At the flea market, selling his records and looking like a banana – this is how Eminem met his idol, Treach.
Leaving 2020, Eminem sat down to discuss his love to hip hop as manifested in his music collection. Marshall can talk for hours about every tape on his shelves, and these stories show him not as a Rap God or vicious Slim Shady, but as a dedicated student of hip hop and, sometimes, as a shy fanboy.
Such is the story of a meeting with Treach from Naughty By Nature, the rapper that Em holds very high up in his pantheon. And Eminem still does not remember what he said to Treach, that’s how nervous he was:
I think Treach is actually the first rapper that I’ve ever met, like, a famous rapper in person. He’s up there. He taught me so many things, like different flow patterns. He was so unorthodox with the flow and always had the punch lines. So, I’m in Vegas at this time. Nothing was popping with me and Dre yet. We actually went out there because we had some dude who wanted to buy 3 000 of the Slim Shady EP. So we were like, “What the fuck, let’s go out to Vegas”. We end up in this flea market there are people selling clothes and shit like that. There’s a Naughty By Nature booth and Treach is standing there.
Treach’s standing there selling his own shit. I’m like, “What the fuck?!” So I walked up to him, I was nobody, you know what I’m saying, asked him if I could get a picture, told him what a fan I was. I bet you he probably doesn’t even remember that. I think I was in that yellow jumpsuit where I look like a banana that Dre always makes fun of. But it was a clothing company that was just starting out, and they knew I was just starting out, and they gave me an outfit, they gave me a sweatsuit. Man, I wore that bitch six out of seven days. But [Treach] was just so cool. He was just so cool to me, and I always remember that. I can’t even remember what I said to him because I was just super nervous and just took the picture. But I don’t know if I got a chance to tell him what a fan I was or am still. I don’t know, I don’t remember what I said to him. Probably was some dumb shit. I say a lot of dumb shit to other famous rappers, and I’m like, “What the fuck, why did I say that? Oh my god”.
Listen to Marshall talking about this meeting below:
Full Interview:
