Em recently sat down with BBC's Radio 1 for an in depth interview about the book as well as his forthcoming LP "Relapse."
Below are a few excerpts from the interview, you can check out the audio in its entirety below.
On Politics:
"I can't get to political because I don't know enough about everything to know what's going on. I know we're going into a recession--pardon the cliche' but we need something to change. I think Barack would be a breath of fresh air to get in there and actually get what's left of the Bush administration out the there."
On His Absence:
"When I said I was taking a break, basically I took a break from recording my own material and started producing for artists at the time at the label. Tryna really get serious about being a producer and step up in that way."
"I've done what I wanna do in rap so far. But now, let me do what I wanna do in the producing and also help out other artists at the same time."
In other news…
On Relapse:
"For the past five months I've been working with Dre. There's gonna be alotta material--more so than any album that I've had, with him producing.
I've been kinda giving him the driver seat lately. One of the best things about being able to work with Dre is that, obviously his beats are insane, but it's also that I can write and not worry about what the beat has to sound like. It's kinda like being spoiled.
I'm excited, I wanna get back out there."
On expectations of Relapse reaching the astronomical heights as his previous LPs:
“There’s no desire to be that big again. Whatever happens, I’ll take it, but that’s definitely not what I’ll be recording the songs for.”
You can check out the interview below:
COMMENTS
damn, this dude is back......
"I think Barack would be a breath of fresh air"
Eminem is a breath of fresh air in this rap game... we held our breath for too long
No more "Ass Like That" tracks and we'll be good Em.
"Ass Like That" and "Just Lose It"... although they were the leading singles from the Encore album, they can quickly become a hated song... what purpose did they have? Wtf were they about?
You're a g.o.a.t, you don't need any more of those!
(Just an opinion!)
marshall mathers lp=greatest rap cd. nice interview. the cd gonna be fyyah
YES!! EM IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!
FINALLY!!!!!! FUCK YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAA
Props for this. This interview is the shit. Relapse is gonna be a Classic.
Oh shit he has that not giving a fuck attitude again it seems. With dre on the beats and em focusing on the writing I'm smelling a classic. Even though I hate to throw that word around but come on its em and dre.
guess guess whos back...guess who's shadyyyyyyyyy AFTERMATH!
shit gona be crack when it come out gona have them classic dre beats and a monster spittin over them he gona set da mic on fire cant wait for this shit em back and reloaded he gona shit on niggas in the game right now
em > lil wayne
why bring that addict into the discussion
i cant wait man. good 2hear dis guy gettin bak on da scene. dre beats and Em spittin dat shit. cant ask 4much more. but i doubt da album will b out n e tyme soon. hope dey push for early 09 doe or atleast feed us wit sum freestyles and mixtapes
There's no safe place for any MC now, Eminem puts fear in the game. I saw on BET a group of kids disputing that Jay-Z is "Best Rapper Alive" but majority voted for Eminem. How can you be mad over something you voted for? ya feel me? Anyways, i second Valente^^^^^^^^^^ Good to hear my man back on his game
Great interview. He's also right with the majority of rap being garbage. When Eminem drops, that's when hip hop will change and having the people instead of the labels buying the albums again.
how has wayne bein carring hiphop when he's been on other peoples tracks for the almost 2 yrs before carter3 came out? he aint carry shit he just grabbed all the attention... there was alot artist that put out good music since em so called turned his back on hip hop so get off waynes dick point blank..
ur a fuckin joke man. im a weezy fan but how can u look aat shit like that. so ur pretty much sayin tupac has lost credibility to the game b/c he cant "help" the game. u dont have to put out 40 tracks a day to lead this shit.
man u are so wrong. wat da fuck do u mean wayne has kept us in this shit ??? he aint kept me nigga. Em wud tear Wayne apart as far as lyrics are concerned.
and wat do u mean Em threw in the towel??? after making as many good alums as he has and having so much success y shudnt he take a break ?? he deserves it, frankly speaking Em has nothing to prove anymore in this rap shit cuz as far as im concerned he came, he saw and he conquered.
Weezy hasnt made a classic album yet and to tell u the truth hes a great rapper but i dont think he has wat it takes to make one. Tha Carter III was a good album but i lacked direction. it had no concept and was basically a mixtape with really gud tracks that were gud enuff to put together as an album. look at Em's track record, shit i aint even got to say nothin.....
get yo mind correct boi, noway in hell u can even compare Lil Wayne and Eminem. weezy aint close to his level.
ballin since 87 is an idiot to say that. wayne is ill but better than em? c'mon man, what is that?
i hope this new album is worth buying cus the last couple was just plain garbage. i know theres a lot of em cock riders gon diss what i said, fact the matter is that he ran out of what he was rapping about.
fuck u, i aint an Em cock rider bitch, im an Eminem fan. and to say his last few albums were garbage shows u know jackshit about hip hop.
Good to hear from Eminem..thats a good thing.
Wayne may Hip Hop up but i think em is more capable of saving it
wayne isnt hip hop...he is pop muzik....
isnt he a rockstar now anyway?
lmao..em dick riders are nuts..hes one of the best lyrically okay..but damn..hes def put out garbage and pop...all them goofy pointless songs come on..pure garbage
lol... kanye's new shit is wack as fuck.
I agree, Kanye is hip hop, and prolly the best doing it right now. But Em did expand the boundaries further than anyone, for obvious reasons.
im not going to trash you.. but shut the fuck up... back that shit up... im nto hating kayne or wayne because they both hustle... but eldridge boss you just sound like a moron.. back up how there better then em and jay z hip hop wise
Kanye isn't even rapping on 808s & Heartbreak! And how is he the best doing it when Nas, Rakim, Kool G Rap, Scarface, Wu-Tang, Jay-Z, Eminem, OutKast, Common, Snoop, and others are still alive. Kanye has not been dope since College Dropout (his best album). Late Registration was good, but Graduation to me was a knockoff of The Blueprint and he tried to make Barry Bonds look like Renegade. Now he wants to use Auto-Tune, which I hate when used by anyone not named Teddy Riley, on the entire album. Come on, now! Kanye the best? GET OUTTA HERE! And by the way, this is an EMINEM DISCUSSION!
1st of all, You don't understand hip hop if you think it's just rap music. Second, out of the list you mentioned(Nas, Rakim, Kool G Rap, Scarface, Wu-Tang, Jay-Z, Eminem, OutKast, Common, Snoop) which has put out an album better than any of Kanye's since he dropped? The only one close is Common, who Kanye produced 90% of the songs for on two albums(be, Finding Forever) which are both great albums. Kanye is the best producer/rapper ever and prolly the best coceptual artist in hip hop today. So what if he wants to branch out creatively and do something different on his next project. As long as the muzik is good, I'll listen UNBIASED. He's already planning on dropping the follow up to graduation next summer, as well as the CRS album(Child Rebel Solidiers,Lupe,Kanye, Pharrell) being in the works. He's dropped three albums, and won the Grammy for each of them. Each one an album you can listen to with little to with little to no skips. No one on your list can say that for there 1st 3 albums, and none of them have his production credits, not even the legendary RzA. That's whuy he's the best doing it in hip hop, like him or not.
By the way, if you read my whole comment, you would see it is about Em, didnt you see this part?
"Em did expand the boundaries further than anyone, for obvious reasons. "
@b. oliver i thought i was the only one that thought college drop-out was kanye's best album. after that he started makin a whole lot of gay ass music. all that vocorder shit was good 20 something years ago when roger troutman and zapp did that shit. but now with everybody doing that shit, it takes away from the music. some young nigga's think t-pain brought that shit to the game, but he didnt. i for one am tired of all these copy cat ass niggas. hip hop aint dead, but originality kicked the bucket long ago.
@ 757 homie i hear you about em but he is overrated in my book. not sayin he cant rhyme, cause he nice, but he light years away from being the best. he's tom chambers, remember him, the first white dude in a slam dunk contest. not saying chambers couldn't jump, he could compare to other white guys. but when put up against the brothers he wasn't that special. maybe a lil above average. call em the tom chambers of the rap game. he a lil above average, but great, the greatest or other supelatives attached to him he's not. besides he jacked the shit out of chino xl's flow. anyone that knows hip hop knows that.
wat kind of fagget are you??? ur comments are lyk blasphamy u bitch. Kanye better than all those mc's u mentioned??? lol Kanye isnt even a fuckin rapper, and Weezy seems to be more and more a pop/rockstar nowadayz.
@757 I am not saying that Kanye West is the worst out. I'm just saying that he is not the best out. I brought Late Registration and it was okay at best. There was just a little too much filler (All of the skits, Addiction, Celebration, Late (though I like the song, it could've came earlier instead of the end of the album), and some of the extensions of the beats when the rapping stops kind of takes away from the songs). I did not say that Kanye West is not talented. I did not say that Kanye West is the worst. I did not say that Kanye West is garbage. I like Kanye, but he has below average breathe control, he sometimes makes up words to rhyme with one line, and his albums have too many guest appearances. On the College Dropout, he had Jay-Z, Twista, Talib Kweli, Common, Mos Def, J. Ivy, and Freeway rap and they all outperformed him. On Late Registration, he had Jay-Z, Nas, Common, and Lupe Fiasco (every hip-hop fan's favorite rapper right now) rap and they outperformed him. On Graduation, he rapped by himself with the exception of Lil Wayne and those verses are not as good as The College Dropout. I did not say that Kanye West sucked. You said that the artists I mentioned have not came out with an album as Kanye West's discography, but overall they have a better discography than Kanye, making them better artists than Kanye. As far as being the best rapper/producer ever, you obviously never heard of Erick Sermon, RZA, DJ Quik, Daz Dillinger, Guru of Gang Starr (with the greatest producer in hip-hop DJ Premier), Havoc, and EMINEM just to name a few, especially the RZA and Erick Sermon. RZA has produced more classics than Kanye (Ironman, Tical, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Enter the 36 Chambers, Wu-Tang Forever, Capital Punishment, Life After Death, Supreme Clientele, and many more). Erick Sermon produced more classics than Kanye (EPMD albums, Redman albums, 4:21: The Day After, Keith Murray albums, Blackout, Venni Vetti Vecci, and many more). You must be out of your mind to think that I don't know about hip-hop. What Kanye West said about 808s & Heartbreak is that he is putting out POP MUSIC. Pharoahe Monch makes his own beats and he could kill Kanye in a rap battle. Desire craps on Graduation! Last story short, Kanye West is not the worst, but he is not the best in any field of hip hop.
And by the way, Kanye ripped off Dr. Dre's "Explosive" beat to make "This Can't Be Life" track by Jay-Z off the Dynasty album. So you can't say I don't know hip-hop. Also, Common was doper way before he met Kanye. Ever heard of No I.D. Because you have no idea how P.Oed that you said that I don't know this. I heard every Kanye West album. His lyrics on The College Dropout were amazing on tracks like "Through the Wire", "Never Let Me Down", "All Falls Down", "Jesus Walks", "Two Words", and "Last Call." His lyrics on Late Registration were good on songs like "Diamonds from Sierra Leone", "Heard Em Say", "Touch the Sky", "Roses", "Hey Mama", and "Diamonds (remix)." On Graduation, I did not hear the same stuff especially on tracks like "Everything I Am" where he name-drops (yes other rappers use rappers' names in songs so don't just throw stones at The Game everyone) and "Good Life" where he uses 50 Cent lines from "In da Club" of all songs as well as the "Swagger Like Us" song where he used a Ghostface Killah line from "The Champ" off Fishscale (which is also better than Late Registration and Graduation). I did not say that Kanye West is the worst rapper ever. I just said that he is not the best. He could be your favorite rapper, but let's not be delusional.
damn. b.oliver36 got in that ass. good shit
WHITE BOI RAPPIN I JUS CANT GET PAST HIS COLOR I REALLY HAVE NO RESPECT OR TIME OR ENERGY TO DEAL WITH WHITE PEOPLE THEIR SHIFTY MUTHAFUCKAS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE DECAY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS SO FUCK EM
Album gonna be dope.
I listened to this on world star hip hop last night, long ass interview but nice. I'd like to see Em do songs with Cassidy, Willie the Kid, Juelz, T.I., Ludacris, Fabolous but that's just me. (there was a singer too but I can't think of who right off the top of my head)
Kane aint been nice on the mike since graduation. Em aint been nice since the marshall mathers lp/ that encore shit was average for em but better den da rest of shit out there. Wayne has been garbage since wobble dee wobble dee
Em need to go back to his underground roots and go to too toe wit crooked i / royce da 5'9 / joell ortiz or budden/ thats what would really bring real hip hop back/ niggaz need to step thier bars up
the eminem show was dope
Em is Em, he's comin back thats all that matters, lil wayne or his fans dont even cross my mind when i bring up a rap convo, hes that irrelevant
yea... but u just bought up wayne
any wayne fans or em haters wanna think otherwise? gimme ur best rappers lines lyrics songs albums or punchlines whatever u want n we can discuss.
