True to one among his greatest hits, Eminem misplaced himself within the music.
That’s what occurred in the course of the making of “Kim,” the hip-hop icon’s most surprising tune on his blockbuster album “The Marshall Mathers LP,” which got here out 25 years in the past on Might 23, 2000.
The twisted homicide fantasy about killing his then spouse Kim Mathers turned a horrorcore traditional, with Eminem voicing either side of the deadly blowup in graphic, grotesque element.
“Now bleed, bitch, bleed! Bleed, bitch, bleed! Bleed!” spits the enraged rapper after slitting Kim’s throat.
Producer Jeff Bass stated that Eminem was “f–king pissed off” about Kim — who wasn’t letting him see their daughter Hailie at the moment of their tumultuous relationship — when he got here into the studio for one of many drug-“fueled” classes.
“So I came up with this very dark track, and then he literally went into the booth and started rapping about what we hear now on that record,” Bass instructed The Publish. “He came up with that probably in an hour.”
And the recording session became a remedy session. “He was able to get s—t off his chest that really bothered him personally,” stated Bass. “Obviously, he didn’t kill anybody, but … there’s some truth in some of it.”
As the primary tune written for “The Marshall Mathers LP” — which took its title from Eminem’s actual identify — “Kim” revealed a extra private facet of the rapper who had adopted an alter ego for his earlier album, 1999’s “The Slim Shady LP.” And whereas there have been larger hits equivalent to “The Real Slim Shady,” “The Way I Am” and “Stan” that helped propel his third studio LP to over 11 million gross sales within the US, the rawness of “Kim” reduce deep.
“It was not a radio record, but it was one of the most powerful records on this particular album,” stated Bass. “[He] got to show the world another side of who he is.”
However the monitor — which was a prequel to “ ’97 Bonnie & Clyde” on “The Slim Shady LP,” the place Eminem and daughter Hailie get rid of Kim’s corpse — scared Eminem’s personal label.
“Interscope [Records] called for a meeting, and they were like, ‘What are we going to do with this? Now you’re pushing the envelope,’” recalled Bass. “And we’re like, ‘Well, it’s freedom of speech, so we’re allowed to say anything we want to say, right?’”
However “Kim” was deemed too graphic to even be featured on the “clean” model of “The Marshall Mathers LP” — no quantity of censoring was going to do away with its murderous narrative. So the tune was changed by the “South Park”-sampling “The Kids” on the “clean” model, main many to purchase that along with the express model within the days earlier than streaming.
“Which is why I think it was so successful,” stated Bass. “It was brilliant.”
However later in 2000, Kim sued Eminem for defamation over the tune’s lyrics, they usually reached a settlement.
“Kim” was the third tune that Eminem recorded about his ex-wife, who he was married to from 1999 to 2001 after which once more in 2006 for only some months. The primary of these tunes was “Searchin’ ” on the rapper’s 1996 indie debut “Infinite,” which Bass additionally produced alongside along with his brother Mark after they found Eminem of their hometown of Detroit.
By the point they obtained to “The Marshall Mathers LP,” they had been in a nonstop groove.
“We would work in the studios for, like, 20 hours a day, and we would just come up with song after song after song after song,” stated Bass, who shared manufacturing duties with Dr. Dre, Mel-Man and the 45 King. “We just would keep creating to see what flowed together well on an album.”
However along with dropping themselves within the music, they had been additionally dropping themselves in medicine.
“We were doing lots of drugs,” stated Bass. “It fueled what we were coming up with … We hadn’t admitted yet that we were drug addicts. So to us, this was normal, just getting high, going in the studio, writing all this music, recording the music. Opioids — that was the choice of drug.”
Bass would proceed to work with Em on 2002’s “The Eminem Show,” producing and co-writing the hits “Without Me,” “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” and “Superman.”
“We still were doing drugs, we were still doing all kinds of stupid s–t, but, you know, had major success,” he stated.
Then Bass produced and co-wrote Eminem’s No. 1 smash “Lose Yourself,” from his film “8 Mile,” which gained an Oscar for Greatest Unique Tune.
“It was the biggest thing that I probably ever wrote,” he stated. “For me, musically, that was my pinnacle.”
After Bass took a break from working with Eminem on 2004’s “Encore,” the pair reunited for 2009’s “Relapse,” which might be their final album collectively.
“We were high, and it felt like s–t was just falling apart, but that was the drugs,” stated Bass. “And we didn’t have a falling-out or anything. It was just creative differences.”
Eminem launched “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” in 2013, however like most sequels, it didn’t fairly dwell as much as the unique. Nonetheless, Bass stated, “there’s real nice, shining moments on that album.”
Though Bass hasn’t talked to Eminem “in probably 17 years,” he doesn’t rule out working collectively once more.
“In my mind, it’s always a possibility,” he stated. “And the funny thing is, our studios here in [Ferndale] Michigan are literally across the street from each other.”
However they’ll at all times share within the legacy of “The Marshall Mathers LP,” which is the second-best-selling rap album of all time — after “The Eminem Show” — and is extensively thought-about to be the Rock & Roll Corridor of Famer’s biggest work.
“At the end of the day, you know, it’s a piece of work that will just be here in perpetuity, forever,” stated Bass. “It’s a piece of history, which is amazing to be a part of.”
