Skylar Grey talks about meeting Eminem and her rise to fame after “Love The Way You Lie”.
Since her ascent to prominence in 2010, Skylar Grey has been a Hip Hop favourite, and her voice can be heard on some of the genre’s biggest tunes. There’s a strong likelihood she wrote the song if she didn’t perform on it. The biggest Eminem hit, “Love The Way You Lie,” is an example of this, in which Skylar Grey contributed as a writer.
The song “Love The Way You Lie” was a huge hit with the public. The song, which featured Rihanna and was released in 2010, lasted seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The song went on to become a diamond hit, with over two billion views on YouTube alone. Grey went into self-imposed exile after a string of failures, locking herself in an isolated cabin. Grey made a vow to herself while imprisoned to become self-sufficient. She self-taught ProTools and concentrated on songwriting and music production. Grey met British producer Alex Da Kid through her publicist. “Love The Way You Lie” was the first song they wrote together.
“It was after “Love The Way You Lie” came out and was a big success. He invited Alex and I to Detroit to work on the project Dr. Dre was working on at the time. We walked into the studio and met Eminem together. It was crazy. I was really intimidated. I remember just being super quiet, really shy. Later he told me he thought maybe I was kind of a b**ch because I was so quiet [laughs].”
It is Eminem’s still the best-selling single and spent seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, among other music charts. In the US, the song sold more than 12 million copies, while 1.5 million were sold in the UK.
“Love the Way You Lie” peaked at number one on many record charts across the world. It debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 on the July 10, 2010, edition. After selling 338,000 digital downloads in its first week, the track debuted at number one on the US Digital Songs chart. From July 31 to September 11, 2010, it topped the Hot 100 for seven weeks, giving Eminem his fourth and Rihanna her seventh number-one US single.
The single has sold an impressive 12 million copies in the US and 1.5 million in the UK. Other musical artists such as Cher Lloyd and The Band Perry have also performed their own versions of the song.
Cancel Eminem trends because of Love the Way You Lie. Click here to know the story.
At gigs, Eminem has promoted “Love the Way You Lie.” He and Rihanna played the song at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 in Los Angeles on June 15, 2010, joined by drummer Travis Barker and D12’s Mr. Porter. On November 3, 2010, an alternate version titled “Love the Way You Lie (Part II)” was released online. Rihanna is the primary singer, and Eminem appears as a featured guest. The song is based on Grey’s demo and focuses on Rihanna’s point of view.
Grey’s rendition is titled “Love the Way You Lie (Part III)” and can be found on both her 2013 studio album Don’t Look Down and her 2012 extended play The Buried Sessions of Skylar Grey.
Eminem apologizes to Rihanna in this song. Click here to know the song.
Skylar Grey, who’s a go-to collaborator of the Detroit rapper Eminem, recently sat down with HipHopDx for a new 3-part interview series. In the first part, the Mazomanie singer, songwriter, and producer talks about her rise to fame in 2010 when she met Eminem and wrote the hook for his biggest track “Love The Way You Lie” with Rihanna.
Check out her interview session below courtesy HipHopDX.
HipHopDX: What did “Love The Way You Lie” mean to you?
Skylar Grey: The song itself was very personal. I never had written a track before. Alex [Da Kid] sent me this track and I just sang whatever I felt over it, you know? It was a very personal lyric based on my experience, not only with my ex-boyfriend but the music industry. Feeling like there was something in me that loved to be tortured and loved the misery because I kept getting sucked back into situations. That’s what “Love The Way You Lie” was about. Then a month later it was the No. 1 song. Eminem had cut it. Rihanna had cut it. I was broke living in a cabin in the woods and this was all happening and suddenly I had the biggest song in the world as a songwriter. F**king crazy.
HipHopDX: Where do you go from there?
Skylar Grey: Well, my phone was ringing off the hook. Everybody wanted their “Love The Way You Lie.” I had a ton of different artists reaching out. Labels wanting to get songs for their artists. I always set out to be an artist. I never set out to be a songwriter for other people. But when I realized I needed to make a living in this music game, I opened my mind to getting other people’s songs. And it worked. I started answering these phone calls and it felt like commissioned artwork. I did some stuff for Dr. Dre and Puff Daddy and Lupe Fiasco. Mostly Hip Hop.
HipHopDX: Why do you think that Hip Hop was particularly drawn to your sound?
Skylar Grey: You know, I don’t know. I didn’t really grow up with a Hip Hop background, although I discovered Eminem when I was twelve or thirteen and I was obsessed with his music. Then I got more into Hip Hop later in life. There was something in me that was always obsessed with that sound of that pretty female vocal over hard [rap] music. “Stan” was my first introduction to that sound. When I did “Where’d You Go” with Fort Minor, it sat in that same category. It felt like a cool place for me to live. I think I manifested this career for wanting to put my beautiful touches on harder music.
HipHopDX: When was it that you met Eminem?
Skylar Grey: It was after “Love The Way You Lie” came out and was a big success. He invited Alex and me to Detroit to work on the project Dr. Dre was working on at the time. We walked into the studio and met Eminem together. It was crazy. I was really intimidated.
HipHopDX: I would be terrified.
Skylar Grey: I remember just being super quiet, really shy. Later he told me he thought maybe I was kind of a bitch because I was so quiet [laughs].
Skylar confesses that her phone started ringing off the hook after that. While it was not the professional route she had envisioned for herself at the time, she soon realized that writing music for other people is simply another sort of commissioned artwork. She was also familiar with the hip-hop songwriting pattern of a hard-hitting rap verse followed by a melodious vocal hook, which he had adored when she first heard “Stan.” Skylar revealed that when she was a teenager, she was enamored with Eminem. As a result, meeting him was rather nerve-wracking for a young singer/songwriter. Skylar met Marshall after their initial collaboration had gained a lot of attention, and she recalls being both shy and impressed with Eminem.
HipHopDX: What were your first impressions of him?
Skylar Grey: I just thought he was one of the most talented people of all time. He was really easy to work with, surprisingly. All I knew of him was his music up until that point. He’s been so generous with his time and feedback for me. He’s really become kind of a mentor.
Grey recently collaborated with Eminem on the song “The Last One Standing,” which will be used in the 2021 film Venom: Let There Be Carnage. It debuted at number 78 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, marking Skylar Grey’s first entry as a lead artist and Mozzy’s first overall entry.
