Category: Latest Interviews

Symba calls Eminem GOAT, names his favorite Em verse, says he learned a lot from Em

Couple of years ago, San Francisco Bay Area, California-born rapper Symba, who was cosigned by Dr. Dre by posting his freestyle on Instagram with the caption: “One of my new favorites,” did an interview on Revolt where he declared himself better rapper than Eminem: “I respect Eminem on a level as a man but as a rapper… I feel like I could name five better rappers. The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show. It’s fire. It’s fire but you want my honest opinion? Yes, I’m better than Eminem. Anybody can rhyme words. What are you saying? Hey, the girl that’s yelling, rap me an Eminem verse! She got quiet.”

During a recent episode of Connect The Dots podcast Symba responded to a backlash: “Shout out to Marshall Mathers. If you ask any NBA player who’s better than him, they gonna say nobody. It’s a competitive spirit that we have. Now, that does not take away from the legend and an icon and all the work Eminem has put in. But I was asked the question and they gut the clip up at certain way that made it look like I was going at one of the GOATs. But it was not that at all.” said Symba.

Then he continued: “I respect Em. I got a lot of respect for Em. Learned a lot from him. I worked with Dr. Dre and Dre told me a lot about Em. But when they were asking me, I don’t feel like nobody in this world is better than me as a rapper. That’s just how I feel. But shout out to GOAT Em.”

Later in the interview, Symba named his favorite Eminem verse and revealed that he learned a lot from Slim Shady: “My favorite verse is ‘Reggie, Jay-Z, Tupac and Biggie, Andre from Outkast, Jada, Kurupt, Nas and then me but in this industry I’m a cause of a lot of envy so when I’m not put on this list, this s–t not offend me, that’s why you see me walk around like nothing’s bothering me.’ Eminem taught me how to have character. So, the whole narrative of Symba don’t like Eminem, that’s false. That’s cap. I learned a lot from Em.” You can watch the interview below:

Luis Resto says Eminem goes back to his hard-hitting roots on new album

Speaking to The National after his performance at Mutek.AE music and design festival last week in Dubai, iconic pianist Luis Resto, Eminem‘s long-time collaborator, says the Detroit legend’s much-anticipated new album will have him going back to his hard-hitting roots. He also revealed that he has been contributing sporadically to Slim Shady’s new album since 2021.

“I do have a notion of things judging by what I have seen and heard across the last three years and if I have to give you a forecast, you are going to hear a whole nod back to some of his original creative areas. He is talking about where he came from and where he is now. So it is really a hodgepodge musically of ideas and influences.” says Luis Resto.

Resto’s contribution continues his long-standing relationship Em, stemming back to 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP. Although that record had him contributing minimally, it was from 2002’s follow up The Eminem Show that Resto scored song-writing credits on each of Eminem’s album and associated soundtracks. The work includes co-writing and producing chart-topping hits such as 2004’s Toy Soldiers, 2010’s Grammy Award-winning Not Afraid and 2020’s Godzilla. The track record also includes the wildly successful 2002 track Lose Yourself from 8 Mile, a film that starred Eminem. The song earned the duo, alongside co-producer and writer Jeff Bass, an Oscar for Best Original Song in 2003.

Resto recalls writing the dramatic string section when recording the track in a makeshift studio on the film set in Eminem’s hometown Detroit: “Marshall led that session and I remember he kept saying how the song felt too rock ‘n’ roll and he wanted us to really rebuild the song and take it in a different direction. And this is where I got to use my orchestral chops and added piano, French horns, flutes and strings. I love the hip-hip ethos in general because a lot of it is based on using your ear and feeling your way through songs.

“Now I personally have knowledge of music theory and I am well-versed on how it all works but working with people like Eminem and 50 Cent is a much more open session. It’s not based on major or minor chords or what is correct or not. It’s based on whether it sounds dope or not. Sometimes we are in the studio and they would look at us and wonder if what they are doing is right. And from my experience, I would tell them that it depends on what context you are asking me. If you are asking me theoretically, then I could say that this is not the right note and then what happens is the minute we change it to the correct note, the song is not as cool as it sounds. We often change it back again because they knew what they wanted in the first place.”

“I went out on the road with him around 2011 and quickly realized that he needed a more youthful culture projected on stage. I remember at that time I always wore my hair long and I went grey so early in life that I was done dyeing it. So when one of the roadies asked me if I was going to dye it, I understood the band really needed to look for somebody different. There was absolutely no offence taken because my relationship with Eminem continued and the work flowed.” Luis Resto added.

The interview was provided by The National.

Yelawolf talks meeting Eminem for the first time

In a recent interview with DJ VLAD, Yelawolf talked about meeting Eminem first time and doing the first album under Shady Records.

“What was the first meeting Eminem like? He walked around the corner reciting every word to Pop The Trunk, without even saying what’s up. He was just rapping it. It was mind-blowing.” said Yelawolf.

Then he continued: “I was like any other white boy that was chasing this hip-hop dream. It was crushing to have this…not being represented correctly. We always wanted to be representative. Somebody has to get this correct in a major major way and he did and I was just proud. Watching his success meant that I had a chance. Cause he kicked the door down. But you had to be a f–king beast. I wanted to be an ally and not on the receiving in of a battle ort anything like that. I never wanted that. I wanted to join that and get the cosign and I set out to do that. It was surreal. But at the same time, if you would have asked me 10 years before ‘are you gonna sign to Shady’ I would have just been like ‘f–k yeah.’ It’s that ego thing. I held on to that demo tape I found of his 10 years before, classic Eminem, he would hand those to labels and s–t. I found it, put it in my back pocket and I set out to put in his hands and I did that very thing.”

“So, it was surreal but it was also almost immediately. After brewing down with him, having really great meeting and a conversation with him, I think I jumped right back in the car and I was like ‘man lets do the album immediately.’ So we did. We went out to Vegas, wrote a record with Mally Mall, WLPWR, show back up a couple months later with an album done.” Yelawolf added. You can watch the new interview below:

Benzino’s ghostwriter breaks silence on Eminem diss

Benzino’s “Rap Elvis” ghostwriter, battle rapper Ness Lee finally breaks silence about the diss record and describes the writing process in a new interview with TRAP NEWZ DAILY.

“First of all, f–k that n-gga who sent the video to Cliff Beats. That s–t kinda goofy. But at the end of the day I just wanted to do something historic. I felt like I could accomplish writing a greatest diss song towards Eminem. That’s all I wanted to do.” said Ness Lee.

Then he continued: “If you want to win a round against somebody like Eminem or you want to get close or whatever case may be, I’m the one you come to. I’m not really a fan of everything’s that’s going on after that. First a foremost, I did not have anything to do with the first diss record [Vulturius]. They dropped Proof name like that. I had nothing to do with that. It was not even good enough to be from my pen. Two, I would never disrespect my brother Proof. He was eventually going to sign me back in 03. He was the first person to show me love in the industry of battle rap. That’s my big brother, I would never disrespect him like that. The diss that I did, I said, rest in peace to the best one, the rest of them sound iffy. It was never supposed to be public that it was me. This is my first interview and probably my only interview about it.”

“I’ve been getting some concerned messages from some of my brothers from Detroit, some people who I don’t even know, that felt some kind of way about the first track and I had to tell them that I had nothing to do with that one. I physically does not write that basic. And most of, I would never say that s–t about Proof. If this man [Benzino] is in a war with this dude [Eminem], it’s on him what he wants to say. I can’t dictate. I mean, I can but when I spoke to that man in the beginning, I asked where his mind is on the whole situation and he said ain’t no street involved and that’s when I decided to get involved. I made sure it was not going to be no dumb s–t. I love a lot of people from Detroit.” Ness Lee added. You can watch the entire interview about below:

Joe Budden podcast crew discuss new Eminem album

The latest episode of the Joe Budden Podcast begins with the news of a cease and desist from Tupac’s estate over the use of his vocals on Drake’s ‘Taylor Made’ Freestyle before turning to Megan Thee Stallion being accused of harassment in lawsuit by her ex-cameraman. Then they go to discuss Eminem‘s new album which is set to be released this summer.

“I saw a lot of negative reactions too but Eminem announced that he’s dropping The Death Of Slim Shady album. Personally I’m excited. I see some people say he does not rap about anything or he just raps about how good he raps. A lot of people don’t like the fast rapping flow and etc. I say to those people ‘I don’t think you listen to his last project, Music To Be Murdered By. It’s an amazing album. That was my number two album of 2020.” said Officially Ice.

From there, Joe Budden interfered: “Did I get dissed on there?” But he was quickly reminded that he was dissed on 2018’s Kamikaze album. On that he replied: “Alright, I’ll check that out then.”

Then Ice continues: “He went back and did the deluxe thing and added second album to it. I didn’t really rock with second but the original Music To Be Murdered By was a great project, a lot of concepts. It (new trailer) was rolled out as true crime investigation doc type of thing, so if this is what you are doing and you are announcing this as the death of Slim Shady, I’m expecting something conceptual on here and when he get on that bag, he’s really not to be f–ked with.” You can watch the podcast below:

Big Sean says Eminem turned down to rap on J Dilla beat

In a new cover story by Essence, Big Sean revealed that he attempted to get Eminem to rap over a J Dilla beat, but the Detroit legend passed on the opportunity.

Eminem and Big Sean collaborated on 2020’s Detroit 2 album posse cut “Friday Night Cypher” alongside Tee Grizzley, Kash Doll, Cash Kidd, Payroll, 42 Dugg, Boldy James, Drego, Sada Baby and Royce Da 5’9″, but it wasn’t the first idea he had in mind.

Sean got his hands on an unreleased J Dilla beat for the project and sent it to Eminem, but the song never materialized — despite Em liking the instrumental: “It reminded me of an old Eminem. And when I sent it to Em, he was like, ‘Man, I like the Dilla beat, for sure. I get it.’ But Em preferred the beat for the Friday Night Cypher.”

This wasn’t the only Dilla production that Eminem passed on. Denaun Porter previously revealed that A Tribe Called Quest‘s “Get a Hold” — from their 1996 album Beats, Rhymes & Life — originally belonged to Eminem. “He had the illest song to that beat. Em had that beat before Tribe and them had it. Proof gave it to him. It was like, ‘Yo, I gotta get some Dilla beats,’ I don’t know if he recorded it, but he wrote it because I remember him writing it and I remember the song being ill as hell. The concept he had to it was crazy. Proof told Jay Dee, ‘Yo, Em wants this beat.’ And it might have been another beat too. But that song… when we heard it on the Tribe album, we were like, ‘Aww man!’ But it’s A Tribe Called Quest — what you gonna say? Dilla told him a price and I think Em was trying to get the money up for it or something because we were broke. Mind you, they would’ve got Slim Marshall. This was before ‘Just Don’t Give a F–k.’”

[VIA]

Cam’ron talks about Eminem being one of the best rappers

Speaking in a video posted to Instagram over the weekend, Cam’ron answered questions from the fans. When one of the users asked him if he thinks Eminem is one of the best rappers or not, here is what Harlem, New York-born rapper replied:

“Is Eminem one of the best rappers? Yes, Eminem is one of the best rappers. Look, what happens is, a lot of people say Eminem don’t be sayin’ nothin’ he just putting words together or whatever but you gotta realize you gotta do what works for you. If that works for Eminem, for him to make all the money he made and the Grammys and awards, he so rich that he can’t come outside by himself then that just works for Eminem.” – Cam’ron said.

Then he continued: “You gotta respect n-ggas that’s going to get their checks so when you hear Eminem saying he just put the words together, he lives… He’s from Middle America. Now when n-ggas say Middle America you gotta realize what Middle America is. For people who don’t know, Ohio is only five and a half hours from New York but they call it the mid-west. Why? I don’t know. So, in the Middle America, you got Ohio, you got Michigan, you got Kentucky, you got Wyoming, you got North Dakota. You got all these places so if that works for Eminem? Cool. If I was Eminem and that was paying my bills I would have been like *Rappity rap.* I’ll be doing all that for that chicken n-gga. You gotta go where the chicken at. Now, if you got mad money and you doing it for the love I dig that too. That’s different when you doing it for the love.”

“Lots of n-ggas say ‘yo I’m the realest, nobody realer than me, I’m the realest rap out.’ If it don’t translate it don’t matter. Real n-ggas can rap and the n-gga don’t give a f–k, it’s about selling it. If you can’t sell it, it don’t matter. You got bulletproof vest on, gun in both ankles… If they don’t believe you, they don’t believe you and you don’t matter. That’s that. So to answer your question, do I think Eminem is a good rapper? Yeah! I believe Eminem is a good rapper.” Cam’ron added.

Cam also spoke on his beef with 50 Cent: “When me and 50 Cent was going on, that s–t was fun. Shout out to my n-gga 50, we good now too. But when 50 dissed me, it started when 50 said Koch Entertainment is the graveyard for a lot of rappers. At the time, Jim Jones had just gone to Koch and Jim Jones is Dipset so we got into a whole argument on the phone. All that s–t to me was just music. Even when 50 and me spoke, he was like, ‘Let’s get to this money.’ When we spoke, we laughed about that s–t. At the time, I went at 50 because he had done a diss track. 50 was putting n-ggas out of business with his diss songs.” You can watch the video below:

Devon Sawa says Macaulay Culkin was first choice for Eminem’s “Stan” video

In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Devon Sawa looks back over his career to one of the biggest projects he has ever worked on: the iconic 2000 music video for Eminem‘s “Stan,” from The Marshall Mathers LP album and reveals that the first choice for the video was “Home Alone” star Macaulay Culkin.

Vancouver, Canada-born actor has recently sat down with ET, while promoting the 3rd season of the horror TV shows “Chucky,” and he looked back at his past works as part of a career retrospective, and the cultural impact of his performance in the famous music video, playing the titular Stan.

“I will never forget, they told me on the day that I was going to lip-sync it. I remember, after the first take I did, Dre running in and being like, ‘It was good, but can you try it with some rhythm this time?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ And that was kind of how the day went. But it’s such an iconic video. Dr. Dre was there, D12 was there, I think Snoop was wandering around, Cypress Hill. It was just such a wild three days of filmmaking, it was amazing.” said Devon Sawa.

Then he continued: “They went out to Macaulay Culkin first. I think that they wanted Macaulay Culkin, and he wasn’t available, or didn’t want to do it or whatever. Then Dre, who had just seen Final Destination and was a fan, suggested me. There happened to be somebody in the casting office that knew somebody who was friends with me, and they called me that way… and it ended up working out pretty good.  It’s also one of the proudest things I’ve been a part of.”

It’s been nearly 25 years since the video came out, and Sawa admitted that he still knows the lyrics, and has found himself occasionally singing along. “If it came on in my car or something like that, I would jam along to it,” he said. “I’ll tell you one thing, I know it better now than I did that day. Because I’ve heard it millions of times since.”

The Game defends Eminem against Dr. Umar comments

The Game has recently sat down with DJ VLAD where the Compton rapper responded to Dr. Umar saying Eminem can’t be one of the greatest rappers of all time because he’s white.

“I don’t agree with Dr. Umar. with him saying that. Eminem is undoubtedly one of the greatest rappers ever for obvious reasons. Again, Michael Jordan probably can’t even f–kin’ dunk from free-throw line today so if we wanna say Eminem’s not great today motherf–kin’ Jordan can’t f–kin’ jump from the free-throw line.” said The Game.

Then he continued: “We all get older but that does not mean we don’t respect or don’t understand the magnitude of what somebody did when they were at their beginning and at their pick. So Eminem is for sure one of the best rappers ever. I don’t give a f–k if he’s white, black or whatever. Dr. Umar seems to be pretty educated and he also has an opinion and a platform. I respect his opinion but I don’t got to f–king agree with it. And I’m not even… I have not seen Eminem in 20 years and we had our little back and forth which is all good. Still it is what it is. I’mma keep it a buck. I’m not gonna lie. Eminem is one of the greatest rappers of all time. You can take this sound and use it against me but I don’t give a f–k. It is what it is.”

“But Eminem respects me at the end of the day. If you ask him and he’s going to be honest, he gonna tell you that he respects me and my pen game. He knows what I’m capable of and that is what it is. Dr. Umar had an opinion and I don’t disrespect it but I don’t agree.” The Game added. You can watch the new interview after the jump below:

Has Ed Sheeran just accidently confirmed another song with Eminem?!

Ed Sheeran has recently sat down with Rohit Sharma and Gaurav Kapur for an interview where at the end of their 40 minutes conversation they talked about Eminem. When Interviewer asked Sheeran to name his favorite artists that he worked with, here is what he replied:

“I really enjoyed collaborating with Beyoncé. I just didn’t expect her to say yes. And Eminem… Eminem is someone that I’ve now worked with four times. He was my hero as a kid. I used to have a stutter and I cured my stutter by listening to Eminem music. I had an opportunity to meet him in 2013. I’ve had some success but not like a lot of success and I had an opportunity to meet him and I let him walk by and I said I don’t wanna meet him because I want him to meet me. I want that to be a moment. And then that came to fruition and now we are actually close. So, Eminem and Beyoncé are two of my favorites to work with.”

Ed Sheeran and Eminem have previously collaborated on three occasions: 1. “River” 2. “Remember The Name” which also features 50 Cent and 3. “Those Kinda Nights”. So, Sheeran either: 1. messed up the counting 2. has another collaboration on the way with Eminem 3. has previously recorded unreleased track with Eminem. 

Out of their three collaborations, “River” is most successful. It reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom, making it Eminem’s 9th No. 1 there and Sheeran’s 5th. It also reached No. 1 in Austria, Norway, Scotland and Sweden as well as the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the top 20 in Belgium and the United States. The song is triple platinum in Australia and double platinum in Denmark, Sweden and United Kingdom. The song is also eligible for 3x platinum in the United States. The song also has more than 820 million streams on Spotify.

Dame Dash plays a race card on Eminem while discussing greatest rappers of all time

Entrepreneur and record executive Dame Dash who co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records along with Jay-Z and Kareem Burke, has recently sat down with Patrick Bet-David on Valuetainment where the two discussed who’s the greatest rapper of all time.

When Patrick asked Dash to rank Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, André 3000, Nas and Eminem, here is what he replied: “Biggie and Pac died early, André 3000 does not do shows but he could rap. Nas, what about him? Eminem is white and he can rap really well, he can really rap but he is still white.”

He then continued: “If you were to ask about hip-hop out of 10 white people that came in here, would any of them be specialist if they were from that era? probably not, other than Eminem. If you would ask 10 black people from that era like myself about hip-hop, they would know because in that moment, hip-hop was black sport, created by black people so it’s hard to for a black man to say white man is best at anything that’s supposed to be a black sport. You’re not get that from me. I’m a racist. I don’t call it racist cause racist is when you judging a man for his color. I don’t judge a person because of their color of their skin, I judge them because of the color of the soul. I’m racist in  that way.”

Dame Dash served as Jay-Z’s manager and business partner at Roc-A-Fella Records, and in 1999, he organized a tour for Jay-Z which made $19 million. Their relationship soured as a result of two subsequent events. The first was when Roc-A-Fella Records was purchased by Def Jam Recordings (which had previously only owned half of the company) in 2004, after which Jay-Z agreed to take a job as Def Jam’s president. Then, in late 2005, Jay-Z bought Dash out of his stake in Rocawear… Watch the new interview below:

Bubba Sparxxx talks first time meeting Eminem

Bubba Sparxxx has recently sat down on BHighTV with Princess of Crime Mob and the rest of the crew where LaGrange, Georgia-born hip-hop artist recalled first time meeting Eminem at the Anger Management tour and almost giving up after hearing “My Name Is.”

“I’d like to talk to him [Eminem] now. I believe I will soon. I really want to do a record with Eminem in the next 365 days. That’s a challenge. I did meet Eminem in 2003, I believe it was the Anger Management tour. Just to set the scene: Everybody was there 50 is there, Andre is there, T.I. is there and Bizarre said ‘he want to talk with you’ like I was first [laughs]. This is the height of the beef with Ja Rule and all them.” said Bubba Sparxxx.

Then he continued: “First of all, two layers of presidential security so we go through the security, we get back there and Eminem is playing ‘Hail Mary’, so I walked in, waits till the song finishes and he said one of the most complimentary things anybody has ever said to me and it took me a days to really put it in perspective and understand exactly what he was saying. He said, I got nothing but good things to say about you. I said that’s mutual man, I really appreciate it bla bla bla. He said ‘look, I don’t know, if there had never been me, maybe you would have made it, but you deserved to make it whether there was ever me or not.’ Something like that. I forgot the exact words.”

“He said in the way where he kind have messed up for the rest of the night cause I was like ‘what is he saying though?!’ I didn’t feel like it was disrespectful but…The day I first saw Hi My Name Is, I went into deep depression man cause at that time it kinda looked like they ain’t gonna let another white boy. This white boy was perfect and he had Dr. Dre?! What?! I was like ‘well, f–k it.'” Bubba Sparxxx added. You can watch the interview below:

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