The 1992 rap song that made Eminem change his entire flow: “Most rappers to this day probably can’t do”
Eminem is a true lyricist and has always paid homage to his heroes. The Detroit emcee has cited LL Cool J and Run-DMC as some of his inspirations. However, in an interview with The New York Times last year, the musician spoke about the impact of one particular emcee.
Illmatic had a significant effect on Em when he was growing up, and he has previously spoken about how it made him want to hone his craft as a lyricist. Still long before Illmatic Nas was an emcee, but was not mainstream or known outside of the East Coast, but he had opportunities to record music well before 1994.
That said, it was a track released in 1992 under his previous moniker, Nasty Nas, that piqued Eminem’s interest. The song, entitled ‘Halftime’ was Nas’ debut single and was released for the soundtrack of the movie Zebrahead. Produced by Large Professor’ Halftime’ was a classic, and the movie’s soundtrack was executively produced by Nas’ former manager, MC Serch.
That said, in a conversation with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, the 8 Mile star admitted that ‘Halftime’ was his favourite rap record and explained why he once suggested that it was the best ever made, detailing, “One of the reasons that I picked ‘Halftime’ is because there’s some rhyme schemes on there that most rappers to this day probably can’t do.”
Eminem continued, “And that’s one of the things that has made Nas so great over his career. Like when he [said] ‘Because when I blast the herb, that’s my word / I’ll be slaying them fast, doing this, that, and the third / But chill, pass the Andre, and let’s slay / I bag b-tches up at John Jay and hit a matinee.’ He was rhyming entire sentences. And I’m like, ‘What the f–k is this?!’ You know what I’m saying?”
Eminem revealed that the track played a major role in his rap style and made him consider his flow when beginning his rap career. ‘Halftime was one of the tracks that led to Nas eventually signing a record deal with Columbia Records. As one of his first debut tracks, its exceptionality fed into the growing anticipation for his debut album, Illmatic.
Opening up about Illmatic, Eminem told Lowe, “Everybody knows that is a classic, essential album! I don’t know where you place that in hip-hop, but it’s got to be at the top. It’s got to be up at the top. I’ve been inspired by so many rappers that that’s probably where I get … It taught me different flow patterns, different schemes you can do, and then when you start finding your own that you feel like haven’t been done yet, that’s when it becomes fun.”
Mathers then proceeded to detail the shock he had when he heard Illmatic for the first time, continuing, “When I put it on, ‘And be prosperous / though we live dangerous / Cops could just arrest me / Blamin’ us / We’re held like hostages.’ He was going in and outside of the rhyme scheme, internal rhymes. That album had me in a slump, too. I know the album front to back.”