live up to being as good as Eminem. Bubba reflected on his rivalry with Eminem, explaining that he and Timbaland felt like they were competing with Eminem and Dr. Dre.
He said: “There were some areas where maybe I was stronger than him. But there were some areas where he was more experienced. First of all, he was older than me when he first came out … We was just two different human beings on a different journey.
Then he continues: “This is something that Tim and I have discussed too. Yeah, I failed to live up to being the second coming of Eminem. He failed to become the second coming of Dr. Dre in that situation. Even as far as getting caught up in that line of thinking of that’s what we’re competing with. Or we’re trying to match up with this standard of feeling like that was the pressure that was on us, though, in that building.
“But even just feeding into that line of thinking was a mistake, a grievous error on our part. And we definitely fell short of that [on the first album],” Bubba Sparxxx added.
Eminem dissed Bubba on a song “GOAT” which was leaked in 2010 and it was recorded during Em’s ‘drugged up’ phase and was probably to be released through his scrapped King Mathers album but it was never released officially. The song is about Eminem demanding respect as one of the greatest of all.
In the song, Em raps: See, you hardly ever do hear anyone even bringin’ up Paul Wall’s white / ‘Cause lyrically he / doesn’t pose a threat to anyone, see, he’s just aight / And Bubba Sparxxx, he just won’t write / Because he’s so caught up in that snow white / That Timbaland can’t even get him in the studio / He’s so gone off that coke, right? And it’s so sad ‘cause he’s dope, right? / America’s next great white hope, right? / So now they feel like they gotta come up with some corny-a– White Rapper Show, right?” (Lyrics from Genius)
Timbaland collaborated with Sparxxx on “Ugly” in 2001 and “Deliverance” in 2003, where Sparxxx even rapped about his struggles with addiction. Snoop Dogg had already declared Eminem the “Great White American Hope,” which makes it possible for Sparxxx to be the “next” one.
Eminem also mentioned Sparxxx in his “Campaign Speech” freestyle, in 2016 when Donald Trump was running for president. From Dylann Roof to Trayvon Martin, Donald Trump to Edward Norton, Eminem leaves no one out.
In the song, Eminem raps: “Love to start s–t / Shovin’ Clark Kent’s undergarments in the glove compartment / Of the bucket, bumpin’ Bubba Sparxxx / I’m double parkin’ up at Targets, trouble causer, a double crosser / Shadiest mothaf—a you’ll ever come across.”
Not long before “Campaign Speech” dropped, Bubba collaborated with Eminem’s signee Yelawolf on “Be Yourself.” Bubba Sparxxx was also signed to Yelawolf’s label, Slumerican, in March 2016.
Parking in two spots at Target isn’t the friendliest move, as one spot is more than adequate. In this scenario, being the “shadiest” refers to how inconsiderate Em’s parking choices are, but it’s also a play on his alter ego Slim Shady—he’s literally the shadiest alive.
Nathan Kane Mothers, who has recently starred in Sam Logan Khaleghi’s Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge movie, sat down with Hailie on her Just A Little Shady podcast where the two looked back on what life was like growing up together. They also explained why Nate is more like a bruncle (brother-uncle) than a regular uncle. Nate also gave his take on current pop culture events, discusses what his life is like nowadays, revealed how/why his music career evolved into what it is today and shared his own shady story to end the episode!
During the interview Nathan recalled the times when he was trying to look like his brother Eminem and how he got tricked by his cousin to dye his eyebrows: “[Eminem] would get so many free clothes and buy clothes that I would just take some. I would take his hand-me-downs, his huge ‘fat Farm’ outfits and stuff that I thought would fit me. I was like 110 pounds that time and trying to wear 3XL, fit perfect!”
“When I was 12, and went to your dad’s first show, my brother’s first show, my cousin John convinced me, going to his show, not only should I dye my hair that my brother also dyes his eyebrows. Being young I’m like ‘Oh really? I wanna dye my eyebrows too. Sounds like a perfect idea. I wanna look like twins.’ But it was not case. [Eminem] didn’t dye his eyebrows.”
During the conversation with Shaquille O’Neal on his new podcast called The Big Podcast, Jamal Crawford drew the parallel to hip-hop to rank his top five NBA players of all time and used Eminem and JAY-Z’s impact as an example and said: “In my top five, the dominance outweighs the number. You can not change the game and say this person has more points than me, he is better. It is beyond that. Jay-Z’s affect on hip-hop is bigger than any album sales Eminem will have. That is just how it goes.” It seems Don Canon does not agree.
Jamal Crawford’s statement sparked lots of discussions in social media and 50 Cent also weighed in. The Hip-Hop Wolf Instagram page posted Crawford’s interview and asked fans if they agree to the statement or not. Under the comment section, Fifty replied: “Ha, bulls–t.” with Sneezing Face emoji.
No Jumper podcast host Almighty Suspect also denied Crawford’s statement: “Bro, I can name like six Eminem clones right now. Hopsin, DAX, Logic, MGK, that white McDonald dude that white dude who’s is making If-I-Was-Black songs. Joyner Lucas is one of them too. That’s the six. I’m not naming rappers that look like Eminem. I’m naming rappers who are actual clones of Eminem. I just named six. Tell me, name me, six Jay-Z clones.”
The topic has recently been discussed on New Rory & Mall podcast with Don Canon who is a DJ, record producer, songwriter, record executive, co-founder of the Atlantic Records imprint, Generation Now. Cannon has produced tracks and albums for artists like Jeezy, Logic, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne, Ludacris, 50 Cent, and numerous others.
“I hate to answer this questions because for a simple fact that there are so many A, B, C, D, F, Gs. My first time travelling to Japan, Africa and all those places, I will say that Eminem is in more places across the world than I’ve seen Jay-Z. I went to record stores across the countries and I see Eminem and Ludacris everywhere. Eminem’s impact across the world, they have this analogy about what’s the most common thing all around the world and they say stop signs, and most recognizable faces are Michael Jackson, Snoop, Em, maybe Elvis and few others. And those are things that make me feel like, worldwide Em may have the most influence.” – said Canon.
Then he continues: “I would love the hear what Jay has to say. He probably will never talk about that. It’s hard to say. Cause Em done so much. 50 Cent is here. Part of Dre’s second win was them collaborating. D12, the movie 8 Mile, so much came out and one of the Staples in hip-hop is Shade 45. He has had everybody: Us, Sway, Rude Jude, Whoo Kid, Kay Slay. He breeded that. It’s not easy to answer this question. It’s so debatable.”
The Game’s manager and the CEO of 100 Entertainment Wack 100 has recently got into a heated argument on Clubhouse with Black Hebrew Israelites after they declared that they don’t respect Eminem because of being a ‘culture thief.’
During the conversation on Clubhouse, one up-and-coming artist said: “I don’t respect Eminem, because he’s a culture thief.” And then the other one said: “I never rock with Eminem and I never rock with Akon.
On that Wack 100 replied: “Eminem is legend ma ni–a. I f–k with Eminem. You know why I f–l with Eminem? You see what going on Megan Thee Stallion movement, you know what’s going on right? Nobody knew who she was and my brother put her on. She was out of her pocket. Soon as she got her part, she went on Roc Nation and she said ‘f–k the brother.’ Now I’m telling you why I f–k with Eminem. As big as he has gotten, as big as he is, he refuses to walk away from Dr. Dre’s contract, the man who believed in him. They been offering him hundreds of millions and he’s always like ‘I’m signed to Aftermath, talk to Dre.’ That’s why I respect that man. Every other ni–a in this business, when a ni–a believed in him, put them on, payed the rent, next day they were like ‘I wanna get away, f–k you.’ What Eminem does is called LOYALTY.”
“You are all racist organization praying on the bible. All you say, all this s–t is hypocritical.” – he added.
Then one of the artist said: “If we are talking about the greatest of all time Eminem should not be in that discussion. Even Snoop said that. Snoop said he’s a guest in this culture. He can not be the best. Eminem did not earn his numbers. That Slim Shady song would not be popping if he was black. No black person could rap about his mama like he raps about his mama and gets away with it. I ain’t saying Eminem is not good but didn’t The Game just did 10-minute diss song towards Eminem?”
Wack 100 replied: “That was for entertainment bro. We don’t wanna fight Eminem. We don’t wanna kill Eminem. And Game was actually paying a respect to Eminem on The Black Slim Shady track.”
No Jumper host Sharps has recently sat down with the video director James Larese to talk about the business, how he navigates his way to success, artists he has worked with, how he keeps his motivation going and much more.
At one point of the interview, Sharps asked James Larese to talk about working with Eminem on Empire State Building performance of his “Venom” single from 2018, off Kamikaze album.
“I’ve worked very very consistently with Eminem for many many years, since about 2008. So, he was gonna perform. He had this song “Venom” out and he was going to do that performance. They did an actual music video for it as well but this was gonna be the separate live performance that we were gonna shoot live.” said Larese.
Then he continues: “Eminem is amazing. He’s genius. He’s a genius, that’s all I can say. And here is a thing. We shot it a week before the Kimmel show. Before it was gonna air. And it was planned out where on that day that it was gonna air Kim will throw it to them and it would seem as if it was right then. So, because we did that a week ahead of time it had to be a secret. So how you do that? It could not let be known because then everyone would know it was not live when it actually aired. People do that all the time when they shoot things.”
“So, basically we had 70th floor up of the Empire State Building for about two days. To rehearse and sequence, the lights of the Empire State building to the song, so when we would play the song the lights of the Empire State Building would pulse to the beat, they change it. And then we had two helicopters, one that was filming his performance and one that was shooting that helicopter shooting him. I wanted to take advantage of that fact that we were actually using helicopter so I wanted to be able to shoot the helicopter in the shot.” he added.
Earlier this month James Larese, who has previously worked with Eminem on “From Detroit To The LBC,” with Snoop Dogg, “Is This Love (09′),” with 50 Cent “Darkness,” “Rainy Days” with Westside Boogie, “Lucky You,” with Joyner Lucas, “Fall” and “Fast Lane” with Royce 5’9″ music videos and SNL sketches, also hinted that Eminem has something planned in 2023.
Following 50 Cent, Los Angeles rapper and No Jumper host Almighty Suspect is another artist who disagrees former NBA player Jamal Crawford saying Jay-Z has bigger impact on hip-hop than Eminem albums sales will ever have.
During the conversation with Shaquille O’Neal on his new podcast called The Big Podcast, Crawford drew the parallel to hip-hop to rank his top five NBA players of all time and used Eminem and JAY-Z’s impact as an example.
“In my top five, the dominance outweighs the number. You can not change the game and say this person has more points than me, he is better. It is beyond that. Jay-Z’s affect on hip-hop is bigger than any album sales Eminem will have. That is just how it goes.” Crawford said.
Jamal Crawford’s statement sparked lots of discussions in social media and 50 Cent also weighed in. The Hip-Hop Wolf Instagram page posted Crawford’s interview and asked fans if they agree to the statement or not. Under the comment section, Fifty replied: “Ha, bulls–t.” with Sneezing Face emoji.
Today, the topic has been discussed in No Jumper podcast, where Almighty Suspect denied Crawford’s statement: “Bro, I can name like six Eminem clones right now. Hopsin, DAX, Logic, MGK, that white McDonald dude that white dude who’s is making If-I-Was-Black songs. Joyner Lucas is one of them too. That’s the six. I’m not naming rappers that look like Eminem. I’m naming rappers who are actual clones of Eminem. I just named six. Tell me, name me, six Jay-Z clones.” said Suspect.
Then he continues: “I’m not saying Eminem’s impact is better or worse but it’s large! It has to be acknowledged and I don’t even like Eminem like whatsoever. I think Jay-Z’s impact on rap is bigger outside of rap. More entrepreneur s–t. In the business aspect, hell yeah. But if we talking about just rap, bro, all Jay-Z does is f–king quote Biggie lines. F–k we talking about ni–a. His effect, I get it, because he’s definitely one of the GOATs, one of the greatest rappers alive in people’s eyes. To me, one of the greatest artist is Wayne. Jay-Z’s impact in hip-hop, what are we saying? Like, what? Where? Besides being a business mogul.”
