Legendary Naughty By Nature MC has a four-decade-long career in hip hop, and he can relate to the views Eminem expressed on “Zeus”.
Treach spent a morning with Sway on Shade45 talking about his extraordinary life in hip hop and beyond recently. At one point Sway called him “longevity manifested” and quoted Eminem’s lines from “Zeus”:
I’ve had a great view to see the game through
And, Drake, they’re gonna turn on you one day too
And the more you win, the sooner they do
They’ll be calling you a trash bin
Sayin’ that your new one isn’t better than your last and
Even if it is, once they start to turn their backs
They ain’t never comin’ back in
They did it to Chance
Next they’ll be mentionin’ Future in the past tense
Or sayin’ “Adiós” to Migos
Treach was audibly moved:
Jewels. Poetry.
But Sway wanted to talk about the message of this verse and whether Treach could relate to this message and Treach started with a co-sign and moved to explain why:
Of course. The thing is, a lot of artists did not understand that, we didn’t understand — when you come out there and hit, you think like, “This is forever”. Like, I’m going to keep making these records, I’mma keep getting these radio plays, I’mma keep shooting these videos, keep boom boom boom… One thing that is definite in the game that we’ve seen is if you’re on your day, it’s taller until the pandemic comes. You got to realise, you are looking at a decade if you are blessed. A decade before you’re considered old school and the new doors opening up for the younger artists coming out ‘cause hip-hop has always been a new artist game. So a lot of young artists here like, “Yo, I’m great, I’m here. I’m doing this, I’m hot, I keep dropping the hotness” and everything else, and thinking if they do that and stay consistent… You have to stay so consistent! Whereas certain artists will hold or certain artists could come out at any time and drop some new heat because they can finance their own war. They’ve already got their connection and everything there. Once you’re in the game after five years in hip-hop if you are on the label, you’re soon to be, in football terms, traded or dropped. Because they’re looking for the new players. And the air in hip hop is more catered for the younger generations.
Listen to the segment below:
