Since his 1999 debut The Slim Shady LP, Eminem has produced on his albums. However, on 2009’s Relapse and 2010’s Recovery, Em’s beats largely took a backseat to other producers.
In part two of his interview with BBC 1’s Zane Lowe, Eminem addressed his increased role on the production side of things on his latest album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2. “It was fun to be able to just mess around with beats from scratch again,” said Em. “I think Recovery was the first time that I ever got super open to working with a lot of other producers. That was the most that I had ever done, aside from working with Dre. So on that album, kind of opened those doors a little bit, so that’s kind of how early on I started approaching this record, this album.”
Shady continued, explaining that there are times when only he can create the sound he’s looking for. “Sometimes, I may get something in my head, like an idea or the mood of something that I would want, and I’m not always gonna get that by going through different tracks that other people have made. They don’t know what’s in my head. …I think maybe it helps, a little bit, with diversity, the sound of it, but also, I would get something in my head and want to be able to lay down that idea from scratch.”
Eminem was also asked about his much-discussed stance on fame, which he has addressed throughout his career, and most recently on the Rihanna-assisted “The Monster.”
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“It was like this thing where, and I’m not gonna lie, I still want it today… I want this attention for this music, but then I want to be able to go in public, and I want to be able to eat a fuckin’ sandwich and be left alone,” he said.
Eminem continued, “I’ve never been an attention-seeker, and it seems like probably a hell of a career choice, but I don’t like… that’s not why I do it, is just to get attention,” he said. “I don’t like to go in public and walk around and be like, ‘Here I am.’ That’s not what I want. I just wanted…my dream was… my dream was… fuck, man, like, hear rappers that I looked up to on the radio, and be like, ‘Yo, what if Jay Z, whoever, what if they heard of me? What if they thought I was dope?’ That was where my mentality always was with it. So when it all went crazy, it was really hard to wrap my head around it.”
Watch the interview below:
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