This track brings Eminem back to his childhood but it also signifies the power of hip-hop, its undeniable presence in the cultural landscape.
Eminem introduced the song during his “Music To Be Quarantined By” radio show on Shade45 and shared a very personal experience of listening to this song:
This next song reminds me of trying to rush home from school to catch on MTV raps. And the first time I saw this video EPMD had done something to me that had not been done yet in hip-hop. It was the way that they mixed funk, the beats with mellow vocal tone. That shit was so crazy because I don’t think anybody had done that yet at that time. And it was just swag the fuck out. This is when you knew that hip-hop was not going away.
Marshall was talking about “You Gots to Chill” from “Strictly Business”, the debut album by hip-hop duo EPMD. Released in 1988 it took only four months to went gold. Eminem clearly loves this duo, he sampled vocals from 1987’s debut single “It’s My Thing” for his “Chloraseptic”, the third track on “Revival”.
Here is the video of EPMD – “You Gots to Chill” he could see on MTV back in 1988:
Listen to Eminem reminiscing of his youth:
