Eminem Praises Kendrick Lamar’s “Control” Verse

Eminem covers Rolling Stone, which will hit stands on November 22. Just a couple of days before The Marshall Mathers LP 2 drops next week, the magazine shared their cover story’s outtakes. Here, Slim Shady touches on the recording process of his album, learning from Rick Rubin, and Kendrick Lamar’s success.

Em’s interview also revolves around his sense of humor, where he says that his tongue-in-cheekness will never go away. “I guess it's just a part of my personality,” he says. “I always want to keep some type of element of fun to the music as well. If one song is darker or talking about a sad subject, I don't want to make a whole album of that, of being a downer.”

While Eminem was one of the rappers Kendrick Lamar looked up to in his “Control” verse, he spoke about collaborating with him on the album. Read some of the best excerpts below.

On If He Thinks Kendrick Would Upstage Him:
I completely respect what Kendrick does and the fact that he's in the same camp, that he's on Aftermath, only made sense to me. He came to Detroit, we kicked it for a few minutes, you know, and I felt the vibe of what he's like and everything, and you know, he's a super cool and super humble dude. When we did that record, I think that was actually a week or two before he did the verse to "Control."

On Giving Advice To Kendrick:
I don't know if he needs advice. He seems like he's got a really good head on his shoulders, man. He's very smart and you can tell by the way he put his album together for one. He's like a hip-hop head, man, he just loves hip-hop. And obviously the way that he did the "Control" verse, it was almost like if you get mad at him, then you might look foolish. He set it up so that you can't really get mad at a lot of that shit he said because it was what every other MC is already thinking. Or you should be thinking.

On If He Feels Like An Underdog:
I think everything switches back and forth from hour to hour, day by day with me. That whole "Rap God" record pretty much from top to bottom is tongue in cheek. So I mean, do I want to feel like that? Maybe sometimes. Again, it goes back to everybody who competitive raps and does this for just purely the sport of it wants to be the best. Again, that's why Kendrick's verse worked so well because he only said what every rapper's already thinking, If you don't want to be the best, then why are you rapping?

[via Rolling Stone]