“Eminem does have a lot of numbers but he also has a big impact on rap bro. You know how many motherf–kers trying to imitate him? Ni–as do that all day. It’s not like eight of them. It’s millions of them.” Suspect added.
Peter Gunz from Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz hip-hop duo, who released their debut album back in 1996, has recently sat down with Math Hoffa where the The Bronx, New York-rapper revealed that he was trying his best to get his son Cory Gunz signed to Eminem‘s Shady Records.
Cory Gunz who is currently signed to After Platinum Records, Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records, and Universal Republic Records also revealed that Eminem is still his dream collaboration.
“Cory was raised on LL, Rakim, Kane, KRS-One, Redman, Jay-Z, Biggie, Nas. He only heard that and I would give him those patters and gave him like a homework. Go write like that, do this, do that. I would give him sprinkle of everything. Little bit of Slick Rick, little bit of De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Busta, I wanted him to get full package. And then this rapper came along called Eminem and his patterns intrigued Cory and the rest is history.” said Peter Gunz.
Later in the interview, Peter continues: “I’m still a fan of Eminem. Yeah he may not be the same if he was black I get when people say that. He says it himself but that does not take away from him being incredible. Sometimes he says some s**t we can’t relate to but he also says meaningful stuff. He’s incredible to me. In my humble opinion, I think Eminem is incredible.”
“I met with Paul Rosenberg. I was really trying to get Cory next to Eminem. I even tapped the producers just to get next to Eminem, even if I didn’t want the beat. It was Mr. Porter but beat was fire. I felt like, if we get the beat from him and Cory rapped on he would play it for Eminem and that’s maybe set it up. That was my thinking of to try get him over there. It never panned out that way but things happen the way it supposed to happen.” Peter added.
Then Cory continues: “I wanted to work with Shady Records and to this day still I do. Cory and Eminem, that’ would be a dream come true. Shout out to Royce too.”
Peter adds: “That would be like me getting a song with Prince. That would be something on my bucket list if that happened before I die. Even before my own dreams, to get Eminem and Cory on a record or hear them rhyming together would be a dream come true because Cory one of the ones that can hang with him in my humble opinion.”
BBC has just released 4-part documentary Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World written and directed by iconic Chuck D. The docuseries examine how hip-hop/rap music became a cultural phenomenon, with insight from some of the rap scene’s biggest stars. You can check the Eminem-segment below but all the episodes are free to watch on BBC iPlayer. US citizens have to wait for January 31 though.
Eminem: When all these millions of people were listening to me it was crazy to watch this whole thing cause I was like ‘people are tripping because I said that?’ It made me realize that hip-hop has impact not only on me but millions of other people too
Sway: Eminem was a dope rapper. I first met Eminem right after he won the Rap Olympics. He became popular purely because of his talent and his skillset and the fact that he was a white guy that was outrapping everybody at that time.
Killer Mike: You can’t talk about Eminem without talking about Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre foresaw N.W.A and helped create what Gangsta Music was. But he also understood that game needed to changing. What Dr. Dre recognized in Eminem was that, there is a place for poor white people to have say in this culture.
KRS-One: Listening to Eminem’s early stuff, what’s going on internally in the white home. He’s writing you out. He’s talented. He tells his struggles.
Killer Mike: What Em showed the bigger world that hip-hop could do would unite people to understand that everyone suffers underserved. He participated in the culture he loved and he brought new audience with him.
Chuck D: It was the first time in hip-hop and rap music you can get somebody who really seriously making Elton John type of money.
Then Eminem continues talking about Donald Trump and his The Storm Freestyle which divided his fanbase in two: “If its gonna divide my fanbase then so be it. You may divide some people but you are also gonna bring a lot more people together. And maybe I could take that opportunity in this platform I have to be somebody that could inspire change.”
You can watch Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World Eminem-segment below:
