Hip-hop heads rejoiced in late April when news broke that Eminem and Royce Da 5’9 were joining forces to create a collaborative EP, Bad Meets Evil, Hell: The Sequel.

Sharing a long history that includes classic joint efforts (1997’s “Bad Meets Evil“) as well as a longstanding feud, the news of the lyrical heavyweights’ project (Due May 14) sent the internets into a frenzy. After the overwhelming response to their first single, “Fast Lane,” last week, we hit Royce up to ask about the recording process, competition to outshine Em on tracks and the inevitable comparisons to Kanye and Jay-Z’s Watch the Throne. –Calvin Stovall

XXLMag.com: Where did the "Bad Meets Evil" originate?

Royce da 5'9: Well, it stems from the very first song that we ever recorded together back in ’97. It was a song we had called "Bad Meets Evil." One of the last lines on the song was something like: “This what happens when bad meets evil, we hit the trees ‘til we look like Vietnamese people/He’s evil, and I’m bad like Steve Segal against peaceful, See you in hell for the sequel.” So, the next time that we got together, we did a piece of vinyl under the group name Bad Meets Evil. And then all of these years later, we accumulated this body of work just messing around in the studio. So, we decided to put it out because we liked the direction it was going in. So now it’s called Bad Meets Evil’s Hell: The Sequel.

XXL: How did y’all go from not talking for years to putting out an EP together? Was it just the next logical step since you signed to Shady Records with Slaughterhouse?

Royce: We didn’t really decide to do it. When we got back around each other— I started travelling with him to do shows and shit like that— and anytime we was in the studio, like when we had time if he came with a beat or something and I happened to be there, we’d just do the song. With no goal in mind, not putting it out or nothing like that. Just recording randomly. We didn’t decide to actually put it out or call it anything until we looked up and we were sitting on all these songs that we thought was crazy. So it’s like, “Man we can’t just sit on these records, we gotta do something with ‘em.” I look at him like, “Well shit you got a label, we got material, let’s put it out.”

XXL: Is the competition still there to outshine 'Em on every track?

Royce: My goal is never to outshine because, number one, when MCs rhyme on a certain level when they rhyme with each other, it automatically makes everything come down to a matter of preference. Nobody is gonna outshine everybody every time, but we got five dudes that rhyme past average. When you rhyme above average lyrically, I just think it comes down to a matter of preference. So, I never think about, “Oh I’m gonna outshine him on this one.” It’s really just, “let me make sure I keep up. Let me allow him to bring the best out of me and hopefully I can do that with him, too.” We aim to inspire each other— never competitive. It’s just like, “Damn, he just said that? Let me think of something maybe better or just as good.” Us MCs we need that. We need to be pushed. And I think that’s what we do. We just push each other to the limit… The whole time (we were) feeding off each other. It was only a few times where I came to the studio and he already had a verse laid or I came to the studio with a verse laid for him to add to. But usually when we do that, we come together on the third verse anyway. So, the whole shit was done together.

XXL: Already on the blogs I’m seeing people comparing the two of you to Kanye and Jay and the EP to Watch the Throne.

Royce: Oh yeah, I’m ready for the comparisons. I’m curious to see what people will say, but if you’re asking me are me and 'Em feeling like we’re competing with them: Nah. You talkin’ about four dudes that rhyme above average. So really, it’s gon’ come down to a matter of preference. It will be some people that feel like theirs is better, some people that feel like ours is better. With me, we respect everything about them, you know what I’m sayin’? So, we not even looking at it like that.

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XXL: What is the feedback you’ve gotten from the people you’ve played it for?

Royce: They said they can’t describe it. They said they never heard two guys rap like that. It’s a lot of back and forth. It almost felt like we were the same person at times, just two different tones. ‘Cause we think so much alike, and we just went in there and did shit that I don’t think I’ve heard since RUN-D.M.C. But that’ll be up to you to judge.

XXL: You said at times it’s like y’all are like the same person. Has your relationship changed musically since back in the day before he was a big music icon?

Royce: Yeah, it’s different musically. We got more chemistry, obviously. I’ve been in the game for a minute, I’ve learned some things. I’ve been around a lot of people that know how to really make records. I’ve picked up a lot of things, not just from him but from other people. Puff, Dre, all these people that I’ve been around. And I kinda got my own little system that I use when I’m makin’ my records. But when we come together, for some reason the way he approaches it and the way I approach it is very similar. It’s almost like we the same person. He might say, “OK, Royce what’s your last line?” I tell him my last line and then he can rhyme every syllable in that line and then continue on those syllables for another eight bars. And then I can take that line. It’s kinda like a big crossword puzzle. It’s kinda weird, but it’s interesting. I don’t think you can just put any two niggas together and they can do that. We wasn’t really doin’ that back in the day. We do it now because we a little more technical with the craft and the words and shit like that.

XXL: What is your favorite line in “Fast Lane"?

Royce: I like [on Em's verse] Nicki Minaj one… I went out the room when he was laying [that] verse. Then he told me to come in and listen to it. I mean, when I heard the line I just cracked up laughing. I like to laugh. I like to be entertained. I had a couple Nicki Minaj lines, but I held back. That’s only Em. Only Em can do that and get away with it. [Laughs] I just laugh ‘cause I know how much of a jokester he is. Hopefully she don’t get offended by it, which I don’t think she would.

XXL: Can we expect a full collaborative album down the road from the two of you?

Royce: I don’t know, man. We try not to look too far down the road. Like, right now, the main focus is just the group Slaughterhouse. We gon’ go all in and do that album. And after that comes out— who knows. It’s gon’ depend what mood everybody’s in. How much time everybody has. How much energy Em has left. Is he gon’ feel like making another solo album? We don’t know. Sky’s the limit on that type of thing when you’re building a movement. So we just keep our minds open and look to the near future.

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