Singer-songwriter Skylar Grey is forever indebted to Eminem. In 2010, the 34-year-old Wisconsin native was broke and holed up in an isolated cabin where she penned the song “Love The Way You Lie” for Slim Shady’s 2010 album Recovery.
The Rihanna-assisted song spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was ultimately certified diamond. Needless to say, it firmly put Grey on the map. Ten years later, Eminem is still enlisting her talents as evidenced on “Black Magic,” one of 16 new songs included onMusic To Be Murdered By: Side B.
On Saturday (December 26), Grey poured all of her gratitude for Slim Shady in a heartfelt Instagram post, thanking him for doubling her Spotify monthly listeners and jumpstarting her career.
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“Because of Black Magic, my @Spotify surpassed 4 million monthly listeners today… which is double what it was just a couple weeks ago,” she captioned a photo of herself and Mr. Marshall Mathers. “I want to take this moment to publicly express my gratitude for Marshall and everything he has done for me in the past 10 years. When he cut ‘Love The Way You Lie,’ my career was suddenly on fire. And he could have stopped there… but he didn’t.”
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Grey went on to explain, “Black Magic is the 14th song we’ve worked on together… over the years he’s continued to include me in projects, bring me on tour, and show me tons of support. Even when other people gave up on me, he never did. Even after I parted ways with Interscope Records, he still believed in me.
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“So to me, he’s beyond a collaborator, a mentor, or a friend… he’s family. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU Marshall… for all of the incredible opportunities, and for always having my back… I am forever indebted to you. Love you so much homie.”
During a July interview with HipHopDX,Grey talked about “Love The Way You Lie” and revealed the backstory behind it.
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“The song itself was very personal,” she said. “I never had written a track before. Alex [Da Kid] sent me this track and I just sang whatever I felt over it, you know? It was a very personal lyric based on my experience, not only with my ex-boyfriend, but the music industry. Feeling like there was something in me that loved to be tortured and loved the misery, because I kept getting sucked back into situations.
“That’s what ‘Love The Way You Lie’ was about. Then a month later it was the No. 1 song. Eminem had cut it. Rihanna had cut it. I was broke living in a cabin in the woods and this was all happening and suddenly I had the biggest song in the world as a songwriter. Fucking crazy.
Skylar Grey Talks Being Dead Broke At The Time She Wrote Eminem's Biggest Song
From there, Grey said her career exploded and she inadvertently became rap’s secret weapon.
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“My phone was ringing off the hook,” she said. “Everybody wanted their “Love The Way You Lie.” I had a ton of different artists reaching out. Labels wanting to get songs for their artists. I always set out to be an artist. I never set out to be a songwriter for other people.
But when I realized I needed to make a living in this music game, I opened my mind to getting other people songs. And it worked. I started answering these phone calls and it felt like commissioned artwork. I did some stuff for Dr. Dre and Puff Daddy and Lupe Fiasco. Mostly Hip Hop.”
Revisit “Love The Way You Lie” below and check out “Black Magic” above.
