Bad Meets Evil delivery is remarkable because of the ease with which Eminem and Royce trade bars. Royce explains how this seamless flow of syllables is built.
This conversation was started by Reginald, who continues to post segments from his interview with Royce da 5’9”. According to the man himself, the main secret (apart from having a deep understanding with your counterpart and being a lyrical genius, you know) is to use shorter building blocks that will allow you to adapt to every new surprise that your partner brings to the booth:
Instead of writing… What would we write at one time? Like 16 or 32? Instead of writing 16 or 32, or 24, write six. With no idea where it’s going. And then it’s like, okay, that’s my six right here. I want rap it so I’ll just go into the booth and lay it. And they are just sitting there. So now he basically hears it and then he has to figure out how to continue the puzzle. It just so happens that me and Marshall, when we do it, we like to connect everything. We like to connect syllables, we like to really make it technically sound. That’s where the fun is at, that’s where all the goodies at. If something’s there already, you can’t just come in and start your own syllables scheme, you’ve got to continue on with what’s there. And a lot of time, especially rhyming with Marshall, all of the fucking good words have been used up already! He’ll use all the good words and then just leave me there to fend to myself and shit. It’s fun, it’s fun doing it that way.
This trading bar business, however, does not mean that both Marshall and Royce are stying in the booth, freestyling and rapping over each other:
Me and Marshall, we leave the room when one of us is in the booth, ‘cause we don’t wanna hear it, we wanna be surprised. But with Slaughterhouse we’ll all be in the same room. But me and Marshall, we’ve got a different kind of bond when it comes to going back and forth, we do it a whole different way.
Obviously, the next question was about the possibility of a new record from Bad Meets Evil. Royce has nothing to report. It is evidently not on the cards right now but Royce is ready to join Marshall in the studio if he will ever be so inclined:
I don’t know. Me and Marshall haven’t even really talked that much. I’ve been running around, I’ve been just doing things outside of the booth, I haven’t been rapping that much. I don’t know what he’s been working on. Last time I spoke to him, he was collecting some beats or something. I don’t really know what he’s doing. I mean, if he calls me and says, “Yo, come to the lab, let’s record some shit”, I’m always down. But we haven’t had a conversation about getting to the studio and working. So, I don’t know. I’m not like, pumped up about doing it. It’s Marshall’s fans. I need to be inspired.
Watch the video below:
