If there was ever a rapper who showed they could be at the top of the game without necessarily being “hot in the streets,” it’s Eminem. The end of 2013 set the “Rap God” MC up to dominate the current year in a myriad of ways.
His double platinum sales of The Marshall Mathers LP 2 resulted in him becoming the second highest selling male artist of all-time, and with commercial viability like that, he’s able to dominate bigger arenas for bigger bucks.
As he prepares to embark on The Monster Tour with Rihanna, Em took a visit to Big Boy’s Neighborhood for a long overdue house call.
Big Boy got Eminem to back track a bit as to how he got back to the point where he was successful and Eminem pointed to his darkest moments, following the death of his lifelong friend Proof and accidental drug overdose. On 2010’s Recovery, the song “Talkin’ 2 Myself” makes mention that he almost went sneak diss mode and went for the heads of Kanye West and Lil Wayne. Who, were on the top of the rapper food chain at the time.
“Anything that was really hot or anybody that was really killing sh*t at the moment, I felt so bad about myself and the music that I was creating, that I felt like I started to turn into a “hater.”
Whether he acknowledges his Hip-Hop colors as Soundscan’s golden boy or be anointed with white privilege, Eminem didn’t feel like he was invincible at the time. Thinking back he admits to Big Boy, “For me, it would have been career suicide…there were some really dark moments in there when I think about how my thought process was when I was like, high a lot. [Laughs]”
Stream the entire interview down below courtesy of Power 106. And to hear the song in question, hop over to the next page.
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Photo: WENN
