The newest album from Eminem’s Shady Records, Shady XV, recently debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Rap Albums chart. Billboard caught up with Shady Records co-founder Paul Rosenberg to talk about the compilation and what’s next for the label.
The Shady XV compilation debuts at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. As Eminem’s longtime manager and co-founder of Shady Records, what was your intention in releasing the project?
Marshall [Mathers] had some music he was looking for a home for, and we were looking for something to possibly attach it to. So when we realized it was our 15th anniversary earlier this year, we decided to create a project to celebrate that. We haven’t released a greatest hits for the label yet, so this is it.
Shady doesn’t have many artists signed to the label. Why have you kept it boutique?
Marshall and I are very hands-on. We don’t have a lot of time to be able to work on multiple things. Marshall in particular is not a multitasker when it comes to the creative process. He’s very much one project at a time. I like to be involved in every aspect of the releases as well. We don’t have the capacity, because there’s only two of us, to churn out that much product. But given that it’s a boutique, we’ve been prolific. This is our 15th album in 15 years, not including Eminem albums.
What’s next for Shady?
In early 2015, we’re releasing Yelawolf’s album, Love Story. Things are off to a great start for his “Till It’s Gone.” It’s working really well for us. Then, we finish up the Slaughterhouse album and get it out toward the middle of the year.
