Kanye West talks about stealing drum sounds of Eminem.
Eminem is known as one of the greatest lyricists of all time, but not only rapping, the Detroit Rapper can also do wonders as a producer. Kanye West, who’s considered as one of the best producers of all time, revealed that he was a fan of the production skills of Eminem and tried to copy some of his drum sounds.
While Ye’s catalog is well-known, many people are unaware of the breadth of Em’s producing capabilities — in case you need a reminder. In fact, Yeezy was previously enamored by Eminem’s production, to the extent where he attempted to copy some of Slim’s sounds during a D12 studio session.
A 2004 issue of Scratch magazine brought to attention by a Twitter user @Trebworld where Kanye West reflected on a studio session with D12. Kanye said that he used to steal “like a crazy” from his mentor No I.D.’s record collection, and that he was too frightened to ask Em to switch drums while he was in the studio working with the rapper’s group D12. Kanye produced the title tune for D12 World during the sessions. “I had to work with D12 right?” says Kanye West. “And I think Eminem is a dope-ass producer, so I wanted to ask him to trade drums but I was intimidated because he was such a superstar and everything.”
Even though Mr. Porter used to give Kanye plenty of drum sounds but he had his sight of Eminem’s. “They were badder to me,” says Kanye. “Eminem has some of the best drums in hip-hop.” Kanye West then talks about being alone in the studio when he tried to copy Eminem’s drum sounds. “I’m going to try and get as many sounds copied before they come in, I started copying them and the next thing I know an engineer comes in and straight grabs the disk and leaves,” said Kanye West.
He also talked about learning a lot from Eminem. “I started seeing how he do, doing sh*t I wouldn’t do because I still had certain rules,” says Kanye.
People seemed to know who they were dealing with since Kanye described himself as a “madman” who went about taking people’s albums in an interview. As a result, Kanye had to rely on a common-sense approach: watch and learn. He recalls how much he learned by simply watching Em work:
“I was seeing how he truncated sounds, like chopping the air completely. It gives it a certain sound, the sound he wanted. I learned a lot going through Eminem’s drum kit.” Yeezy closes things out by saying that Shady was, at least at the time, one of his top-five producers. “Eminem is one of my Top 5 Producers, Let alone one of my Top 5 Rappers. Me and Em together, damn.”
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Dr. Dre, who Kanye has referred to as one of his main inspirations, mentored Eminem as a producer. He recalled trying to emulate Dre’s sound in a 2010 piece for Rolling Stone: “When I was learning to produce, working in a home studio in my mother’s crib, I tried to make beats that sounded exactly like Timbaland’s, DJ Premier’s, Pete Rock’s and, especially, Dr. Dre’s. Dre productions like Tupac’s ‘California Love’ were just so far beyond what I was doing that I couldn’t even comprehend what was going on. I had no idea how to get to that point, how to layer all those instruments.”
My basement flooded last month and ruined my collection of Scratch Magazines so please forgive the quality. pic.twitter.com/VPyhUsxQ1i
— Howard “Treble” Cox (@Trebworld) March 19, 2020
Em produced a lot of his own songs in addition to making beats for musicians like JAY-Z, Nas, 50 Cent, Jadakiss, and of course, his own group D12. He even played a key role in the production of 2Pac’s postmortem album, Loyal to the Game, in 2004. Kanye has cited Dr. Dre as one of his main influences, and it goes without saying that he served as Eminem’s producer mentor. He recalled attempting to replicate Dr. Dre’s sound in a piece he wrote for Rolling Stone in 2010: “When I was learning to produce, working in a home studio in my mother’s crib, I tried to make beats that sounded exactly like Timbaland’s, DJ Premier’s, Pete Rock’s and, especially, Dr. Dre’s. Dre productions like Tupac’s ‘California Love’ were just so far beyond what I was doing that I couldn’t even comprehend what was going on. I had no idea how to get to that point, how to layer all those instruments.”
I made this one beat where I sped up this Harold Melvin sample. I played it for Hip over the phone, he’s like, ‘Oh, yo that shit is crazy Jay might want it for this compilation album he doin’, called The Dynasty.‘ And at that time, like the drums really weren’t soundin’ right to me. So I went and um, I was listening to Dre Chronic 2001 at that time. And really I just, like bit the drums off ‘Xxplosive’ and put it like with a sped-up sample, and now it’s kind of like my whole style, when it started, when he rapped on ‘This Can’t Be Life.’
In 2022, Eminem and Kanye West’s “Use This Gospel” remix with production from Dr. Dre & The ICU was officially released. The song appeared on DJ Khaled’s star-studded 13th studio album GOD DID. Following the release, Eminem and Khaled earned their first ever #1 hit on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart, while Ye earned his 5th.