Em could destroy Waynes career so easy, in just one line.
Oh shit. He gave props to Ludacris. I see a colab in the near future. Those two would make a sick duo.
Hey, he already collaborated with T.I. Maybe the track with Ludacris will be much better.
my future Eminem Collabos
Nasty Nas
Ludacris
Lupe Fiasco
Andre 3000
How could you even compare Wayne to Em...Damn...Im just speechless, lol, for real..
wayne like em haha. come on, eminem's just on another level. wayne entertains, like a jester, em's real shit. new album will be good as hell.
im ready for new em tracks.....
Lil' wayne will never be as good as Eminem ... Em will M.U.R.D.A Punk lil' Boy Wayne. Point blank!
I don't wanna see T.I., Lil Wayne or Young Jeezy on the track listings period, no mainstream artists please.
...Em should make Stan Pt. II
Out of those three, T.I. can actually rap well. Paper Trail, King, and Trap Muzik = Classics.
Come on Em. Teach these lames how to rap. One of the few rappers that deserves the popularity he got.
this interview was dope and funny as hell
funniest quote Em: " I wake up every morning like damn my penis is small."
hahahaha
Oliva u twit u over usin da word "classic" you dumb fuck,those arent near classics,theya just decent albums
So you call me a twit over using the word "Classic?" You should probably know what the word "opinion" means, right? This is how I feel. If you have a problem with it, that's your problem. One problem says they like something by an artist and call it a classic and another calls them a "twit" or a "dumb f***" just like you just did. I not saying that Paper Trial, King, and Trap Muzik are the greatest albums ever. I just said they are classics because Paper Trial was more of a retrospective album from T.I. and he addressed his problems with gun charges in a way that another dealing with their problems couldn't. I said King is a classic because his lyrics had improved strongly from the mixed reviews of Urban Legend to put out a great album in MY PERSONAL OPINION. I call Trap Muzik a classic because after Arista dropped him for dismal sales of I'm Serious, he starts to take over songs by David Banner and Bonecrusher to make people await his next LP and releases great songs like No More Talk, Doin' My Job, 24s, Rubberband Man, Look What I Got, Beezle, Kingofdasouth, and Long Live da Game. My PERSONAL favorite is I Still Luv You because he speaks on his relationships with his father, baby's mother, and children in a great way. Finally, in MY PERSONAL OPINION, I feel all three of these albums have lasting power in this hip-hop game. All three have powerful songs, great production, and solid guest appearances to make them stand out to me as classics, but hey according to you, I'm a twit.
So apparently, you can't like something to a point where you think it is in a league with others. I'm pretty sure if I said the same things about Lupe Fiasco, you would all agree. But hey, T.I. will get discredited for some strange reason. I don't know how you can take anything away from this guy. He made deep songs such as "Dead and Gone", "Live in the Sky", "I Still Luv You", "Ready For Whatever", "No Matter What", and "Slide Show." What other rapper as of today , going through the same situations, can present his thoughts and OPINIONS as well as that over great production? A good few and T.I. just happens to be one of them. Seeing how this entire response is about OPINION, I put the emphasis on the word OPINION because when I said that these three albums are classics, these are based on my ears and my personal experience with them. You call them decent and I call them amazing. We have a different taste when it comes to a T.I. record. I'm not bashing you or your favorite rapper. I just thought that you can support your claim that I am "over usin da word 'classic'" with referring to me as a "twit" or a "dumb f***." I may have been on this site since 2008, but I have not been listening to hip-hop since 2008. That's why I accepted "The Most Hated Poster" title because I get trashed a lot for these kinds of posts. So do not get my words tangled up with me using "classics" and saying that they are "the greatest albums ever." I don't hate you as a person and I don't hate your favorite rapper. I just hated your post.
And please are there any hackers that can restrict any1 who mentions lil lames name in otha gr8 rappers articles...Please ppl wayne aint a rapper no more,he a singer,he aint even got swag,he swagger jacks and all,anyway....Em just duznt rap the same no more...Dres beats arent the same no more like his dopest beatz(1992-2005)...Dre need to collabo with scott storch again to make those classic signature dre aftermath beatz
anyone like rakim?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTfaQpBZWZk
Ayt oliver dawg...
Em wuz 1 of tha few rappers I ever classified as my favorite. When I wuz younger, (as in elementary school young) I wuz a crucial conflict fan. Still am