For Eminem’s birthday MTV made him a present every Marshall’s fan should appreciate. It uncovered more than 8 minutes of rare interview footages tracing the evolution of the artist from 1999 – 2005.
Clips vary from the very begging of his career to the probing question from his “Encore” era whether he was going to leave the stage. Answering the question about his sudden fame, he demonstrated that he already aimed to keep his head down:
I want to calm down, assess the situation. And realise this is what I’m doing, this is my job. If I let fame get the best of me, I’m gonna self-destruct and I don’t wanna self-destruct. I have a little girl at home and I’ve gotta see her hit forty.
It did not come to him easy, and self-destruction was real, but his intentions music-wise have never changed:
I do my music, I don’t try to compromise my style or my voice for anybody. I’ve got an opinion and I’ve gonna voice it.
The compilation ends with a very serious question from 15 years ago: “What are you aspired to do?” And the answer is the one that we can easily verify now as truthful and humble at the same time:
Basically, just keep hip hop moving. Keep it after me, after 50. Build for the next generation of hip hop, make it keep expanding. A 47 years-old person came to me saying “Yo, you made me like hip hop!” If it is my contribution so be it. Whatever it is, to help the growth of hip hop, to help keep expanding it and build it.
