Radio executive and record producer Damizza tells the story of how he brought Eminem to West Coast hip hop scene.
In a two hours long interview with Mr. Criminal, he remembers how he risked his job to give Eminem more exposure:
I almost got fired so many times, it was stupid. When Dr. Dre called me and invited me at his house he said, “I need some advice”. I was like, Dr. Dre called me for advice? What the hell?! I showed up and he points to Eminem in the booth and says, “How do I break the white boy?” And I’m like, dude, you tell me the story of N.W.A. from beginning to end and I’ll break the white boy for you. He goes, “You have all night?” And I’m like, “Dude, I’ve got all night”. I sat on his washer and dryer, he sat on his little stairs from like midnight to 6 a.m. He told me the whole story of N.W.A., and Eminem comes out about six o’clock in the morning from the studio tired of waiting and he looks over and says, “I’m going home”. And I said, “No, you are not. You are going to the Baker Boys show with Power 106. You are going to announce that you are doing Friday Night Flavours 10th year anniversary Friday night oe tonight.. Give me that record, “Hi, My Name Is’”. Michelle Mercer, who was mi boss at the time said, “You pit that white boy on stage put that white boy on stage — you are fired! Dr. Dre is over. That white boy… Haven’t you heard of Vanilla Ice and all if this kind of stuff?” And I was like, well, it was a good run. Preemo and Dub-C, everybody was looking at me. Like, “Are you really going to put white boy on stage? You crazy?” I said, “It’s Dr. Dre’s new artist”. They all looked at me so before I knew it everybody’s on the side of the stage. I’m there with Coolio, rest in peace, all of these guys are there and watching. Eminem got through the first part of that song, “Fuck You” and that place went to shit!
I walked in the office next morning. I literally had a box and I was putting my shit in the box thinking I’m getting fired. Then my boss came in and she was like, “You are lucky that white boy killed it, bring me the record”. And then we played “Hi, My Name Is”. That’s how Eminem got started.
Watch the video below:
