Grammy-winning rapper Eminem and Royce Da 5’9 are real-life rap game veterans. The hip-hop duo’s “Scary Movies” classic has officially reached its 20th anniversary. Eminem + Royce Da 5’9’s ‘Scary Movies’ Turns 20 Royce went to his Instagram page to geek out over the milestone. 5’9 also shared the single’s artwork to the masses. “20 […]
Eminem has always shown up for his Detroit hometown, consistently donating money to organizations in the city through his Marshall Mathers Foundation. But the same sentiment apparently isn’t shared by everyone in the city, as someone completely vandalized a new mural of Eminem in Detroit less than 24 hours after it was finished.
According to a report from The Detroit News, Chicago-based street artist Chris Devins spent all of last Saturday painting a giant mural of Eminem in Detroit’s Cass Corridor. Devins claimed passersby showed their support of his work by snapping photos and honking their car horn as he painted. However, Devins came to find out that someone had completely defaced the artwork less than a day after it was completed.
Devins said he was already back in Chicago by the time he heard the news of the mural’s vandalization. “I felt terrible,” Devins said, calling the graffiti “disrespectful.” He continued, “I was devastated. Who would do that? That’s against the rules of street art. […] I want to restore it to its original value. I would like to re-present it to the community in its unblemished form.”
Devins wasn’t commissioned by Eminem to paint the mural, but was visiting Detroit with his family for Labor Day Weekend and thought the empty wall could “use some beautification.” The painting is based on a photo of Eminem by photographer Nitin Vadukul.
The artist currently plans to return to Detroit to fix the mural soon. Even still, he’s offended that someone had the audacity to deface his artwork so soon after it’s completion. “You can’t give some people anything good,” he wrote on Instagram.
Eminem has debuted a new capsule collection of streetwear in collaboration with Gen-Z designer Millinsky.
Teasing the collection, which celebrates the rapper’s career highlights, Em shared a video on his socials set to the Music To Be Murdered By: Side B song “Discombobulated.” “Let’s take ’em back / In time,” he captioned. Millinsky shared his own promotional video on Instagram, posting the message, “Music through design. Can’t wait to share with you my latest collaboration with @eminem. Pieces available on Eminem’s official website on September 2nd.”
“Let’s take ’em back / In time” @MILLINSKY collab coming Thursday.. Get a preview here – https://t.co/8UiL6GLUcU pic.twitter.com/9kQirWJTNn
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) September 1, 2021
The collection itself consists of short-sleeve and long-sleeve T-shirts, hoodies, and baseball caps that say career-spanning phrases from Eminem like, “Hi, My Name is Slim Shady,” “Guess Who’s Back,” “I’m Infinite,” and “Slim Shady,” Ranging in price from $25 to $50, the pieces are available for purchase here.
“I’ve always loved music, but I don’t think it had a specific impact on the creation of the pieces themselves in the beginning,” Millinsky recently explained to Thred. “I think in the music industry right now — and this has been the case for a decade or so — musicians tend to care more about how they dress than athletes and actors so it’s easier to get musicians on board to wear cool stuff. Rihanna specifically is always style-forward. For us to have her buy the product and actually wear it was monumental. It had a snowball effect.”
It has been a while since 50 Cent dropped a musical project, as he’s been primarily focused on producing and promoting his various television series with Starz, which include a new Power spin-off and the period drama BMF, as well as fending off lawsuits for ripping off his competition in the beverage industry. However, a new rap release inspired him to start writing music again recently, as he told People in a recent video interview.
The release in question was King’s Disease 2, the latest release from 50’s fellow Queens native Nas — specifically the song “EPMD 2,” which featured 50’s friend and mentor Eminem. Eminem’s verse, which set Rap Twitter on fire the night of its release, prompted 50 to want to write again. “When Em does something that stands out to me, it’s special,” he said. “He just had a performance on Nas’ album, and it made me want to record again because of my connection to it. He sounded so good that I was like, ‘I gotta write something.’”
He also addressed his long absence from the forefront of the rap game, saying, “I feel like I’m still in it. Even if I don’t share it with the general public, it forced me back into writing, going to the studio and recording something.” Perhaps once BMF — which also features Eminem appearing as FBI informant White Boy Rick — is finished airing, 50 will be ready to once again share his new music with the general public.
Watch 50 Cent’s full interview with People above.
Eminem‘s Shady Records has had a bumpy go of it over the years, as the label’s head honcho’s star power seemingly overpowered the shine from every new member of the roster, from Cashin and Stat Quo to Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf. Lately, though, it seems that the imprint has regrouped somewhat, recruiting members of Buffalo-based Griselda Records, Compton’s Westside Boogie, and most recently, Atlanta rapper Grip, who released his debut album for the label, I Died For This!?, today.
Naturally, Eminem appears on the album to show his newest artist some support, delivering a rapid-fire verse full of sage advice for the younger rapper. To be honest, it’s probably one of Em’s most coherent and focused verses in years, and you love to see him showing support for an up-and-coming prospect rather than trying to compete with him. “No pun intended, but GRIP, hold on to this moment,” he advises. “‘Cause soon as you reach the top, they gon’ want you to fall from it.”
It’s similar to Em’s progress on the “Side B” deluxe version of Music To Be Murdered By and his recent “Killer” remix featuring Cordae and Jack Harlow. He’s taking a longer view of the rap game — even though he still finds time to give the long-dead Autotune horse a couple more kicks for some reason — and as for Grip? Not only is his career in good hands, but he’s also showing he’s got the talent to take it far into the future, big-name co-signs or not.
Listen to Grip’s “Walkthrough!” featuring Eminem above.
I Died For This!? is out now via Shady Records. Get it here.
Co-signs from an established artist can be huge in the music industry, and perhaps the biggest co-sign an up-and-coming rapper can get from Eminem is being signed to his Shady Records label. Now, Eminem has revealed what he looks for in a Shady Records artist.
Atlanta rapper and Shady signee GRIP is the subject of a new Complex profile, and for that, the publication spoke with Eminem, who said of GRIP, “We all got excited about GRIP after we heard [the 2019 album] Snubnose. It was really refreshing to hear a new artist so focused on making a conceptual project and it caught my attention.”
Eminem went on to detail his desired traits in a Shady rapper, saying:
“It’s definitely great when artists we sign connect with a larger audience, and 50 [Cent] is a perfect example of that. Obviously we want anyone who signs with Shady to succeed. But first and foremost we’ve always focused on the raw talent and ability of the artist as an MC. We’ve always been pretty clear on that being the main thing we look for: high level fundamental skills and mechanics are definitely the priority.”
He also spoke about his philosophy on collaborating with Shady artists, saying, “It’s really important in a creative collaboration for there to be that personal connection for it to succeed. Shady is a boutique label and we don’t sign a lot of artists, so we have a chance to get involved at a deeper level with the ones we do. And I think that goes both ways. I like to be motivated by the artists we sign and I want to feel pushed by their creativity as well. The people we sign have a point of view and vibe that made us want to work with them in the first place. Part of our job is to help them get out to a bigger audience but also I don’t like to insert myself where I’m not needed. I am looking to find where and how I can get involved that adds to or builds on what the artist is already doing.”
Check out the full feature here.
Historical crime dramas are very in right now, what with FX’s Los Angeles-set Snowfall being renewed for a fifth season this spring and 50 Cent’s latest Power spin-off, Raising Kanan, currently airing on Starz, and a New Jack City reboot reportedly in the works.
It seems that audiences are, well, hooked on tales of drug kingpins rising to power — and falling off at their peaks — especially if those stories are at least loosely based on reality. With 50 Cent’s next Starz show, though, the line between fiction and history will blur more than ever as BMF explores the rise and fall of Detroit’s Black Mafia Family with some help from Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Wood Harris, who apparently will play an iconic drug dealer at every chance he gets.
Today, Starz released the trailer for the 50 Cent-produced drama series, which premieres on Sunday, September 26. It’s full of crack-era clothing, booming ghetto blasters playing Run-DMC’s “King Of Rock,” intense staredowns, and tersely-framed shootouts. Title cards tout the BMF‘s influence on hip-hop fashion, music, and culture (just check out Rick Ross’ “BMF,” in which he shouts out kingpin “Big Meech” while subtly nodding to the gang with the title’s acronym). Earlier this week, it was revealed that Eminem would have a role in BMF as well, portraying real-life FBI informant White Boy Rick — a role the real Rick approved of.
Watch the BMF trailer above.
The original “White Boy Rick” approves of the actor cast to play him in the upcoming show about the Black Mafia Family produced by 50 Cent, according to TMZ. Richard Wershe Jr., who was the youngest FBI informant in history at just 14 years old, called Eminem’s upcoming portrayal of him perfect casting and “an honor.”
Eminem’s casting was announced earlier this week, making the role one of the rapper’s first since he starred in the loosely autobiographical 2002 box office hit 8 Mile. 50 Cent posted the casting news on his Instagram, writing, “Oh yeah i’m bringing the big dogs out, I couldn’t do a show based in Detroit without incorporating the legend @eminem. Got him to play white Boy Rick in BMF, this sh*t is out of here.”
TMZ got the original White Boy Rick on a video call to get his take, prompting Wershe to reveal that Eminem was one of the first people to reach out about doing a movie on him. Although Eminem didn’t wind up making the film — the 2018 biopic White Boy Rick was eventually produced by John Leshner and Darren Aronofsky, among others, and starred Richie Merritt as Wershe Jr. — Wershe said it was “pretty cool” that the rapper wound up portraying him. “Everything he does, he does very well,” he praised him. “I think he’ll kill it.”
You can watch Wershe’s statement to TMZ here. BMF hits Starz on September 26.
