The rapper Eminem described as a “chameleon”
Eminem doesn’t just co-sign anyone. As one of the most successful rappers of all time, almost any artist would be honoured to received a compliment from the ‘Without Me’ hitmaker — especially one that praises the versatility of their music.
During an appearance on the Crook’s Corner podcast, Slim Shady had high praise for Kendrick Lamar. “If I’m getting on a track with Kendrick, I can never tell what the fuck he’s gonna do because he’s such a chameleon of styles, and he can fucking do pretty much anything, right?” he told KXNG Crooked. “And he’s so proficient at it. He’s so good at it that you don’t know what you’re going to get.”
For this reason, he believes Kendrick is a top-tier lyricist. “You can get your ass kicked any day,” he added. “Certain rappers get on a certain song and it just depends.”
Eminem and Kendrick Lamar have only collaborated once on the song ‘Love Game’, which appears on The Marshall Mathers LP 2. K.Dot was the only rapper to feature on the album, and he was well aware of how big of an opportunity it was. “This is Eminem. This is one of the greatest guys to do it,” he told MTV about his mindset going into the collaboration. “So I had that mentality walking in there and I put my best foot forward.”
Ed Sheeran previously opened up about a conversation he had with Eminem about Kendrick Lamar. The Detroit rapper was hearing people call K.Dot the best rapper, so he invited him to the studio to work on ‘Love Game’ together. To make sure he was the real deal, he got Kendrick alone in the recording booth.
“He arrived and Kendrick came with all his mates and Eminem said, ‘I just want you in the studio, just you on your own. And then my engineer is gonna come in and then record you doing it. But your mates aren’t allowed in,’” Ed recalled. “Eminem said that he did it to test Kendrick because he thought he had a ghostwriter.“ Em quickly came to the conclusion that he’s “the best” after writing a “sick verse” on his own.
The respect goes both ways, with Kendrick Lamar calling Eminem a “genius” while revealing he influenced his style as a rapper. “Insane, dramatical genius. Eminem, as of right now, [bar for bar, patterns, rapping wise], I don’t think anybody is matching Eminem,” he said during a radio interview. “Eminem definitely influenced a lot of my style.”
Both Eminem and Kendrick Lamar are of course protégés of Dr. Dre. Em has released a lofty 13 albums on the N.W.A rapper’s Aftermath label, with K.Dot also delivering five of his own through the imprint.