Back in May, headlines claimed an Australian rapper had landed an Eminem feature. As many suspected, that was never quite the case.
Promises, promises
Australian rapper Dheezy was promoting his upcoming album, executive produced by KXNG Crooked, when these stories drew a lot of attention to a rapper whose Spotify audience numbered much fewer than 1,000 monthly listeners.
The initial announcement left plenty of room for interpretation. Dheezy said in his interview that Crook had said he could get Eminem to “hop on the intro”; the album cover featured a long list of featured artists, including Eminem. At first glance, there was hope.
However, at a closer look, there were more caveats and more carefully worded, legally safe phrasing.
On the tracklist, the general statement about Eminem’s involvement was reduced to a quote in the song’s intro.
Also, four artists on the guest list were making their posthumous appearances, suggesting the album heavily relied on licensed archival material. To be fair, Proof’s verse was introduced as “previously unreleased”. Which also implies that the same could not be stated about Coolio, Nate Dogg, and Chino XL.
Two legends on the track
Still, even for sceptics, there was a point of interest in this release, even if only to see exactly how the old material will be incorporated into the younger rapper’s project. And it appears that KXNG Crook’s involvement with the album is key.
The music video opens with what appears to be an archival Eminem interview recorded for Crook’s Corner. Interestingly, the exact quote does not appear in the published version of that conversation, suggesting it may have come from unreleased footage recorded during the same session. Footage that Crook, as the interview’s creator, would have had access to for licensing or reuse.
On the intro, Eminem says, “There’s not a lot of rappers that really send me back to the lab, so to speak. But I will say this, he’s definitely one of them”. Who is that “he” remains a mystery. In the official version of this interview, Marshall talked about people who always make him “push the pen harder”, naming Royce 5’9 and Crook as rappers who should be in every hip hop conversation.
“You’re trying to figure out a way to make this verse better than anything you just did prior to it”, Eminem said to Crook back then. “That’s how I feel when I listen to you, I’m like, ‘Oh, he’s still fucking with different flow patterns. And cares about it’. And the pockets!.. I don’t ever know where your rhyme’s gonna fall at. And I don’t know how many syllables you’re gonna fucking hit, but that’s the other thing, is when people are like, ‘Well, I don’t care about the syllables and all that shit’, yo, you need to, because that’s the craft of doing it”.
So, when on a song Crook responds to Eminem with a new line, it feels organic: “I appreciate this shit Em. You make me always want to level my shit up. You’re the GOAT. We’re the two-headed GOAT in this bitch”. And then he introduces the Aussie rapper, “But yo, Dheezy, it’s time to let them know who you are”.
The strategy paid off
One way or another, the album launched with more attention than Dheezy had ever received before. The audience had been intrigued by a stunningly long guest list, Crook’s involvement, and carefully implied Shady affiliation on a spiritual level. Now, his verses are put side by side with the bars of some legendary lyricists and MCs, thanks to A&R and music entrepreneur Matthew “M80” Markoff, who specialises in the production licensing business.
Whether the comparison benefits Dheezy is now up to listeners to decide. After all, the publicity has already expanded Dheezy’s audience.
But not for much. Three weeks after release, his video with Snoop Dogg and Kurupt was still below 500 views.