Eminem talks about the newest Shady Records signee Grip.
Last month, Eminem and Shady Records signed a new artist to their label, Grip from East Atlanta. Grip is now all set to drop his Shady Debut album “IDFT!?” this week which will feature the label boss, as well Royce Da 5’9″. Before the project release, Complex got to have a conversation with the Detroit Rapper, who has high praise for his newest signee.
“We all got excited about GRIP after we heard Snubnose,” Eminem explains. “It was really refreshing to hear a new artist so focused on making a conceptual project and it caught my attention.”
“It’s definitely great when artists we sign connect with a larger audience, and 50 [Cent] is a perfect example of that,” Eminem says. “Obviously we want anyone who signs with Shady to succeed. But first and foremost we’ve always focused on the raw talent and ability of the artist as an MC. We’ve always been pretty clear on that being the main thing we look for: high level fundamental skills and mechanics are definitely the priority.”
“It’s really important in a creative collaboration for there to be that personal connection for it to succeed,” says Em. “Shady is a boutique label and we don’t sign a lot of artists, so we have a chance to get involved at a deeper level with the ones we do. And I think that goes both ways. I like to be motivated by the artists we sign and I want to feel pushed by their creativity as well.”
“The people we sign have a point of view and vibe that made us want to work with them in the first place,” Em says. “Part of our job is to help them get out to a bigger audience but also I don’t like to insert myself where I’m not needed. I am looking to find where and how I can get involved that adds to or builds on what the artist is already doing.”
GRIP, a young rapper from Atlanta, was named “Atlanta’s Next Great Storyteller” in 2018. Based on the strength of his 2017 project Porch, a concept album written from three perspectives and packed with dense lyricism, athletic flows, a meticulously arranged spectrum of moods, and the immediate sense that he’d poured his heart and soul into the music, this was a bold claim—in retrospect, perhaps a little premature.
Check out the full thing here.
— GRIP (@Grip_SS) July 1, 2021
