Eminem covers the June 2009 issue of XXL magazine. Not being a man who takes the time to divulge to magazines on anything like as regular a basis as some of his famewhore counterparts, it is kind of surprising that the newly slim rapper took the time to give XXL an exclusive interview, and a reeeally over-long one at that.
You can check out the interview below, and pick up his new album Relapse, in stores, 19 May 2009.
Eminem XXL Interview: Eminem talks about his drug addiction
“I wasn’t ready mentally. I wasn’t ready to give up the drugs. I didn’t really think I had a problem. Basically, I went in, and I came out. I relapsed, and I spent the next three years struggling with it. Also, at that time, I felt like I wanted to pull back, because my drug problem had got so bad. I felt like, Maybe if I take a break, maybe this will help. I started to get into the producer role more… I can still be out there with my music, like with the Re-Up album, but I don’t have to be in the spotlight the whole time.”
Eminem XXL Interview: Eminem talks about friend, Proof’s, death
“Everyone felt his loss, from his kids, to his wife, to everyone. But, for some reason, in hindsight, the way I felt was almost like it happened to just me… Maybe at the time I was a little bit selfish with it. I think it kind of hit me so hard. It just blindsided me. I just went into such a dark place that, with everything, the drugs, my thoughts, everything. And the more drugs I consumed, and it was all depressants I was taking, the more depressed I became, the more self-loathing I became… By the way, I’m just now at the point where I’m better talking about it. It took me so long to get out of that place where I couldn’t even speak about it without crying or wanting to cry… Proof was the anchor. He was everything to D12. And not just the group-for me, personally, he was everything.”
Eminem XXL Interview: Eminem talks about on T.I., Lil Wayne & hip-hop
“I stayed up on the music, and obviously I watch TV and saw what was going on. And without naming any names, it just felt like hip-hop was going downhill. And it seemed like kinda fast. You know, in them three years, it was like everybody just cares about the hook and the beat; nobody really cares about substance. But with this new T.I. album, with this new Lil Wayne album of recent, it seems like things are looking a lot better now. You can appreciate Lil Wayne using different words to rhyme and actually rhyming words that you know. Or T.I., where you hear shit and you’re like Whoa, ah, I wish I would have thought of that! You know what I mean? Or you hear all the compound-syllable rhyming and all that. It just seems like now the craft is getting cared about more.”
Image cover and interview copy credit to XXL magazine, be sure to check it out in stores.
STRAIGHT FUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He looks so weird on the cover, he is better looking that that. They should have steered clear of photoshopping his biceps and done a better job with his comeback cover.
Looks like they ’shopped his noggin too.
This photo haunts my dreams, very bad photoshop.