Eminem says that he isn’t really interested in going into the business world as 50 Cent and Dr. Dre have.
He remembers being hesitant when Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine came to him with the idea for Beats headphones.
“It came out of nowhere,” Eminem says to the New York Times. “I remember we were in Hawaii, and we were recording songs for Detox and for Recovery. Jimmy [Iovine] wanted us to do a photo shoot with the headphones on. Of course I’m gonna do it. It’s Jimmy and it’s Dre. But I’m thinking, ‘All right, can we get to the music?’ I just want to get back and record. I remember thinking like, ‘How big is this thing going to be? It’s headphones.’ But man, I should’ve known just based on Dre’s name alone. And Jimmy’s like the Great Gazoo, from ‘The Flintstones.’ Somehow he has the foresight to always know what’s up. Sometimes I just don’t know what’s up. It blew my mind.”
The Detroit rapper also shares that he learns about new music from other people. He listens to Lil Wayne, Drake, Big Sean, Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q and Kanye West.
“I just try to pay attention to what’s out,” he says. “Wayne puts out a new song, and my ears perk up. There are certain artists that make me do that just because of the caliber that they rhyme at. It’s like candy to me. Kendrick, the way he puts albums together, front to back, they’re like pieces of art. But Hip Hop needs Drake, too. Hip Hop needs Big Sean. I feel like Hip Hop is in a good place right now. There’s this balance of things going on, and it feels like some of the best rappers are the most successful. Sometimes that’s not the case.”
Eminem is the executive producer for the Southpaw soundtrack. The film comes to theaters July 24.
For additional Eminem coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
No hiphop isnt in a good place right now. Wayne fell off since he left cash money in the bitchiest move possible, big sean sucks, kendrick sucks, and even eminem fell off since doing pop music with rihanna. He is right about one thing though. Hiphop needs drake. Hopefully he wont turn against cash money.
Eminem fell off because he’s not making the type of music you’re use to listening to..far as he is concerned, he had his last solo album go platinum and received numerous awards for the singles he did with rihanna
Damn birdman. You had to come on HHDX and troll. Times must be hard fool.
Dan, everything in your comment is all a lie. Hip-hop is doing well. Wayne fell off since that wack ass Rebirth and hip-hop doesn’t need Drake. Big Sean and Kendrick Lamar don’t suck anc Eminem never fell off and didn’t do any pop music.
Wayne fell off since LFLS.
Wow…you seemed like you liked Hip-Hop and knew all about it. Then you showed you’re a Drake fan…HAHAHA!!!! A male listening to Drake is just about the same as a male listening to Madonna
Dman….do you actually think Eminem is proud of the song with Rihanna? You think he sat there writing his lyrics and decided “Damn…I really need a pop singer here with her machine-robot voice to sing for all the 14 year old girls”….no dude. That’s a record label move. A sell-out move. He did what he had to do because he is part of the machine and he can’t get out of it. It’s not Eminem’s fault…he’s in too deep. Although I know deep down he actually cares about the music and Hip-Hop, he’s whack for doing Smack dat and other songs with all these whacksters
“Hip-hop needs Drake”. Truer words have never been spoken. OVOXO
Do pop artists get constantly asked about the state of pop music? Why does every hip hop artist get this mundane question?
Thats definitely real talk. Its because there is a lot of fuckery going on in hip hop bro. Half real talent half a fucking minstrel show.
Because most pop artists aren’t as directly related in the writing of their songs as most hip-hop artists. So I could see why a question like this would be prevalent in the hip-hop community. People like to know who the best artists respect to calibrate with their own favs.
I dont listen to much modern music. But its easy to call somebody good when there commercially successful. Maybe its just me but anymore its all cookie cutter bullshit with no substance. UNDERGROUND im sure has better rappers rhen the names Marshall just put out. Kanye lmao not saying the guy isn’t talented but he such a schmuck. How can you even take him seriously.
u hatin yeezy when no 1 nows wheather u exist!¡i mean i evn gat no idea bout u bt i gat for yeezy so fuck u!
You see the guy that responded to you below me? That’s a Little Wayne/Kanye West/Drake-type fan doing the typing. You can tell his IQ is about 95 from the way he types. This is who is listening to our great genre known as Hip-Hop nowadays
Gat that
white commercial dickrider
Eminem should do more songs with: rihanna, gwen stefani and skylar grey and pink
what a fuckin douchebag.
top 5, no question
Wow, I swore he was going to name some spitters… j cole is garbage, drake is r&b, kendrick nice, but… none of these guys are it. Dissapointing but maybe he was being sarcastic… idk
He was prolly not joking consindering the fact that feminem is garbage too
J. Cole is not garbage. Eminem was completely correct with his analysis of hip-hop today. One rapper he forgot about is Pusha T that dude can spit verses.
Wayne has been getting busy this past while, he killed ‘hot boy remix’, ‘you mad yet?’ Feat Turk, even FWA was pretty dope songs like ‘he’s dead’, ‘post bail ballin’, ‘livin right’, and even ‘my heart races on’ are fire. Haters gon hate
mmlp2 was a bunch of pop beats and pop hooks with gay verses.. im waiting for eminem to get bcak in the stu with dre and come out swinging with a HIPHOP album fuck this hippop shit..a pop singer chorus is nice every once in a while..but his last 2 albums have been pop shit
yea take it back to mmlp and eminem show. anything after encore is bootsie
weezy about to take over eminem. weezy winning.
now i know why ems new shit sucks its because of dres beats shitty headphones i also know hhdx deletes these kind of comments on paid articles
i wonder if he listens to guilty simpson, elzhi, black milk, oddisee, or any underground detroit guys.
or any underground hip hop for that matter. denaun produces for a lot of underground cats, royce/slaughterhouse and the outsidaz collab with underground cats, i just wonder if Em checks their shit out.
Maybe it’s just me. I’m such a huge Eminem fan and I like the music he liked growing up and I just can’t stand Drake and people like him so how he says shit like drake is great. I don’t get it. I honestly believe he’s lying. But why?
You sound salty.
Top 5 all-time: 1. Drake 2. Nas 3. Pig Pun 4. Rakim 5. Ghostface
Drake while he is a great rapper he hasn’t achieved the longevity of top 10 no way he should even be in a list with rakim NAS pun and ghostface killah want a list with it. Kings of the new school
1-5 no order
Drake, Kendrick, BiG Sean, Mac Miller, Kevin Gates