DJ Rec, a Detroit DJ who crossed paths with Eminem early on, claims the “8 Mile” character Cheddar Bob is based on him — though he is not thrilled about the portrayal.

DJ Rec, a long-time acquaintance of Eminem, recently spoke on the Kid L Podcast about his early days in the Detroit hip hop scene and his surprising connection to “8 Mile”. According to Rec, the character Cheddar Bob — best remembered for accidentally shooting himself in the leg — was loosely based on him. And while the connection might sound cool at first, Rec is not flattered:

I never shot myself in the leg. I never even owned a gun. The whole thing was just made up.

Rec says he met Eminem at a record store during his DJing days and eventually moved into a house in Detroit’s Novara neighbourhood, where a small group of aspiring artists, Soul Intent, including Eminem, would hang out and make music. Rec claims he lent a hand during Eminem’s early projects, even earning a platinum plaque, as his work on “If I Had” and “Murder, Murder” on EP was included in “The Slim Shady LP” expanded edition.

The working conditions were spartan:

[Eminem] had a box of the cassettes that he didn’t sell. We were so poor at that time. When I was making beats down in the basement, I would take the cassettes and be like, “I grabbed a few cassettes”. He’s like, “Yeah, whatever”. And we would re-record over them the beat he could rap to. We didn’t have a lot of gear; basically, it was a keyboard, a tape cassette, and a little mixing board. We would transfer the keyboard beats onto the tape so he would have something to rap to.

Rec also reflected on the group’s antics, like staging fake cap-gun shoot-outs in the house:

We used to have scenarios at the Novara house. They were called the Cap-Gun Incidents. We would buy old school cap-guns and we would leave them set up. If you came home and had a bad day, and we were out in the living room chilling, partying, watching movies, or whatever, you could grab the gun off the counter, walk in and start a movie scenario. I did it a couple of times, Em happened to be on the couch, and I walked in, and I got the gun in my hand, and these other people were like, “What the fuck?! He’s got a gun in his hand!” I start talking shit to Marshall, like, “Yo, man, you got that 20 bucks that you owe me?” Then we pull it out, and then I shoot him. At the Navarra house, we did a lot of crazy shit; we had a lot of fun there.

Despite the fun memories, Rec said he was not thrilled with how “8 Mile” portrayed him — or anyone else from that era:

They couldn’t use your real name in the movie, or I could sue them, so all the names were changed. I don’t know what why he named me Cheddar Bob. It was just completely made up. The whole shooting myself, and I never presented myself like that.

While Rec didn’t stay close with Eminem as his career skyrocketed, he recalls seeing him at an event years later and noticing how show business had changed Em, drugging deep into a void of substance abuse:

That was pretty much the last [conversation]. Xzibit was performing in town at St. Andrews and I knew everybody at St Andrews so I could get in the VIP and all that. So, I got there early and was hanging out with Xzibit with the posse up in the room. Then Em shows up, and he gets all pissed off. Like, “Bob, what are you doing here?!” Just not him. He was completely drunk as a motherfucker. He was just tripping. He went from somebody that didn’t normally drink to this dude. He was drinking a fifth of Baccardi and doing mad drugs. I live with him and him being a responsible person; I saw him drink, never seen him smoke weed, never seen him do drugs.

This connection was broken, but people have been called DJ Rec Cheddar Bob for over 20 years now.

Even though his connection to “8 Mile” might not be exactly what he wanted, DJ Rec’s stories offer a glimpse into a scrappy, creative time in Detroit’s hip hop history — and an unexpected link to one of the most iconic rap films of all time.

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