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Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Friday, January 3, 2014
NYtimes 2010
QUESTIONS FOR EMINEM
The Real Marshall Mathers
Interview By DEBORAH SOLOMON
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| Credit: Nigel Parry for The New York Times |
On your new album, “Recovery,” which comes out on Monday, you assume a confessional tone and back off from the misogyny and demented violence you pushed in your earlier work. Would you agree?
I think I’d have to go back and listen to it. Did I?
Does Slim Shady, your raping and killing alter ego, still exist? Or have you split with him?
Shady still exists. But I don’t think the subjects on this record call for, you know, bring the chainsaws and axes out and murder everyone on this record. There was so much stuff like that off the last record that I felt like I was starting to run it into the ground. I think consciously I went in a different direction with this record.
Do you regret having written so many songs that refer to women as “bitches” and “hos” who exist solely for your pleasure?
Anything I’ve ever said, I certainly was feeling at the time. But I think I’ve calmed down a bit. My overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be.
Even your mother sued you for defamation. Is she still in Detroit, where she raised you as a single mom?
I’m not sure, to be honest. It’d be very hard to repair that relationship.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Vibe 2010
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| Dr Dre and Eminem on Vibe's cover Credit to Vibe.com |
The Eminem Cover Story: Dying To Live
WITH HIS MIND RIGHT AND RHYMES TIGHT, HIP-HOP’S BIGGEST BLOCKBUSTER RAPPER
ISN’T READY FOR WAR ANYMORE. MARSHALL “EMINEM” MATHERS IS CLEAN AND SOBER AND PUTTING SHATTERED PIECES OF HIS LIFE BACK TOGETHER AGAIN, ONE
POTENT HIT AT A TIME
EMINEM IS A 37-YEAR-OLD DAD who goes to work every day and has a fantasy football team. He is trying really hard to be normal. Of course it’s too late for that. His childhood was totally fucked. His drug addiction to a myriad of prescription pills and alcohol nearly killed him. He is incredibly talented—only guys like Kobe Bryant and Roger Federer know what it’s like to be that damn good at something. And once again, he stands alone as the biggest rap star in the world. In June, hisseventh studio album Recovery sold 741,000 copies during its first week. That’s more than Drake sold. That’s more than Jay-Z sold last time out. Hell, that’s more than even Justin Bieber sold. Some people were surprised. (1) Others were not. (2) Either way, it’s quite the comeback story.
Eminem points out several times on Recovery that his previous two albums, 2004’s Encore and 2009’s Relapse, were not very good. It helps that he is sober now and has been through some rigorous rehab. He has emerged from a personal hell—the drugs, the death of his best friend Proof, the failed marriage to his childhood sweetheart Kim—as a stronger artist and a stronger person.
We meet at his homely studio in Ferndale, Michigan, about a thirty-minute drive from downtown Detroit. He walks past the row of old school 1980’s video games and introduces himself with a firm handshake. “Hi, I’m Marshall.” From there, it’s over to his office where he takes a swig of sugar free Red Bull. “I’m addicted to these,” he says without a hint of irony at the poor choice of words.
He wears blue-and-white Nike sneakers, a white T-shirt, navy blue gym shorts and a matching navy Kangol baseball cap. Eminem rarely makes eye contact. He is, however, articulate and commanding. He also frequently lassos the conversation and steers it back into his comfort zone, which makes him a challenging interview. On the song “On Fire,” Eminem says, “Critics never ask me how my day went.” It’s a simple request. He will give you what you want. After all, his life was always an open book. He knows he’s a star. He just wants you to know he’s also human. He wants to be treated like a regular person. God help him with that.
VIBE: How’s your day going?
Eminem: Good. I’m just coming back from L.A. It’s the album cycle again.
Are you doing more publicity than last year?
Yeah, I am. I was taking baby steps. I was in my first year of getting clean so it was a little awkward for me.
Upon telling a friend about this interview he said, “Eminem hasn’t done shit since The Eminem Show.” Do you agree?
I do feel like that. The last couple of albums I let some people down. It wasn’t like, “Let me put some bullshit out.” At the time, obviously I felt like it was the best I could do or else I wouldn’t have put it out. But looking back on it now, there was some pretty mediocre things that I was putting out. (3) When I was making Encore, my addiction took on a life of its own. I remember going to L.A., recording with Dre and being in the studio high, taking too many pills, getting in this slap-happy mood and making songs like “Big Weenie” and “Rain Man” and “Ass Like That.”
What did Dr. Dre say about those records?
He would just laugh. He didn’t understand what was going on. Nobody understood what was going on with me or why I was acting so fucking goofy.
Did Interscope pressure you to finish Encore and Relapse? Were they telling you, “We need the album. We need product?”
No. Interscope, Dre and Jimmy, they kind of let me work at my own pace, which is a cool thing. I don’t really get the pressure. Every now and then, I’m sure they are like, “Yo, what’s up?” But for the most part, I pretty much don’t put it out till it’s right.
You seem very self-assured on Recovery. Is this the most confident you’ve ever felt? Not as a rapper, but as a person.
As a person, yeah. I feel stronger than ever, better than ever, nothing is going to stop me. That is the undertone of the record. It’s also; I think that, um, by me putting out a record like this, it can show people that no matter how down you are, it does get better. (4)
So this is an uplifting Eminem record?
I, um, yeah, kind of. To an extent. This is probably the most uplifting record I’ve made. But I don’t want to go too far with it. You know what I mean? So let me pull it back a little so I have some songs where it’s like, “Fuck all that other shit, let me just get on some hip-hop shit.”
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FOOTNOTES:
1 “I never know what the market will bear these days. I just knew that he made an incredible [album].” — Interscope Records co-founder, Jimmy Iovine
2 “I won a lot of bets.” —longtime friend and rapper, Royce Da 5’9”
3 “I felt Encore was a little more scattered than The Eminem Show. I like Encore. I just think The Eminem Show is more direct and cleaner. Relapse was very clear for what it was, but what it was, was very narrow.” —Jimmy Iovine
4 “What [Eminem is] doing and how he’s doing it should be an example to anyone that has anykind of substance abuse problem and give them the courage to admit the problem because the only way to recovery is to admit you have a problem.” —Jimmy Iovine
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After the last two mediocre albums, Recovery was vital for your legacy. How important is it to you to be mentioned as one of the greats, if not the greatest?
How important is it? I think, hmmm. I mean, anytime you hear things like that (5), it’s certainly an honor and feels good but I don’t rap to be the absolute best rapper in the world because I think there is no such thing. I rap to be the best that I can be. I feel like I compete with myself a lot and I’m always trying to top what I did. I think Wayne once said, “Of course you are rapping to be the best rapper. Because otherwise, why are you doing it?” So everyone raps to say they are the best or to be the best or whatever. I don’t even know if I’m making any sense. It’s what hip-hop is based on: “I’m better than you. I do this better than you.” At the end of the day, I don’t believe that there is one rapper that can be the best because that means you have to be the best at everything. There are certain things that I may do better than Wayne. There are certain things that Wayne may do better than me. There are certain things that Jay may do better than both of us. Everybody has certain things that they are good at. Being the best? There is no such thing.
Let’s discuss the opening lines on “Talkin’ 2 Myself.”(6) Did you just decide one day that you would attack Kanye and Lil Wayne?
Well, it wasn’t one day. And it wasn’t just them. The reason why I singled them out on the record was because to me, they were the ones killing it the most. There was a point in time where I was walking around the studio feeling like I should go at everybody. I don’t give a fuck if it’s Paul Wall or Bubba Sparxxx. If you’re out there and doing well, I’m not and I know that I’m not. I didn’t like them because I didn’t like myself. Now, I like those guys because I like myself.
You also said that if you released a diss record it would have sucked. (7) C’mon, really?
It would have been terrible. It would have been terrible. I’m certainly glad I came to my senses. [At the time], I couldn’t even write a fucking punch line. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t write period.
At the time—2006, 2007—50 Cent was baiting Kanye and Lil Wayne. Did you guys talk about that?
Me and 50 never discussed the Wayne thing. As far as the Kanye thing, we never really got into detail on that either. I never took it as him having a real beef with Kanye. It was a friendly competition and hype to [promote] both albums.
You had so many battles. Do you regret anything you’ve ever said about anyone?
I don’t really regret anything because it was certainly the way I was feeling at the time. I’m sure that a lot of the shit went pretty far out there but it’s my art, man.
I think the coldest thing you ever rhymed was directed at Everlast. (8)
Yeah, me and Everlast had a pretty good beef going back then. We’ve squashed it now but yeah we were going after each other for a while. I was a hell of a lot angrier person back them. [Laughs.] My mentality was just [sic] everybody. It may even be rooted in the way I was treated growing up. It might be psychological.
What was the best thing someone said about you? Was there ever a hot Eminem diss?
Um, no. [Laughs.] Nah, I’m kidding. Shit, there was a couple of lines Everlast said like, “You ain’t running up on me with no empty gun.” I know there is a lot of shit that I would have said about me.
Just like that scene in 8 Mile?
Yeah. Which is why I chose a lot of times to make fun of myself. If you’re not going to say this about me, I’m going to say it about myself. There are a lot of things I can say about me that would destroy me.
Such as?
Offhand, I can’t think of it, but going into those battles and beefs, I remember thinking, “If he says something about this, I’m going to kill this motherfucker.” At the end of the day, it’s just words. Looking back, at the point I’m at with my life, I’m glad to be out of them because I’m not about that anymore.
Last summer you released a record going at Mariah Carey. Why even bother?
You know what? I got to be honest. I really don’t want to talk about her anymore only just because it’s kind of like the last thing I said about her was on “Cold Wind Blows.” I made the comment. (9) I don’t want to keep beating a dead horse. I’m not even going to comment about it. I’m done with that whole situation. I said what I had to say. I’m done.
Why are there barely any mentions of your mom, your ex-wife and your kids on Recovery?
It’s kind of where I’m at in my life. I also want to make a record without having to talk about these three things. Also, my kids are growing up, they have their own lives, and so I have to be careful about what I say. On “[Going Through] Changes,” I said (10) what I wanted to say about the whole situation and the rest is my own private, personal business, which is, you know, kind of my privilege.
Why is there no jokey first single?
About halfway through recording the record, I was probably thinking, one of those kind of singles isn’t going to make sense. It’s one of them things man . . . [I’ve] grown up so much just in the last couple of years since I’ve been sober. Relapse didn’t reflect that [or] where I really am mentally. (11)
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FOOTNOTES:
5 “Technically, he’s the most skilled rapper I’ve ever heard” —producer DJ Khalil
6 “Hatred was flowing through my veins/on the verge of going insane/I almost made a song dissing Lil Wayne/It’s like I was jealous of him cause of the attention he was getting . . . Almost went at Kanye too” —Eminem, “Talkin’ 2 Myself”
7 “Thank God that I didn’t do it/I would have had my ass handed to me” —Eminem, “Talkin’ 2 Myself”
8 “I remember back when you had ‘The Knack’/and I remember when you had your first heart attack/I was right there laughing when I heard the news/I just wish the cardiac would have murdered you.” —Eminem, “I Remember”
9 “Take a look at Mariah next time I inspire you to write a song.” —Eminem, “Cold Wind Blows”
10 “Hailie this one is for you/ Whitney and Alaina too/I still love your mother, that’ll never change/think about her every day, we just could never get it together hey/wish there was a better way for me to say it/but I swear on everything, I’ll do anything for her on any day/. . . I know that it feels like we just pissed away our history/and just today, I looked at your picture, almost as if to say/I miss you subconsciously, wish it didn’t end this way/but I just had to get away, don’t know why, I don’t know what else to say,” —Eminem, “Going Through Changes”
11 “He is a lot more mature. He is more even-tempered.” —Royce Da 5’9”
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I was waiting for the first single’s video. I had visions of you dressed up like Tiger Woods and surrounded by porn stars.
