“When the first Naughty By Nature album dropped, that whole summer, I couldn’t write a rap.”
Eminem is regarded as one of the best rappers of all time and he hasn’t shied away from going toe-to-toe with other rappers. The 50-year-old wordsmith revealed that, at one point in his career, he considered quitting due to feeling like he couldn’t keep up with Naughty By Nature and Nas.
The New York Times published an interview with Marshall Mathers on Tuesday (July 18) as part of their recognition of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary. The Detroit lyricist talked about rappers who utilized compound-syllable rhyming, namely Juice Crew, Lord Finesse, Kool G Rap, and Big Daddy Kane, among others. “I don’t even think I understood why I liked it,” Em said. “I had a couple of friends that had to point out to me how many syllables someone was rhyming.”
The “Rap God” artist, who is seemingly never at a loss for words, went on to speak about dealing with a difficult case of writer’s block at one point in his career due to Treach from Naughty By Nature. “And then Treach from Naughty By Nature came along and he was doing all that, too,” Slim Shady said. “I wanted to be him. When the first Naughty By Nature album dropped, that whole summer, I couldn’t write a rap. ‘I’ll never be that good; I should just quit.’ So I was depressed, but that’s all I played for that summer.”
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Nas’ 1994 classic debut album Illmatic had a similar effect on Eminem. “I remember The Source gave Illmatic five mics,” he began. “I already knew I liked Nas from ‘Live at the Barbeque’ with Main Source, because his verse on that is one of the most classic verses in Hip-Hop of all time. But I was, like, ‘Five mics, though? Let me see what this is.’”
“And when I put it on, ‘And be prosperous, though we live dangerous/ Cops could just arrest me/ Blamin’ us/ We’re held like hostages.’ He was going in and outside of the rhyme scheme, internal rhymes,” the Curtain Call 2 rapper said. “That album had me in a slump, too. I know the album front to back.”
Eminem was evidently able to climb out of that slump and have one of the most commercially successful rap careers in the pre-streaming era. However, he has dominated streaming, too, as the 8 Mile actor recorded seven entries on Spotify’s 50 Most Streamed Rap Songs Ever list shared on Monday (July 7). He trailed the late XXXTentacion by just one song but had more of a presence than streaming monsters like Drake, Travis Scott, and Post Malone. Check out the list below.
