Are you feeling good about the album at this point?
Um, that's a tough question, man. For the most part, yeah. But I don't know if I ever feel totally great about a record when I put it out. With every record that I put out, someone has literally got to come pry it from me because when I listen to my own music, I just hear flaws in it. Like I hear 'Oh fuck! I could have done this better or that better!' And I'll work it to death. Obviously if I wasn't comfortable with it, I wouldn't put it out. But from the beginning, ever since my career started, I don't know if I've ever been totally like, this is completely it.
In this last crunch, what have you been working on?
I guess you would say last minute jitters of "Fuck! Are the vocals loud enough? Can you hear what I'm saying on this part? Is the beat right? Are the vocals too loud?'" If I could not have to mix any songs and just take the actual two tracks that I rapped over and put them out, I would do that. 'Cause nothing ever feels the way as when you first did it.
But you're not changing lyrics or anything like that? It's just all mix and sound stuff? It's just sonic shit that needs to be worked out for the most part, because when I decide to keep a song, that's pretty much it. Like, if it doesn't work, I pretty much know right away, right when I get it in the car and take it home.
Rolling Stone's Review of Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2
So why did you dye your hair blonde again?
Um, I'll say that one was [manager Paul Rosenberg's] idea. In the earlier stages of the record and developing this shit I had thought about it. And once the songs started to come together and the picture got a little more clear of what it was gonna be, he hit me with the idea and I was like "Yo, you know I thought about that, right?" And he was like, "Well you know, why not?" And I was like "I don't know how it's gonna look. I haven't had it in how many fucking years? Five, six years." I was like, "I'm so used to it being dark," you know. So I just tried it. And I was like "Fuck it."
Did physically looking like that help you get back in the mindset or change the way you were recording?
Not really, honestly. Because I already had most of the songs. And I don't know if I'm gonna keep it like this or how long I'm gonna keep it. But for right now it is what it is. And I feel like it may fit and maybe people will understand when they get the record.
For Recovery there was a lot of rejected stuff. You recorded 100 songs or something, or at least you had 100 beats. So was there a lot of stuff thrown in the garbage pile this time around?
I feel like right now I'm probably working harder than I've ever worked in my life. And I've probably worked harder on this record than any other record aside from maybe the time period during The Eminem Show, which is a little hazy 'cause just so much shit was going on at that time. Just being so busy with The Eminem Show and doing the 8 Mile movie, and the soundtrack and the score to the movie. This is probably the equivalent of that but all focused on the record mostly.
That's crazy.
Once I had the direction that I wanted to go, and you know calling it The Marshall Mathers LP 2, obviously I knew that there might be certain expectations. Like, I wouldn't want to just call it that just for the sake of calling it that. So I wanted to make sure that I had the right songs to be able to call it that. So, a lot of recording. A lot of songs that people probably will never hear. We hit a couple of road blocks. There were songs where the beat leaked or a producer sold the beat to someone else or whatever. And just when you think you got it or you got the right amount of songs you go back and you listen and you're like, "Fuck man! I feel like it needs this or this" to paint the whole picture.
A lot of people, maybe even you, think the original is your best album.
It's probably my favorite. I think some of them are my favorites for different reasons. Hate to even say that about my own record, but I mean the first three records, I think they may have captured a time period. And then I think I pretty much probably have publicly said, you know, Encore and Relapse wasn't – it was just a different time.
You've been hard on Relapse, but Tyler, the Creator says that it's his favorite hip-hop record in years. He loves that record.
Yeah, he tells me that every time I see him. I don't hate the record. I want to rap and be able to always try to do my best lyrically, but at the same time find the right balance between that and making the right songs. And you know, I don't know if I necessarily found that balance yet, because I was just getting sober and just kind of finding my feet again and so there was a lot of songs that were just like "Ha ha this is funny!" You know, walking around and joking around with your friends and shit and it ends up on the record and you're laughing about it. Because when I got sober it was like – I've said this before – but it just was like "Oh shit! I can think straight again!" So I don't know if that record was particularly my best work as far as songs, writing songs that felt like something, that brought some kind of emotion. I ran accents into the ground. I got stuck on that kind of serial killer, crazy vibe and just kind of went with it.
Um, that's a tough question, man. For the most part, yeah. But I don't know if I ever feel totally great about a record when I put it out. With every record that I put out, someone has literally got to come pry it from me because when I listen to my own music, I just hear flaws in it. Like I hear 'Oh fuck! I could have done this better or that better!' And I'll work it to death. Obviously if I wasn't comfortable with it, I wouldn't put it out. But from the beginning, ever since my career started, I don't know if I've ever been totally like, this is completely it.
In this last crunch, what have you been working on?
I guess you would say last minute jitters of "Fuck! Are the vocals loud enough? Can you hear what I'm saying on this part? Is the beat right? Are the vocals too loud?'" If I could not have to mix any songs and just take the actual two tracks that I rapped over and put them out, I would do that. 'Cause nothing ever feels the way as when you first did it.
But you're not changing lyrics or anything like that? It's just all mix and sound stuff? It's just sonic shit that needs to be worked out for the most part, because when I decide to keep a song, that's pretty much it. Like, if it doesn't work, I pretty much know right away, right when I get it in the car and take it home.
Rolling Stone's Review of Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2
So why did you dye your hair blonde again?
Um, I'll say that one was [manager Paul Rosenberg's] idea. In the earlier stages of the record and developing this shit I had thought about it. And once the songs started to come together and the picture got a little more clear of what it was gonna be, he hit me with the idea and I was like "Yo, you know I thought about that, right?" And he was like, "Well you know, why not?" And I was like "I don't know how it's gonna look. I haven't had it in how many fucking years? Five, six years." I was like, "I'm so used to it being dark," you know. So I just tried it. And I was like "Fuck it."
Did physically looking like that help you get back in the mindset or change the way you were recording?
Not really, honestly. Because I already had most of the songs. And I don't know if I'm gonna keep it like this or how long I'm gonna keep it. But for right now it is what it is. And I feel like it may fit and maybe people will understand when they get the record.
For Recovery there was a lot of rejected stuff. You recorded 100 songs or something, or at least you had 100 beats. So was there a lot of stuff thrown in the garbage pile this time around?
I feel like right now I'm probably working harder than I've ever worked in my life. And I've probably worked harder on this record than any other record aside from maybe the time period during The Eminem Show, which is a little hazy 'cause just so much shit was going on at that time. Just being so busy with The Eminem Show and doing the 8 Mile movie, and the soundtrack and the score to the movie. This is probably the equivalent of that but all focused on the record mostly.
That's crazy.
Once I had the direction that I wanted to go, and you know calling it The Marshall Mathers LP 2, obviously I knew that there might be certain expectations. Like, I wouldn't want to just call it that just for the sake of calling it that. So I wanted to make sure that I had the right songs to be able to call it that. So, a lot of recording. A lot of songs that people probably will never hear. We hit a couple of road blocks. There were songs where the beat leaked or a producer sold the beat to someone else or whatever. And just when you think you got it or you got the right amount of songs you go back and you listen and you're like, "Fuck man! I feel like it needs this or this" to paint the whole picture.
A lot of people, maybe even you, think the original is your best album.
It's probably my favorite. I think some of them are my favorites for different reasons. Hate to even say that about my own record, but I mean the first three records, I think they may have captured a time period. And then I think I pretty much probably have publicly said, you know, Encore and Relapse wasn't – it was just a different time.
You've been hard on Relapse, but Tyler, the Creator says that it's his favorite hip-hop record in years. He loves that record.
Yeah, he tells me that every time I see him. I don't hate the record. I want to rap and be able to always try to do my best lyrically, but at the same time find the right balance between that and making the right songs. And you know, I don't know if I necessarily found that balance yet, because I was just getting sober and just kind of finding my feet again and so there was a lot of songs that were just like "Ha ha this is funny!" You know, walking around and joking around with your friends and shit and it ends up on the record and you're laughing about it. Because when I got sober it was like – I've said this before – but it just was like "Oh shit! I can think straight again!" So I don't know if that record was particularly my best work as far as songs, writing songs that felt like something, that brought some kind of emotion. I ran accents into the ground. I got stuck on that kind of serial killer, crazy vibe and just kind of went with it.
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