Caught in a press junket during his 1999 European tour, Eminem surprised journalists by being a nice and smart person – not something they expected from a hip hop star.
A Swiss media company SRF went backstage before Marshall’s show. They have 20 minutes of the allocated time and two other journalists before them. Eminem had a rule of not spending more than 40 minutes a day talking to the press. Out of all Swiss media, only one radio, one magazine and one TV channel were selected.
When Em showed up for interviews after his soundcheck he, first of all, was concerned with what tape to put on to play in the background and started digging through his collection. While waiting for Marshall, the SRF crew interviewed a journalist who had just interviewed Em and found out that Marshall left a surprisingly, for them, good impression. He was very friendly, something they did not expect from a person with his popularity (and his reputation, probably).
However, before his last session Em pretended to throw a tantrum, whining at the journalists:
Leave me alone! I hate you! I want to go home.
The journalists took in a good spirit reminding him that he’s not allowed until he sits with them and proceeded to ask him, believe it or not, whether he liked interviews. Eminem switched back to his normal self to give a coherent answer:
I like them. I don’t like them in abundance, like, a lot in a row. I start yanking my hair out and shit. Just one or two in a day – I’m cool with it.
So, that’s why he was doing only 40 minutes of the press in a day.
Otherwise, I feel like I’m trapped, like I’m a fucking prisoner and people just want to talk to me and shit. Like an animal in a cage. [He pitches his voice higher] Like being a little monkey and being stared at. Everybody wants to talk to you and find out how many times you play with your balls.
It seems like with a key change Eminem shifted to his stage persona, because to the question what he would ask himself in the interview Em offers:
Why are my nuts so big?! That what would I ask myself.
What question would he not ask though? Eminem is getting more serious:
What is it like to work with Dr. Dre?
The next question got Em agitated. He was prompted to remember the most stupid question he had ever been asked. Marshall is immediately transformed to a cheesy, scandal-hungry reporter:
So, man! Have you figured out what Spice Girl you wanna impregnate?
So, Swiss journalists wondered whether Marshall liked media at all. There is not an easy answer to this question:
Some of them I like, some of them I don’t. Some of them get me, some of them don’t, some of them I want to punch in the face. I get a type. A lot of female journalists tryna to corner me saying I’m a misogynist. And I slap them in the fucking face! I’m a misogynist, I slap a bitch on the face!
The journalists were able to recognise a provocation where they saw it. But it brought up the next question. Does any taboo exist for Eminem?
Not really. If I’m crazy enough, or right enough, or wrong enough to think it, then I’m crazy enough, or right enough, or wrong enough to say it.
But it leads, notes the journalist, to his texts being censored and makes him writing the second version of the same song, cleaned for public consumption.
When I change lyrics for prime time TV or MTV – I hate it. But I know what’s gotta be done to get my music heard by more people. I want as many people in the world to hear my music.
[Hip hop] is definitely a way of life but it’s also like a sport. If you’re good at it – you’re good at it. It doesn’t matter where you were born, how you were raised, I just think that shit reflects in your music.
And finally, what comes after music? Eminem offers a very casual picture:
Sit in front of my big screen TV playing Sony PlayStation and getting fat.
So, concludes the journalist, here is Eminem for you: a nice person and unwavering rapper with a foul mouth.
Watch the video below:
