Jessie Reyez is on her media circuit promoting her debut album “Before Love Came To Kill Us” and sharing her experience about working with Marshall, praying for inspiration before their first record session and sharing pessimistic views on romance.
Track “Coffin” became her third joint venture with Eminem after “Good guy” and “nice Guy” recorded for Em’s “Kamikaze”. Many noticed that all three tracks are centred around the topic of the dark side of relationships. Jessie thinks that that is because they share a similar worldview, she says:
Yeah, he lives in the same place I do.
This shared perspective helps them work together. As Jessie says it is never a long drawn conversation, it is a mutual understanding of what has to be done:
I’m lucky, it’s just energy. It’s just chemistry. I’m blessed that way with him, and it was apparent in the first session. And I was nervous as hell for that first session. When we made “Good Guy” was the first time I met him, was the first time we worked. So when I walked in and mind you, I’ve been really fortunate to work with legendary people in my life. So far, I’ve been really fortunate, and there’s only two times in my life where I got shook, and that was one of them. And my managers will tell you, they’ll be like, “We heard you exhale when you hugged him”. I was like, “Oh, God”. Like, “Fuck”. So I was nervous, and then I was nervous too because I’ve said this before, sometimes inspiration will come quick. Sometimes the faucet comes and it’s just like, “Oh” and I don’t have to write shit down and it’s closer to a freestyle than it is a song, but it just comes out, and then sometimes I do, and I have to erase and build and erase, and I have to work more for it. I remember praying before the session and being like, “Lord, please let it come quick today. Let it just come. Let it come. Let it come quick. God, please”. And we got in there and we talked a bit and Paul’s in there too and my manager’s in there too, and we’re playing each other music just to catch each other’s vibe, and then he was like, “Okay, I got this one thing”. And then he played it for me. And I was like, “Okay”, and I shut my eyes. And then it started coming out, and I was like, “Yes”. But it’s just a vibe. And then we obviously made the video together in Detroit, which was mad fun. We’ve been wanting to work together again since. So then when I had “Coffin” it just made sense. We sent it over. And when I heard he liked it, I was like, “Yeah, okay”. And then when I heard that he was going into the studio to record it, I was like, “Yeah, okay”. It wasn’t until I had the vocals that I was like, “Holy shit, Eminem is about to be on my debut album”. I didn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it until we had the vocals.
For a singer to work with Marshall was a remarkable occasion because she was influenced by his music from the very beginning:
I remember watching “8 Mile” when I was a kid. He’s the reason I do this. I told him that. I was like, “Dude, nobody does this. You’re the reason people do this”. Culture. He’s been authentically himself, no matter what. In the face of a world where people are so prone to scrutinise a hair that’s out of place, where people are prone to scrutinise someone whose opinion goes very much against the grain, he’s never, and you don’t have to agree with everything he says, but he’s been fearless forever. I got to work with that legend.
The whole interview is worth watching but here you can focus on the segment about Eminem:
