"I go through phases with my daughter's mother constantly--we've been going off and on for nine years--different phases of our relationship where I want to kill her. I don't know if you ever felt like you wanted to kill someone, but there have been times, literally, where I want to kill her. I've had songs about killing her for five years now that nobody's even heard. I've killed her, like, 11 times. The song "Bonnie & Clyde Part II," really "Part I" is what happened before I killed her and stuffed her in the trunk. It's like the argument that took place. It's crazy. I don't want to give too much away. I want people to hear it. When I did it, I was kind of high, so I came back and listened to it the next day, I was just like, "Whoa.""- Eminem
"I was in the Rap Olympics," Eminem recalls, "and there was some kids from Interscope there. I had an EP out and slipped them a tape. They gave it to Jimmy Iovine [president of Interscope Records], and Jimmy took it home with him. He was living with it for a couple of days before Dre came over [to Iovine's house]. He seen it on the floor, picked it up, popped the tape in, and listened to it, and was like, 'How do we find this guy?' It just so happened that I was out [in L.A.] two or three days later, rhyming on the radio."- Eminem
"I would have probably quit in '97 if it weren't for Dre. My daughter was one at the time. I couldn't afford to buy her diapers. I didn't have a job. I had job after job after job and just kept getting fired. I didn't have a high school diploma. I failed ninth grade three times. I was basically going nowhere. When I made the Slim Shady EP, I told the production people, "Yo, if this doesn't work, I'm about to be 23, I gotta quit, get a job, do something." We just so happened to go to L.A. that same year and Dre heard the tape, gave us a call. I was reaching a boiling point, doing a lot of drugs and f--ked-up sh-t because I was so depressed. So when I say Dre saved my life, I mean he literally saved my life, and I feel like I owe him a lot."- Eminem
"My mother has a drug problem," states Eminem flatly. "She's always had one and still to this day will not admit it. You can look at her and see. My mother weighs 90 pounds. So when I go public with that on some of my songs, my mother will call me, like, 'I don't like the part where you say I do drugs because Marshall, you know I've never done drugs,' and blah blah blah,'" he says, imitating his mother. "The only thing I can do is hang up on her. It's unfortunate."- Eminem
"My reality was that my mother never had a job. Never ever," he explains. "We moved from house to house, apartment to apartment, about every three months. I couldn't even tell you how long I was in one school. I dropped out in ninth grade. I failed ninth grade three times. I could sit here and put the blame on my mother, but I feel that's a cop-out, because if I really wanted to do it, I could have done it. But I can tell you she wasn't any help."- Eminem
"There was talk at the label that I could be the first rapper to sell a million records in the first week. My first thought was, "Holy sh*t! I'm going to be Elvis!" But I was scared to death. I wanted to be successful, but before anything, I want respect. When it became 1.7 million in the first week, I thought, "This isn't real. This is not how you sell records." Am I a f*cking trend? I wanted to be normal. I wanted to take my little girl to the park and not be bothered. But I guess those are things you got to sacrifice for fame and fortune."- Eminem
"VH1: What about the album cover? Where was that shot taken?"
Eminem: That was the house that I grew up in my teenage years. One day I dreamt of being able to go back to that house and remember everything that I went through. I thought, "What if I did the cover at my old house sitting on the steps like I used to do?" That would be so crazy to me. We did it and I guess I made my house famous.
"VH1: What do you think The Marshall Mathers LP's success meant for rap?"
Eminem: If I was phony with it and I blew the doors off the hinges, it would mean nothing. It would mean I was another Vanilla Ice. But the fact that I am real showed that you can be true to yourself and not compromise and still be successful. Aside from watching my daughter grow, my ultimate dream is to be successful at what I do, be respected and help the music that I love and grew up on.
"Anybody who lives and breathes for an artist in music or movies is taking it too far. They probably have something mentally wrong with them to begin with. It's going to make them do something f*cked up. That's basically what I was trying to say. "Don't take everything that I say literally" - I hate saying that because I want people to take everything I say literally, because I'm evil and I am all that evil stands for. There is a positive message in my music and it's "F*ck you." That's the message that I'm trying to get across. Basically what I'm trying to say is, "If you don't like me, eat my white d*ck"- Eminem
LAUNCH: "Brain Damage" really stands out for me. I really like the story. I think anybody can relate to it. Is it a true story?
EMINEM: "Brain Damage" is a true story, except for my brain falling out of my head. I used to get harassed by these bullies in school. This one in particular, because I got a concussion and almost died. When I wrote that, I was summing up my whole years of grade school, junior high, high school. The second verse I started getting really truthful. But when I write a story, I don't want the sh-t to get boring, so I lay down the truth as the foundation and then mix it with a little imagination.
LAUNCH: Do you have love in your soul?
EMINEM: I got my love in my pants. Love in my soul? Yeah, of course I do. I got love for my daughter, I got love for my music. And anything else? Nah
LAUNCH: Even though you've been working underground for years, now that you are well-known, why would your next album be your last?
EMINEM: Just depends on how I feel after it's done. Right now, My little girl is three years old. I'm missing the best years of her life. I'm not seeing her grow up. There's gonna be a time when I have to think, "Yo, do I want this? Or do I want this?" If I can't find a balance, I'll have to make a choice. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, you know what I'm saying? I'll have to see what happens with the next album, then I can make a decision, but right now, I really can't.
LAUNCH: Is writing therapeutic for you? Do you cope with things better once you write them down?
EMINEM: Yeah, definitely. My sh-t is like therapy for me, not only when I'm writing it, but also when I'm in the booth saying it. It's a way to get sh-t off my chest. On my album, I've got my happy songs, crazy songs, serious songs--all jokes aside. Those are songs like, "Okay, I've slit my wrists 90 million times, I cut my own fucking head off, but this is how I really feel." I put those songs on my album so you could see for yourself. It's not rocket science here. It's so clear when I'm joking and when I'm serious, but some people just don't get it.
LAUNCH: What does your daughter's mother think about all this?
EMINEM: She thinks I'm crazy. She thinks I'm f--king nuts. When I did "Bonnie & Clyde '97" she was mad because I took my daughter into the studio and put her vocals on it. At the time, she was keeping me from my daughter. I barely got to see her at all. So when I did get to see her, I wanted to use that to get back at her. My daughter was being used as a weapon against me. I put the song on an EP that was only released in Detroit. I never thought it would be as big as it is. She was mad. She thinks I'm f--king crazy, insane for real. But it's all good. But maybe I am!
LAUNCH: Your writing is really honest and almost comedic in a lot of ways. Do you think people have the right perception of you?
EMINEM: I think the young people are getting it. The older people are getting it confused, tending to take my sh-t too literal. I don't care, it's funny to me, because if I say my f--king brain fell out of my skull, and they believe it, what's wrong with them? The younger people have a sense of humor and can determine right from wrong. Kids are a lot smarter than we think they are. I only get flack from the white-collar motherf--kers who don't know about hip-hop anyway.
VH1: How are you going to explain "Kim" to your daughter Hailie?
Eminem: I've never played that song for her. That's one song that I won't play for her because it might give her nightmares. But there is going to come a time when if she hears that song, she may ask questions. I have to cross that bridge when I come to it. There are certain things I won't do in front of my daughter or let her know about. I just let her hear most of the "f*ckety f*cks."
"You always talk about your daughter, Hailie Jade, in your songs, but on this album, "Hailie's Song" is a much more personal message. Plus, you sing -- that is certainly putting yourself out there."
Eminem:"That song was stress off my chest. That's how it is with every song I do; it's therapy and it's releasing everything onto a record instead of doing any of it. I really dumped my feelings out in that song. I love my little girl enough to sing to her, for one, and two, it wasn't easy what I went through last year"
"A lot of my rhymes are just to get chuckles out of people. Anybody with half a brain is going to be able to tell when I'm joking and when I'm serious."- Eminem
"All my life I've been dealing with my race because of where I grew up [Detroit] and being in the rap game. I'm at a boiling point...Anybody who pulls the race card is getting it right back in their face." -Eminem
"Anybody with a sense of humour is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end."-Eminem
"Don't do drugs, don't have unprotected sex, don't be violent. Leave that to me." -Eminem
"I do promote violence and I don't give a fuck." -Eminem
"I don't like to give the sob story: growing up in a single-parent home, never knew my father, my mother never worked, and when friends came over I'd hide the welfare cheese. Yo, I failed ninth grade three times, but I don't think it was necessarily 'cause I'm stupid. I didn't go to school. I couldn't deal." -Eminem
"I get offended when people say, `So, being a white rapper...and growing up white...after being born white...' It's all I ever hear!"-Eminem
"I grew up listening to 2 Live Crew and N.W.A. and I never went out and shot nobody." -Eminem
"I had nothing to lose, but something to gain. If I made an album for me and it was to my satisfaction, then I succeeded. If I didn't, then my producers were going to give up on the whole rap thing we were doing. I made some shit that I wanted to hear. The Slim Shady EP, I lashed out on everybody who talked shit about me." -Eminem
"I had this whole Slim Shady concept of being two different people, having two different sides of me. One of them I was trying to let go, and I looked at the mirror and smashed it. That was the whole intro of the Slim Shady EP. Slim Shady was coming to haunt me, was coming to haunt Eminem." -Eminem
"I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit." -Eminem
"I try not to look at it that way. Being white. I don't wake up every day and look in the mirror, 'Oh. I'm white'." -Eminem
"Infinite was me trying to figure out how I wanted my rap style to be, how I wanted to sound on the mic and present myself. It was a growing stage. I felt like Infinite was like a demo that just got pressed up." -Eminem
"It was an honor to hear the words out of Dre's mouth that he liked my shit. Growing up, I was one of the biggest fans of N.W.A, from putting on the sunglasses and looking in the mirror and lipsinking, to wanting to be Dr. Dre, to be Ice Cube. This is the biggest hip-hop producer ever." -Eminem
"It's funny how all the magazines can dwell on my race, but they could NEVER say that my shit is whack because they know my shit is tight!"-Eminem
"Look. I was pissed off!" That's all I could say. I really felt that I wanted to do that shit. At one point in time, I really wanted to do that shit. For real"-Eminem
"My family has never been there for me. They expect things because we're blood." -Eminem
"My father? I never knew him. Never even seen a picture of him." -Eminem
"Slim Shady is just the evil thoughts that come into my head. Things I shouldn't be thinking about. Not to be gimmicky, but people should be able to determine when I'm serious and when I'm fuckin around. That's why a lot of my songs are funny. I got a warped sense of humor I guess."-Eminem
"There was a while when I was feeling like, 'Damn, if I'd just been born black, I would not have to go through all this'. "-Eminem
"There were times when friends had to buy me fuckin' shoes!" -Eminem
"To all the people who never gave love, and continue to deny me 'cuz of what I look like: suck my dick you fucks!!!" -Eminem
"To the people I forgot, you weren't on my mind for some reason and you probably don't deserve any thanks anyway." -Eminem
"Unless you want to fuck me, why do you care what I look like?" -Eminem
"We just kept moving back and forth because my mother never had a job. We kept getting kicked out of every house we were in. I believe six months was the longest we ever lived in a house." -Eminem
"When I was 9 years old, my uncle put me on to the Breakin' soundtrack. The first rap song I ever heard was Ice-T, 'Reckless.' From L.L. to the Fat Boys, and all that shit, I was fascinated. When L.L. first came out with 'I'm Bad', I wanted to do it, to rhyme. Standing in front of the mirror, I wanted to be like L.L."-Eminem
"Whoever likes my stuff, likes my stuff. But just know Slim Shady is hip hop. I grew up on hip hop, it's the music I love and it's the music I respect. I respect the culture...that's me." -Eminem
"Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn't say I lived in a ghetto, I'd say I lived in the 'hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now"-Eminem
I do say things that I think will shock people. But I don't do things to shock people. I'm not trying to be the next Tupac, but I don't know how long I'm going to be on this planet. So while I'm here, I might as well make the most of it." -Eminem
"You can't smart out a smart ass"- Eminem
"I mean I got jumped, fucked up shit happened to me a few times, but that happens to everybody. I don't think it has anything to do with color or any of that shit. It's just all a part of growing up."-Eminem
"I'm not alone in feeling the way I feel. I believe that a lot of people can relate to my shit--whether white, black, it doesn't matter. Everybody has been through some shit, whether it's drastic or not so drastic. Everybody gets to the point of 'I don't give a fuck'." -Eminem
"My father was absent in my life. When I look at my little girl, I know I could never abandon her. I can't see how a father would do that. The line "Sometimes I just feel like my father/I hate to be bothered" was spoken as a metaphor, but it was true. But we shouldn't get into analyzing lyrics. Why can't you just put my record on and let it explain itself? Why do I have to sit here and talk about myself and about what I was thinking when I wrote each lyric? If you listen to the lyric, you can tell what I'm thinking. If you play my records front to back, they will tell a story because I set them up as one big story. I really don't like to sit and talk about why I wrote this or how I did that."- Eminem
Eminem on Hailie:"She just runs around saying things. One day we was in the studio doing a song and she was like, 'Somebody please help me, I think my dad's gone crazy.' I was like, 'Hailie, what did you say?' She said it again and she was like'Daddy I wanna say it on the mic. " She scares me a little bit 'cause she's got that "little star" quality.But No more kids. I'm good with Hailie. I'll spoil her and give her everything I never had. I have other family members that I take care of and want to take care of, but as far as kids, I'm cool. No more, one is enough."
"I felt like it's my time to shine, I have to rip this. At that time, I felt that it was a life or death situation." -Eminem
LAUNCH: What kind of influence does your daughter have on you?
EMINEM: She keeps me from being too extreme. I realize that no matter how crazy I act onstage or how wild I may get, there's got to be a limit. I can't step out of a certain boundary--I have to be here for her. Her father has to remain alive. I have to maintain. She really helps me when I'm about to do something too stupid. All I have to do is think about Hailie. She keeps me in check, definitely.
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