Eminem Goes Nuts On Rap Genius

Today, Eminem became the latest artist to get his Rap Genius on, dropping 42 annotations on the lyric site. They are mostly on his own tracks, but he also gives insight into cuts by The Notorious B.I.G., 50 Cent and Royce Da 5'9".

Here are a few examples:

On the origins of "Slim Shady"

Coming out with an alias was part of Proof’s whole idea. He said, “Let’s be in a group called D12, and there will be six of us, and we’ll each have an alias. We’ll each be two different people." When I started rapping as Shady, as that character, it was a way for me to vent all my frustrations and just blame it on him. If anybody got mad about it, it was him that said it, you know what I’m saying? It was a way for me to be myself and say what I felt. I never wanted to go back to just rapping regular again.

When I heard “your picture on my wall,” I was like “Yo, this could be about somebody who takes me too seriously.” So I knew what I was going to write about before I wrote it. A lot of times when I’m writing songs, I see visions for everything I’m writing. This was one of those.

We couldn't decide on the first single from Get Rich. It was going to be either 'If I Can’t' or 'In Da Club.' We were torn, so me, 50, Paul, Chris Lighty, and Jimmy Iovine decided to flip a coin.