Eminem has inspired a whole generation of kids and some of today’s biggest rappers. The Detroit rapper was once a rookie himself and relied on advice from his heroes along the way, and one thing stood out to him above all.
The legendary Elton John, a longtime friend and collaborator of Slim Shady, sat down with Em before releasing his Revival album in 2017. During their conversation, the British icon asked him about the best advice he’s ever received.
“I would have to say Dre,” he told Elton for Interview Magazine. “Actually, he gave me a couple of pieces of advice. When I first got signed to Aftermath, we had many discussions about how I wanted to bring in my group D12 and put them on right away.
“Dre said, “You’ve gotta build your house before you can let your friends come in,” and it made so much sense to me. In hindsight, waiting was probably better because eventually we got Shady Records and were able to sign them to it. He also used to say, ‘It can be in bad taste as long as it don’t taste bad.’”
When Elton asked if Dre was “a bit like Obi-Wan Kenobi,” he agreed, before recalling some other notable advice. “I also just remembered some advice that Rick Rubin gave me,” he said. “We were talking about a song or something, and he said, ‘I don’t really consider myself smart enough to know what everybody’s going to think, so I just do what feels right to me.’”
It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Dre gave him the most memorable advice. Although Eminem has never been outspoken on social media, he’s remained in the spotlight for his music—something he also learnt from Dre.
“I studied Dre a lot,” he said. “I don’t know if you’d call it a mantra or what, but he believed that if you never go away, it’s hard for someone to miss you. And I realise that some people see going away as, ‘Oh, he’s irrelevant now,’ but I feel like if I don’t go away, I get sick of myself. It’s never been my thing to be in the spotlight all the time.”
Dre has been his biggest influence since the early days, when he dropped his major label debut, The Slim Shady LP, in 1999. Released on the NWA member’s Aftermath label, Eminem did everything he could to impress him during the recording sessions.
“I remember one of the first times I went out to LA,” he recalled. “I met Dre and Jimmy [Iovine] at Interscope, and it felt so ridiculous and so far-fetched that this was happening. When Dre walked in, it was like an out-of-body experience. Nothing in my life had been going right for me, but he put me up in the Oakwood apartments and paid my rent so I could record with him.
“There was a period when I stayed up writing for 48 hours straight and ended up crashing at, like, six in the morning. I wanted to be prepared for Dre because I thought, ‘If I’m not ready for every aspect of this, this could be it for me.’”