Which would have been so predictable.
You do target another celebrity though. Ben Roethlisberger gets it bad on “Almost Famous.” (12) What are your thoughts on his situation?
That’s a tricky one. I don’t have any thoughts on it. To be honest, I don’t have an opinion whether he did it or didn’t. I do know that he certainly puts himself in bad positions. It was a hot topic. And that’s kind of what I’ve done for my whole career—take hot topics and talk about them. Although it may sound like a personal stab, it wasn’t like, “I’m out to get this guy.” If I was out to do that, I would have elaborated on it more. It’s just how I wanted to start the song. First of all, I’m not defending him but he’s a fucking great quarterback and it’s a shame that something like this would happen or he would allow it to happen or he would put himself in these situations where he would allow it to happen.
Do you think people overlook your artistry because you are a provocateur?
Maybe sometimes in the past. I think that sometimes people just never took it for what it was. A lot of times people tried to find deeper meanings in shit. I think a lot of people early on didn’t understand the fact that I was doing it to try and piss you off.
Did you think those critics were stupid?
I was thinking that a lot. It was funny to sit back and watch what a stink I’m making because I never knew I could make a stink in this world. Little old Marshall, like, “How the fuck could I do this?”
Other critics called you the voice of a generation. Did you buy into that?
I don’t know. I’m trying to think how I felt back then. It’s so weird man. I don’t mean to sound like an asshole but things were moving so fast for me that I don’t know if I took time to stop and feel or be able to assess what was going on around me. I just remember moving so fast. It was way too big back then for me to actually grasp what was happening. You know what?
What?
I got to use the bathroom.
[Two minutes later.] On Recovery, you mention “the perfect verse” several times. What’s the closest you’ve come?
Every verse that I put out on this album. And by perfect, I don’t mean the best verse ever. I mean that I got it to where it’s good enough for me. There will be shit that two years from now, I will think I could have said better. I always feel like I can do shit better. If this album isn’t better than my last one, then why am I doing it? Honestly, I don’t know how much longer I have in this game. I’m always going to love hip-hop. But how much longer am I going to still do it? I couldn’t really give you an answer. But the day that this is not better than the last will probably be the day I stop.
You sure don’t need the money. Well, I hope you don’t need the money.
I hope so too. Shit.
I can’t picture you quitting because you seem to really love hip-hop.
I do love it so much. But even if I was rapping at 50 [years old], I don’t know if I would put it out. I know it always makes me feel better to lay things to tape, and—“Lay the tape.” See, I’m old school. The fans might say the shit is garbage. You don’t how long people are going to want you around . . . Realistically, if I don’t rap, what the fuck am I going to do? It’s too late to just be unfamous right now at this point.
Do you go out more in public?
In public? As far as doing regular things? I think I do. (13) I go out more than in the five-year period that I was using.
Do you consider yourself normal?
Normal by whose standards?
Your standards.
I don’t consider myself a star. Obviously, I know I’m a celebrity but I don’t look at myself in that light. I’m just me, man. It’s one of the reasons that I stay here [in Detroit]. I don’t want the attention. I don’t like the attention. I don’t like all that shit. Yes, I love the respect and the admiration that some people show me but I don’t thrive off that whole thing. I just want to be regular.
What were your thoughts when you heard that your 8 Mile co-star Brittany Murphy had passed?
It was crazy. It’s crazy. It’s crazy because at one point we were very close and she was a really good person. It’s crazy when you see things not just with her but just all these things that are happening in Hollywood with people in music, with people in acting . . .
. . . famous people.
Famous people. Famous people are overdosing at alarming rates and—that almost sounded like a commercial. Wow.
It sounded like a Sally Struthers commercial. “Please give to this charity.”
Right. But they are. And it’s one of those things man where you’re famous, doctors will kiss your ass because they love the celebrity. “Oh, I can call up Eminem and get him on the phone right now. Oh, hi Marshall, how are you doing? Do you need that [prescription]?” There are doctors that will give you certain things just because of who you are.
That is mind-boggling.
That is fucked up. You tell them what you need. You don’t need to go in and see them. They will just write you a [prescription] because they want that connection with you.
Do you think about your own death?
Yeah, I do. A lot. I think about it a lot. I try not to think about it, but I do and it creeps me the fuck out. It creeps me out because they say that if I got to the hospital two hours later then I would be gone. I think about that a lot. When I lay in bed at night is when I think about it the most. It creeps me out man.
A cynic would say that your story is depressing. It seems you have everything—fame, fortune, respect, talent—yet life still manages to kick you in the ass.
If you would look at it from a pessimist’s point of view, you can look at it like that. Yeah, life does seem to find a way to kick me in the ass but at the same time, I try not to look at it like that anymore. I stopped carrying around my fucking woes and started counting my blessings. I’ve got so much to be thankful for. I’ve got so much to live for.
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FOOTNOTES:
12 “I stuck my dick in this game like a rapist, they call me Slim Roethlisberger.” —Eminem, “Almost Famous”
13 “I see what he goes through when he’s out in public. He’s come to terms that he will probably never go to the mall again. He’s accepted it. He never was the club type, [anyway]. He’s always been such a
homebody.” —Royce Da 5’9”
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Rolling Stone 2010
Eminem on the Road Back From Hell
Rolling Stone's 2010 look inside the very private world of hip-hop's reclusive genius
October 17, 2011 3:55 PM ET
Check Out:
Rolling Stone 1999 Interview
Rolling Stone 2002 Interview
Rolling Stone 2004 Interview
Rolling Stone 2013 Interview
Rolling Stone 1999 Interview
Rolling Stone 2002 Interview
Rolling Stone 2004 Interview
Rolling Stone 2013 Interview
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| Eminem on Rolling Stone cover - Photo by Mark Seliger for RollingStone.com |
Upon arriving at Eminem's recording studio – an anonymous gray hit factory in suburban Detroit – a first-time visitor will be met at his car by a large, possibly armed man named Big 8, who will have been watching from an alley across the street. "Can I help you, sir?" he'll ask, in a tone that does not suggest an eagerness to help. Only after you have proved to not be a threat will you be escorted past the security cameras and heavily reinforced metal door and into the place Eminem calls "my second home."
Inside, Big 8 is all smiles. The studio is a grown-up play land: Punisher comic books, lucha libre masks, a popcorn machine. A large painting of Biggie and 2Pac graces one wall, while a plaque leaning against another celebrates Eminem's status as SoundScan's Artist of the Decade: 32 million albums sold in the past 10 years, trouncing runners-up the Beatles. A dozen years into his career, he remains one of pop's most bankable stars – a rare feat for any artist, and, for a rapper, almost unprecedented.
After half an hour, Eminem emerges from the vocal booth, where he's working on tracks with Dr. Dre for Dre's long-awaited Detox. He's dressed in black cargo shorts and a gray T-shirt, and a diamond crucifix hangs from his neck. His features are delicate, nearly feminine, and his hair is a deep, natural shade of brown. He bears little resemblance to the foulmouthed, bleached-blond Slim Shady who once made it his mission to terrorize America.
"What up, man," he says softly by way of introduction. "I'm Marshall."
It's a rainy afternoon in October, three days before Eminem's 38th birthday. He sits in the cluttered studio office, at a desk strewn with over-the-counter pharmaceuticals – Aleve, 5-Hour Energy – and Ziploc bags of minipretzels. Much has been made of the rapper's volatile temper, not least by Eminem himself (he once spent two years on probation for felony weapons charges after an altercation outside a bar), but in conversation he's thoughtful and polite, albeit not in a way you'd mistake for friendliness. There's little evidence of the prankster you hear on his records, and when discussing his personal life, he has a tendency to retreat, gazing at the floor and covering his mouth like a football coach hiding his plays.
Our conversation is interrupted by frequent bathroom breaks. Eminem loves Diet Coke, which he guzzles obsessively from a soda fountain in the lobby. At one point, he fills a 16-ounce cup nearly to the brim, then sets it down next to another full cup he'd forgotten he had. He's a chain drinker, in other words, and as a result he pees constantly. Asked why he prefers fountain drinks to cans, he turns serious. "There's aspartame in the cans," he says. "They say it's been known to cause cancer, so I cut that shit out. There's no aspartame in the fountain."
Monday, December 30, 2013
Billboard 2010
Eminem : The Billboard Cover Story
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| Eminem Billboard Issue 2010 |
Make some noise for a gentleman who's come a long way." It's a muggy, breeze-less June night in New York, and some 200 fans have pressed into Bowery Ballroom under the pretense of watching local rappers with questionable names like Kosha Dillz and Quest McCody berate each other with questionable lines, like, "You sound like a character from 'The Legend of Zelda.' " Really, though, everyone is here for Eminem.
The rap superstar was rumored to be headlining this freestyle battle event, Red Bull EmSee: The Road to 8 Mile, named after his own Detroit origins and the Academy Award-nominated 2002 movie that chronicled them. Now, the night's host has finally confirmed that Marshall Mathers will take the stage.
From the moment he does -- with "Despicable," a freestyle that was leaked in April to hype his new album, "Recovery" (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) -- Eminem looks furious. Neck pulsing, eyes alight, he plows through bars with the intensity of someone who has spent the past five years fighting just to stay alive, which, in fact, he has, due in large part to a lengthy and near-fatal addiction to prescription medications including Vicodin, Valium, Ambien and methadone. "Better not let up, better not let them breathe," he spits. "Last shot, give it all you got/Try to turn me down, bitch, get fucked with the volume knob/Fuck all you snobs."
His set ends not 10 minutes later, after performing two tracks from "Recovery": "On Fire," produced by his onstage hype man Mr. Porter, and the explosive "Won't Back Down," featuring pop outlier Pink on the chorus. Only when he says goodbye does Eminem hint at the calmer, now more sentient artist behind the lethal-as-ever rhymes.
"I do realize, man, for real, that if it were not for you guys I would not be standing up here right fucking now," he tells the crowd. "Honest to God, man -- thank you to each and every one of you." As he leaves, fans scream and chant "Encore, encore!" to no avail.
Eminem has good reason to feel grateful: June 21 marked the release of "Recovery," his second studio album in as many years after a long and turbulent hiatus. The first one, "Relapse," was released last May and followed 2005's "Encore," which sold 5.2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Perhaps more so for Eminem than any other artist, "underwhelming" is a relative term when it comes to sales. At 2 million copies, "Relapse" has sold significantly less than his previous sets but was the top-selling rap album of 2009, affirming the continued loyalty of his fans and his music's ability to withstand leaks. All told, Eminem has sold 35.7 million albums in the United States in slightly more than 11 years and was the best-selling artist of the last decade. In its first week of release, "Recovery" is projected to add around 600,000 copies to his grand total.
"I don't think I've actually stopped to think about it," Eminem says by phone from his home in Detroit, while on a brief break between trips to promote "Recovery." "I never thought that my life would amount to this. But to be able to sit back and digest it is so strange to me, because I still feel so regular. I don't understand what people think the big deal is about me. It's a very strange relationship that I have with fame."
What Eminem has spent a great deal of time thinking about, however, is artistic merit. He continues to speak openly about what he believes is the mixed quality of his last two albums. "I was pretty much in full-blown addiction while I was creating ["Encore"]," he says, "and as far as 'Relapse,' when I first got sober I got really happy because I was not a prisoner of addiction anymore, so life was brand-new to me. I was like, 'Shit, man, trees are beautiful again. What a nice day it is.' I don't think I was paying attention to what the average listener might like or not like."
During the four years between "Encore" and "Relapse," Eminem grappled with events that would turn anyone's life upside down: the death of best friend and fellow Detroit rapper DeShaun "Proof" Holton in 2004; a second divorce from his high school sweetheart, Kimberly Mathers, in 2006; and a deepening dependency on pills. When he says, "Technically, I'm not even supposed to be here right now," on the introduction to "Recovery" cut "Cinderella Man," he's not joking.
"Anybody who's known someone fighting this kind of addiction knows it can be extremely challenging," says Paul Rosenberg, Eminem's longtime manager. "During that period I lost a friend, and I certainly didn't have as much of a business partner. All that's back now, though, and it's incredible."
Like "Relapse" before it, "Recovery" could be considered a personal triumph just by nature of its existence. But the album succeeds at far more than that. Eminem has written his most complete rhymes in years, and while Slim Shady -- the completely offensive alter ego that made him such a cultural hot button in the early aughts -- is largely absent on "Recovery," the severance feels necessary for an MC who will turn 38 in October.
For the first time, too, Eminem collaborated with producers outside of his tight-knit circle (Dr. Dre, Mike Elizondo, Mark Batson), employing Just Blaze, Boi-1da, Jim Jonsin and others. The result sounds quite literally like a new beginning, both reinforcing Eminem's lyrical dominance and presenting a clearer vision of his potential as a mature artist.
"It's everything that you would want to hear from him at this point in his career," says DJ Khalil, who helped craft four tracks on "Recovery," the most of any producer. "He's the best rapper, period, and he has a lot to say right now."
"As ["Relapse"] was coming along, I heard the song structures and production get broader and better," Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine says. "It all came together in the last month or two to a real crescendo. His last albums haven't sold as much, but this one will appeal to a much broader base. He shows all the signs of being one of the great lyricists, on par with [Bruce] Springsteen, Bono and [Bob] Dylan."
Eminem promised fans a different set of releases last year -- "Relapse" and "Relapse 2" -- but shifted gears almost as soon as he started the latter. In December, he dropped "Relapse: The Refill," a deluxe album with bonus new material, to keep fans satisfied as he kept recording.
"He already knew what sort of mistakes he had made with the previous album and where he wanted to go from there," says Just Blaze, who was the first producer to enter the studio with Eminem for "Recovery" sessions late last year.
"I would go back and listen to songs off 'The Marshall Mathers LP,' 'The Eminem Show' and some of 'Encore' and ask, 'Why don't my music feel like this anymore?' " Eminem recalls. " 'The Way I Am,' 'Criminal' and 'Toy Soldiers' were songs that meant something. I wanted there to be a reason why I was making each song, instead of making it just to make it."
Eminem recorded most of "Recovery" in his new hometown studio, built in part to combat his reclusive habits during addiction. "I still have the studio at my house, but it reminds me of when I was in a really dark place," he says. "As soon as all the pills were flushed out of my system and I started seeing things clearer, going downstairs in my basement and recording creeped me out a little bit."
While Eminem and Just Blaze had planned to work together for years, the rapper's collaborations with other producers came about differently. Most sent demos directly to his manager and de facto A&R exec Rosenberg first, then waited for a callback.
"I've always given my opinion on the creative side, but in terms of bringing him tracks it's the most involved I've been," Rosenberg says.
Jim Jonsin says he went for a "soulful, Southern rock feel" on "Space Bound" and heard from Rosenberg shortly after sending the demo. Within three days, Jonsin met Eminem in Detroit. "He had already done his vocals before I got there, so we just polished it up and tried out other song ideas," he says.
Khalil sent several beats to Rosenberg after hearing that Eminem admired some of his recent work, such as Clipse and Kanye West's "Kinda Like a Big Deal." His mentor Dr. Dre gave him a call around the time of the Grammy Awards in February and told him to meet them in Los Angeles. "Dre was like, 'Yo, Em wants to meet you,' " he recalls. "It was a dream come true."
Alex Da Kid, who produced the standout ballad "Love the Way You Lie," featuring Rihanna, says that Shady senior director of A&R Rigo Morales "heard my beat and what I had done with B.o.B on 'Airplanes,' and I guess they realized they kind of liked me."
Rosenberg says of "Love the Way You Lie," which chronicles an abusive relationship, "Marshall wrote it with Rihanna in mind and hoped that she was open to taking on that subject matter. She heard it and thought that it would be a great opportunity to do that."
All together, Eminem says he recorded "at least three or four albums' worth" of material for "Recovery." "I must have gone through 200-300 beats," he says. "I probably picked a hundred of them and made songs to all of them and then nailed it down. I wanted to put the best of the best on this record."
The perfectionism paid off most on "You're Never Over," a heart-wrenching tribute to Proof that his most devout fans are citing as a breakthrough. Eminem himself hasn't seen the feedback ("I can't read the comments, man. I'll go fucking crazy"), but he says it's especially meaningful in this case.
"It makes me feel like, 'Finally, I got it,' " he says. "It took me a long time to write the right song for him, and I think two things came into play with that. One was just being in a better place to be able to deal with it. And as soon as I got that beat from Just, the chorus came in my head and I was like, 'Yo, this could be it.' I wrote anywhere from eight to 10 records about Proof, but nothing was right until I got that beat."
Eminem made it clear that "Recovery" meant change the moment he released "Not Afraid." For years, his albums' lead singles -- from "My Name Is" to "We Made You" -- were celebrity-bashing tirades set to sing-songy choruses, meant explicitly to set tongues ablaze. In their accompanying music videos, he'd dress up like his subjects (Elvis and Michael Jackson, most notoriously) or subject them to violent fantasies (Moby).
With "Not Afraid," Eminem stuck to an inspirational narrative, telling troubled listeners to "come take my hand" over a propulsive Boi-1da beat. Fans immediately responded. "Not Afraid" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and again put him in rarefied company -- only 15 other artists have achieved the same feat, starting with Michael Jackson in 1995 with "You Are Not Alone."
"It's quickly taking its place next to 'Lose Yourself' as a record that people can connect with on a personal level," Interscope executive VP of marketing and publicity Dennis Dennehy says, referring to Eminem's Oscar- and Grammy-winning song from "8 Mile."
"We're going to hear 'Not Afraid' for a long time," says Peter Rosenberg, host of WQHT New York's morning show and "Real Late With Peter Rosenberg." That said, Rosenberg adds that the song isn't in heavy rotation at his station. "Hot 97 tends to gravitate toward its core artists—Kanye West, Drake," he says. "Em will always be a Z100 [WHTZ New York] artist also, so I think urban radio doesn't always know what role he can play because of that. That being said, I think the record with Rihanna will be a hip-hop and a pop smash."
"Not Afraid" did, in fact, receive repeat play on national network TV during the NBA playoffs. It aired frequently during HBO's "24/7" series, which previews high-profile boxing matches, and as Ultimate Fighting Championship star Chuck Liddell's entrance music during a recent pay-per-view fight.
"We were very aggressive in licensing the music so that we could support the radio campaign as much as we could as early as we could," Interscope vice chairman Steve Berman says. "That was a key goal for us. Now it's become a kind of sports anthem."
"Won't Back Down" was featured in a prominent TV spot for "Call of Duty: Black Ops," the anticipated next installment of Activision/Blizzard's top videogame franchise. "We worked with Eminem's team last year and used ' 'Til I Collapse' in the spot for 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,' " says the game's head of marketing, Rob Kostich. "Our demo is squarely focused on males ages 18-34. Eminem is one of the top-selling artists in the world and this is a top game, so it's perfect."
Selecting the right brand involvement for an artist who has always courted controversy comes with challenges, but his manager Rosenberg says, "For him, it's all about things that make sense. He's not necessarily out there looking for the next way to make more money. He's just looking to do the thing that he enjoys."
Interscope chose online video platform Vevo as its partner to premiere the "Not Afraid" video. "We live in a different marketplace today," Berman says. "MTV does not have nearly the power it used to in pushing a visual out, so it was very important for us that we go to the places that are powerful to do that." On the day of the premiere, Vevo flipped the E in its name to reflect Eminem's logo.
Like much of the "Recovery" campaign's key elements, the Vevo premiere was announced without much advance warning, heightening excitement around the album. On April 14, Eminem simply wrote, "There is no Relapse 2" on his Twitter page, sending his followers and media outlets into a speculative frenzy for several hours before announcing "Recovery." After the album leaked two weeks early, his camp waited until just a few days before street date to announce that the release had been moved from June 22 to June 21.
Like his surprise set at the Red Bull EmSee event, Eminem's TV appearances have come with little advance fanfare. A viral spot with former ShamWow spokesman Vince Shlomi surfaced without warning, and on the album's street date, he played the rooftop of Manhattan's Ed Sullivan Theater with Jay-Z, a performance that will air June 25 on "Late Show With David Letterman." A performance of "Won't Back Down" with the Roots will air on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" the same night.
Other appearances, however, have been much less stealth. On May 12, Eminem and Jay-Z attended a baseball game in Detroit to announce that they'd play two joint stadium shows in their hometowns. The concerts, scheduled for early September, will be produced by Live Nation Entertainment. "They brought the idea to me and as soon as they mentioned Jay, I was good," Eminem says. "I'm always honored to work with Jay." Though Eminem is booked to perform at a series of European festivals in July and the Epicenter 2010 Festival in Fontana, Calif., in September, he's taking his time with planning a full-fledged tour.
"I'll do these shows and see how I feel afterward, then set up a couple more," Eminem says. "I've had to relearn to do shows sober, because there were so many years that I didn't know how to do it. Alcohol, Valium -- all these things were crutches for me so that I didn't have to feel anything when I went onstage. Everything right now is a step at a time, a day at a time."
Now that Eminem is signaling a new era in his music, it would be natural to wonder how this affects his business. But despite his respect for fellow rap icon Jay-Z, Eminem doesn't plan to follow in his entrepreneurial footsteps.
"I don't think he wants to be that kind of businessman," Rosenberg says. "I think he's really focused on the creative side. He's never been someone who's set out to have a bunch of different companies out there, sort of playing the system. He's just not that kind of guy."
The one project Eminem and Rosenberg are focused on is the rebuilding of their label, Shady Records. "What we mean by that is finding great new artists," Rosenberg says. "That's one of the things he is passionate about." Eminem has cited underground all-star group Slaughterhouse as his first planned signing, and he says more artists are on the table but not ready to be announced.
How Eminem's post-"Recovery" world evolves is unclear, but focusing on art over money is a plan that has yet to fail him on both ends. "Honestly, as long as people enjoy the music, that means the most to me," Eminem says with unabashed sincerity. "I could sell 80 million records in the first week, and if my peers or fans of real hip-hop didn't like it, it really wouldn't mean anything."
The rap superstar was rumored to be headlining this freestyle battle event, Red Bull EmSee: The Road to 8 Mile, named after his own Detroit origins and the Academy Award-nominated 2002 movie that chronicled them. Now, the night's host has finally confirmed that Marshall Mathers will take the stage.
From the moment he does -- with "Despicable," a freestyle that was leaked in April to hype his new album, "Recovery" (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) -- Eminem looks furious. Neck pulsing, eyes alight, he plows through bars with the intensity of someone who has spent the past five years fighting just to stay alive, which, in fact, he has, due in large part to a lengthy and near-fatal addiction to prescription medications including Vicodin, Valium, Ambien and methadone. "Better not let up, better not let them breathe," he spits. "Last shot, give it all you got/Try to turn me down, bitch, get fucked with the volume knob/Fuck all you snobs."
His set ends not 10 minutes later, after performing two tracks from "Recovery": "On Fire," produced by his onstage hype man Mr. Porter, and the explosive "Won't Back Down," featuring pop outlier Pink on the chorus. Only when he says goodbye does Eminem hint at the calmer, now more sentient artist behind the lethal-as-ever rhymes.
"I do realize, man, for real, that if it were not for you guys I would not be standing up here right fucking now," he tells the crowd. "Honest to God, man -- thank you to each and every one of you." As he leaves, fans scream and chant "Encore, encore!" to no avail.
Eminem has good reason to feel grateful: June 21 marked the release of "Recovery," his second studio album in as many years after a long and turbulent hiatus. The first one, "Relapse," was released last May and followed 2005's "Encore," which sold 5.2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Perhaps more so for Eminem than any other artist, "underwhelming" is a relative term when it comes to sales. At 2 million copies, "Relapse" has sold significantly less than his previous sets but was the top-selling rap album of 2009, affirming the continued loyalty of his fans and his music's ability to withstand leaks. All told, Eminem has sold 35.7 million albums in the United States in slightly more than 11 years and was the best-selling artist of the last decade. In its first week of release, "Recovery" is projected to add around 600,000 copies to his grand total.
"I don't think I've actually stopped to think about it," Eminem says by phone from his home in Detroit, while on a brief break between trips to promote "Recovery." "I never thought that my life would amount to this. But to be able to sit back and digest it is so strange to me, because I still feel so regular. I don't understand what people think the big deal is about me. It's a very strange relationship that I have with fame."
What Eminem has spent a great deal of time thinking about, however, is artistic merit. He continues to speak openly about what he believes is the mixed quality of his last two albums. "I was pretty much in full-blown addiction while I was creating ["Encore"]," he says, "and as far as 'Relapse,' when I first got sober I got really happy because I was not a prisoner of addiction anymore, so life was brand-new to me. I was like, 'Shit, man, trees are beautiful again. What a nice day it is.' I don't think I was paying attention to what the average listener might like or not like."
During the four years between "Encore" and "Relapse," Eminem grappled with events that would turn anyone's life upside down: the death of best friend and fellow Detroit rapper DeShaun "Proof" Holton in 2004; a second divorce from his high school sweetheart, Kimberly Mathers, in 2006; and a deepening dependency on pills. When he says, "Technically, I'm not even supposed to be here right now," on the introduction to "Recovery" cut "Cinderella Man," he's not joking.
"Anybody who's known someone fighting this kind of addiction knows it can be extremely challenging," says Paul Rosenberg, Eminem's longtime manager. "During that period I lost a friend, and I certainly didn't have as much of a business partner. All that's back now, though, and it's incredible."
Like "Relapse" before it, "Recovery" could be considered a personal triumph just by nature of its existence. But the album succeeds at far more than that. Eminem has written his most complete rhymes in years, and while Slim Shady -- the completely offensive alter ego that made him such a cultural hot button in the early aughts -- is largely absent on "Recovery," the severance feels necessary for an MC who will turn 38 in October.
For the first time, too, Eminem collaborated with producers outside of his tight-knit circle (Dr. Dre, Mike Elizondo, Mark Batson), employing Just Blaze, Boi-1da, Jim Jonsin and others. The result sounds quite literally like a new beginning, both reinforcing Eminem's lyrical dominance and presenting a clearer vision of his potential as a mature artist.
"It's everything that you would want to hear from him at this point in his career," says DJ Khalil, who helped craft four tracks on "Recovery," the most of any producer. "He's the best rapper, period, and he has a lot to say right now."
"As ["Relapse"] was coming along, I heard the song structures and production get broader and better," Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine says. "It all came together in the last month or two to a real crescendo. His last albums haven't sold as much, but this one will appeal to a much broader base. He shows all the signs of being one of the great lyricists, on par with [Bruce] Springsteen, Bono and [Bob] Dylan."
Eminem promised fans a different set of releases last year -- "Relapse" and "Relapse 2" -- but shifted gears almost as soon as he started the latter. In December, he dropped "Relapse: The Refill," a deluxe album with bonus new material, to keep fans satisfied as he kept recording.
"He already knew what sort of mistakes he had made with the previous album and where he wanted to go from there," says Just Blaze, who was the first producer to enter the studio with Eminem for "Recovery" sessions late last year.
"I would go back and listen to songs off 'The Marshall Mathers LP,' 'The Eminem Show' and some of 'Encore' and ask, 'Why don't my music feel like this anymore?' " Eminem recalls. " 'The Way I Am,' 'Criminal' and 'Toy Soldiers' were songs that meant something. I wanted there to be a reason why I was making each song, instead of making it just to make it."
Eminem recorded most of "Recovery" in his new hometown studio, built in part to combat his reclusive habits during addiction. "I still have the studio at my house, but it reminds me of when I was in a really dark place," he says. "As soon as all the pills were flushed out of my system and I started seeing things clearer, going downstairs in my basement and recording creeped me out a little bit."
While Eminem and Just Blaze had planned to work together for years, the rapper's collaborations with other producers came about differently. Most sent demos directly to his manager and de facto A&R exec Rosenberg first, then waited for a callback.
"I've always given my opinion on the creative side, but in terms of bringing him tracks it's the most involved I've been," Rosenberg says.
Jim Jonsin says he went for a "soulful, Southern rock feel" on "Space Bound" and heard from Rosenberg shortly after sending the demo. Within three days, Jonsin met Eminem in Detroit. "He had already done his vocals before I got there, so we just polished it up and tried out other song ideas," he says.
Khalil sent several beats to Rosenberg after hearing that Eminem admired some of his recent work, such as Clipse and Kanye West's "Kinda Like a Big Deal." His mentor Dr. Dre gave him a call around the time of the Grammy Awards in February and told him to meet them in Los Angeles. "Dre was like, 'Yo, Em wants to meet you,' " he recalls. "It was a dream come true."
Alex Da Kid, who produced the standout ballad "Love the Way You Lie," featuring Rihanna, says that Shady senior director of A&R Rigo Morales "heard my beat and what I had done with B.o.B on 'Airplanes,' and I guess they realized they kind of liked me."
Rosenberg says of "Love the Way You Lie," which chronicles an abusive relationship, "Marshall wrote it with Rihanna in mind and hoped that she was open to taking on that subject matter. She heard it and thought that it would be a great opportunity to do that."
All together, Eminem says he recorded "at least three or four albums' worth" of material for "Recovery." "I must have gone through 200-300 beats," he says. "I probably picked a hundred of them and made songs to all of them and then nailed it down. I wanted to put the best of the best on this record."
The perfectionism paid off most on "You're Never Over," a heart-wrenching tribute to Proof that his most devout fans are citing as a breakthrough. Eminem himself hasn't seen the feedback ("I can't read the comments, man. I'll go fucking crazy"), but he says it's especially meaningful in this case.
"It makes me feel like, 'Finally, I got it,' " he says. "It took me a long time to write the right song for him, and I think two things came into play with that. One was just being in a better place to be able to deal with it. And as soon as I got that beat from Just, the chorus came in my head and I was like, 'Yo, this could be it.' I wrote anywhere from eight to 10 records about Proof, but nothing was right until I got that beat."
Eminem made it clear that "Recovery" meant change the moment he released "Not Afraid." For years, his albums' lead singles -- from "My Name Is" to "We Made You" -- were celebrity-bashing tirades set to sing-songy choruses, meant explicitly to set tongues ablaze. In their accompanying music videos, he'd dress up like his subjects (Elvis and Michael Jackson, most notoriously) or subject them to violent fantasies (Moby).
With "Not Afraid," Eminem stuck to an inspirational narrative, telling troubled listeners to "come take my hand" over a propulsive Boi-1da beat. Fans immediately responded. "Not Afraid" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and again put him in rarefied company -- only 15 other artists have achieved the same feat, starting with Michael Jackson in 1995 with "You Are Not Alone."
"It's quickly taking its place next to 'Lose Yourself' as a record that people can connect with on a personal level," Interscope executive VP of marketing and publicity Dennis Dennehy says, referring to Eminem's Oscar- and Grammy-winning song from "8 Mile."
"We're going to hear 'Not Afraid' for a long time," says Peter Rosenberg, host of WQHT New York's morning show and "Real Late With Peter Rosenberg." That said, Rosenberg adds that the song isn't in heavy rotation at his station. "Hot 97 tends to gravitate toward its core artists—Kanye West, Drake," he says. "Em will always be a Z100 [WHTZ New York] artist also, so I think urban radio doesn't always know what role he can play because of that. That being said, I think the record with Rihanna will be a hip-hop and a pop smash."
"Not Afraid" did, in fact, receive repeat play on national network TV during the NBA playoffs. It aired frequently during HBO's "24/7" series, which previews high-profile boxing matches, and as Ultimate Fighting Championship star Chuck Liddell's entrance music during a recent pay-per-view fight.
"We were very aggressive in licensing the music so that we could support the radio campaign as much as we could as early as we could," Interscope vice chairman Steve Berman says. "That was a key goal for us. Now it's become a kind of sports anthem."
"Won't Back Down" was featured in a prominent TV spot for "Call of Duty: Black Ops," the anticipated next installment of Activision/Blizzard's top videogame franchise. "We worked with Eminem's team last year and used ' 'Til I Collapse' in the spot for 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,' " says the game's head of marketing, Rob Kostich. "Our demo is squarely focused on males ages 18-34. Eminem is one of the top-selling artists in the world and this is a top game, so it's perfect."
Selecting the right brand involvement for an artist who has always courted controversy comes with challenges, but his manager Rosenberg says, "For him, it's all about things that make sense. He's not necessarily out there looking for the next way to make more money. He's just looking to do the thing that he enjoys."
Interscope chose online video platform Vevo as its partner to premiere the "Not Afraid" video. "We live in a different marketplace today," Berman says. "MTV does not have nearly the power it used to in pushing a visual out, so it was very important for us that we go to the places that are powerful to do that." On the day of the premiere, Vevo flipped the E in its name to reflect Eminem's logo.
Like much of the "Recovery" campaign's key elements, the Vevo premiere was announced without much advance warning, heightening excitement around the album. On April 14, Eminem simply wrote, "There is no Relapse 2" on his Twitter page, sending his followers and media outlets into a speculative frenzy for several hours before announcing "Recovery." After the album leaked two weeks early, his camp waited until just a few days before street date to announce that the release had been moved from June 22 to June 21.
Like his surprise set at the Red Bull EmSee event, Eminem's TV appearances have come with little advance fanfare. A viral spot with former ShamWow spokesman Vince Shlomi surfaced without warning, and on the album's street date, he played the rooftop of Manhattan's Ed Sullivan Theater with Jay-Z, a performance that will air June 25 on "Late Show With David Letterman." A performance of "Won't Back Down" with the Roots will air on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" the same night.
Other appearances, however, have been much less stealth. On May 12, Eminem and Jay-Z attended a baseball game in Detroit to announce that they'd play two joint stadium shows in their hometowns. The concerts, scheduled for early September, will be produced by Live Nation Entertainment. "They brought the idea to me and as soon as they mentioned Jay, I was good," Eminem says. "I'm always honored to work with Jay." Though Eminem is booked to perform at a series of European festivals in July and the Epicenter 2010 Festival in Fontana, Calif., in September, he's taking his time with planning a full-fledged tour.
"I'll do these shows and see how I feel afterward, then set up a couple more," Eminem says. "I've had to relearn to do shows sober, because there were so many years that I didn't know how to do it. Alcohol, Valium -- all these things were crutches for me so that I didn't have to feel anything when I went onstage. Everything right now is a step at a time, a day at a time."
Now that Eminem is signaling a new era in his music, it would be natural to wonder how this affects his business. But despite his respect for fellow rap icon Jay-Z, Eminem doesn't plan to follow in his entrepreneurial footsteps.
"I don't think he wants to be that kind of businessman," Rosenberg says. "I think he's really focused on the creative side. He's never been someone who's set out to have a bunch of different companies out there, sort of playing the system. He's just not that kind of guy."
The one project Eminem and Rosenberg are focused on is the rebuilding of their label, Shady Records. "What we mean by that is finding great new artists," Rosenberg says. "That's one of the things he is passionate about." Eminem has cited underground all-star group Slaughterhouse as his first planned signing, and he says more artists are on the table but not ready to be announced.
How Eminem's post-"Recovery" world evolves is unclear, but focusing on art over money is a plan that has yet to fail him on both ends. "Honestly, as long as people enjoy the music, that means the most to me," Eminem says with unabashed sincerity. "I could sell 80 million records in the first week, and if my peers or fans of real hip-hop didn't like it, it really wouldn't mean anything."
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