Will the real Slim Shady please stand on the cover of Rolling Stone holding a boom box?
The blonde is back, the passion has returned to the scene and Eminem is ready to dominate the music industry one song at a time.
Rolling Stone tapped the man of the moment for their latest cover, and while we haven’t gotten a full look at the whole article yet, we can just assume that he didn’t walk out of this one with new foot tattoos like Miley. In the interview, the man also known as Marshall Mathers talks about the influence of Biggie and Tupac, and reveals how hip-hop saved his life.
Check out the excerpts from the interview below.
On what saved his life:
“I’m as happy as I can be, I guess. Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else. I think they have a word for that — what do they call it? Idiot savant?”
On understanding the Beasties’ artistic twists and turns:
“When Paul’s Boutique came out, I was one of the fans that didn’t get it. It took me years to realize how fucking genius it is. I felt bad for sleeping on it. Obviously, yes, there was something about Licensed to Ill — you had the Zeppelin samples and their vibe. You had Run-DMC, who were so cool, with the attitude of ‘Fuck you if you don’t like us.’ Same as the Beastie Boys. ‘Fuck you. We fucking curse. We spit beer. We throw it on our fucking fans.’ And obviously as they got older their views and things changed, as all of ours do. You can be mad at their shit for not sounding like their last shit, but if it did, then they didn’t grow as artists. Same as me.”
On how Biggie and Tupac influenced him:
“Being a student of hip-hop in general, you take technical aspects from places,” he says. “You may take a rhyme pattern or flow from Big Daddy Kane or Kool G Rap. But then you go to Tupac, and he made songs. His fucking songs felt like something — ‘Holy shit! I want to fucking punch someone in the face when I put this CD in.’ Biggie told stories. I wanted to do all that shit.”
Check out more over at Rolling Stone. The full issue hits the stands on Friday, November 22nd.
SOURCE: Rolling Stone
