Ahead of Eminem’s Back to School (Da Ol’ Skool Way) special, SiriusXM shared two preview clips in which Eminem talks about studying hip hop, and eventually becoming someone younger rappers study.
Hosted by Shade 45 DJ D-Stroy, the interview delved into Marshall’s formative years, growing up in Detroit, and getting into hip hop. Here is what appeared in the two preview clips.
D-Stroy: You started as a kid with a Walkman studying everybody you could. Now you’re the person young artists are studying. When did you first realise you had gone from being the student to becoming part of somebody else’s hip hop education?
Eminem: Wow. I think being in the underground scene was definitely a learning experience for me. I don’t know if I had realised that yet, though. When the album dropped, I first started hearing other rappers. I felt like they were trying to sound like me. And I was like, “Wait, what the fuck? They’re trying to sound like me? Probably ’99. After the Slim Shady LP dropped, there were some rappers coming up in the underground. I don’t think I was there yet. Everybody had their own shit and I didn’t realise till the first album dropped that now rappers were starting to sound like me. Pretty fucking wild. Pretty fucking wild, man.
Another preview focused on LL COOL J’s influence on young Marshall.
D-Stroy: What did LL J teach you that had nothing to do with music?
Eminem: Well, at first it was everything to do with music because when Radio came out, I remember I was 11. Radio came out, and that was like the first album I had. I got that tape for Christmas, and it was the first, like, full rap cassette I had. I used to just play it on repeat, front to back, front to back, front to back. So he impacted me music-wise, and then later in my career, like, I remember reading his book, and a lot of the shit he went through- a lot of the same shit I went through as a kid- so I could relate to some of that. But I didn’t really know that about him until adulthood, when I read the book. Stepdad and shit like that.
But I connected with some of that shit, and I connected with like a lot of his struggles and shit as a kid. That just made me connect with him more as a person. But musically, he had already impacted my life and changed it. He was what made me want to rap in the first place, being, I think, 11 or 12. I think 12, maybe. I wrote my first rap, and it was just like LL Cool J. Actually, I think I was 13 because B.A.D. had come out. That’s when I wrote my first rap because it sounded just like B.A.D., his second album. Radio – I didn’t even want to rap yet; I just loved it. I didn’t even try yet.
D-Stroy: Wasn’t there a time when you used to stand on the street with a boom box, performing his songs, with the cars passing by?
Eminem: At my Aunt Edna’s house, mhm. I used to set my little radio on the front lawn and face it up, so the speakers are pointing up to the sky, and just play that shit and perform it, while cars were driving by in the street.
Also, according to the SiriusXM website, Eminem will talk about Rakim’s multisyllabic rhyme patterns and describe his time in Detroit’s underground rap scene.
The full interview premieres Friday, September 4, 2026, at 7 pm ET on Shade 45 (Ch. 45) via car radios and the SiriusXM app, with replays scheduled throughout the weekend.