Eminem has always been a collector, a fact he reminded his fans in his official Shady-Con announcement statement. “I’ve been collecting since I was a kid, everything from comic books to baseball cards to toys, as well as every rap album on cassette I could get my hands on,” he explained. “Not much has changed for me as an adult.”
Throughout the past few years, Em has made no secret of his appreciation for rap history. In a 2019 Instagram post, he broke down the reason he keeps classic albums lined on his t-shirts at every show. “Hopefully, some of ya’ll might go buy their albums,” he reflected. “Might go look em’ up. Maybe you don’t know who Masta Ace was, or Kool G Rap. I feel like you need to know because what they did for hip-hop is so fu*king incredible because they made it go to that next level.”
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Suffice it to say, Em’s love of the classics runs deep. So much so that he has been steadily amassing a collection of hip-hop cassette tapes, and during a recent appearance on Clubhouse, he opened up about his rarest find thus far — a copy of Nas’ 1994 classic debut Illmatic.
The conversation took place in an official Shady Con room, in which Paul Rosenberg and DJ Whoo Kid were also present. “My most coveted was probably Nas’ Illmatic,“ he admits. “Man, I couldn’t find that shit nowhere. I finally found one, and it cost like five, six hundred dollars. For a sealed copy. Because who the fuck had a copy of Illmatic and didn’t open it. Nobody.”
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“I think it’s backstock from records stores had in the back storage,” he continues. “That’s the only thing I can think of. Cause nobody’s going to have a fu*kin Illmatic tape and not open it.” When one participant claims they have an opened copy of The Slim Shady LP on cassette, Eminem gives a frank assessment: “twelve cents.”
Check out Eminem’s appearance on Clubhouse below.
WATCH: Eminem talks “Illmatic” and rare cassette collection on Clubhouse.