A bunch of girls, swinging from a nice chandelier, landing on top of me naked… while I lay in a pool of steaming hot water!
A lot of my rhymes are just to get chuckles out of people. Anybody with half a brain is going to be able to tell when I’m joking and when I’m serious.
A lot of the problems I had with fame I was bringing on myself. A lot of self-loathing, a lot of woe-is-me. Now I’m learning to see the positive side of things, instead of, like, ‘I can’t go to Kmart. I can’t take my kids to the haunted house.’
A lot of truth is said in jest.
Ain’t nothin’ but a whole lot of suckin’ goin’ on in rap.
All my life I’ve been dealing with my race because of where I grew up (Detroit) and being in the rap game. I’m at a boiling point… Anybody who pulls the race card is getting it right back in their face.
And all those who look down on me I’m tearing down your balcony.
And love is evil, spell it backwards, I’ll show ya.
And you know you were their armour.
And you will destroy anyone who would try to harm her.
And you’ll always have those people who are separated from the pack.
Anybody with a sense of humor is going to put on my album and laugh from beginning to end.
Anything I’ve ever said, I certainly was feeling at the time.
As long as the wrong feels right – it’s like I’m in flight.
At this point, I’m like ‘Come up with something new.’ I hate the same old questions. But it seems like ‘white’ magazines such as Spin and Rolling Stone focus on my ‘whiteness’ more than Black magazines.
Before I was famous, when I was just working in Gilbert’s Lodge, everything was moving in slow motion.
Before you judge someone, walk a mile in his shoes.
Believe it or not, I thank my mom for how she raised me in a neighborhood daily to jump and chase me. It only made me what I am today.
But I know one fact: I’ll be one tough act to follow.
But I’m a sponge. I’ve always been a sponge.
But there were people who thought of me that way, and maybe I believed them a little.
But what happens when karma, turns right around and bites you?
But you lied again. Now you get to watch her leave, out the window. Guess that’s why they call it window pane.
Certainly I’m not going to sit on the Internet all day and read what Sam from Iowa is saying about me. But I’m a sponge. I’ve always been a sponge.
Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you got your back turned.
Don’t do drugs, don’t have unprotected sex, don’t be violent. Leave that to me.
Don’t let them say you ain’t beautiful. They can all get fucked, just stay true to you.
Fame hit me like a ton of bricks.
Growing up, I was one of the biggest fans of N.W.A, from putting on the sunglasses and looking in the mirror and lip sinking, to wanting to be Dr. Dre, to be Ice Cube. This is the biggest hip hop producer ever.
Guns are bad, I tell you.
Have you ever loved someone so much, you’d give an arm for? Not the expression, no, literally give an arm for? When they know they’re your heart And you know you were their armour And you will destroy anyone who would try to harm ‘her But what happens when karma, turns right around and bites you? And everything you stand for, turns on you, despite you?
Hip hop has always been braggin’ and boasting and ‘I’m better at you than this’ and ‘I’m better at you than that.’
Hip-hop is ever changing but you’ll always have the pack. And you’ll always have those people who are separated from the pack.
Honestly, I never really put the mic down.
Honestly, I’d love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I’m doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I’m doing.
I act like s*** don’t phase me, inside it drives me crazy, my insecurities could eat me alive.
I always felt that if I was going to do a movie, I wanted it to be authentic.
I always wished for this, but it’s almost turning into more of a nightmare than a dream.
I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn’t, then why would you say I am.
I am who I am and I say what I think. I’m not putting a face on for the record.
I can’t stand that fucking song. This album is rawer. Fans looking for bubblegum rap aren’t going to get it here.
I come from Detroit where it’s rough and I’m not a smooth talker.
I didn’t have nothin’ going for me… school, home… until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.
I didn’t just invent saying offensive things.
I do promote violence and I don’t give a fuck.
I do say things that I think will shock people. But I don’t do things to shock people. I’m not trying to be the next Tupac, but I don’t know how long I’m going to be on this planet. So while I’m here, I might as well make the most of it.
I don’t even know how to speak up for myself, because I don’t really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.
I don’t even want them wondering if I was trying to diss them. I got a lot of love for them. I grew up on that shit. The other rappers, whatever.
I don’t hate women – they just sometimes make me mad.
I don’t like rap anyways, I’m just trying to get my porno career started.
I don’t like to give the sob story: growing up in a single-parent home, never knew my father, my mother never worked, and when friends came over, I’d hide the welfare cheese. Yo, I failed ninth grade three times, but I don’t think it was necessarily ’cause I’m stupid. I didn’t go to school. I couldn’t deal.
I don’t think I ever thought of myself as Superman. But there were people who thought of me that way, and maybe I believed them a little.
I don’t think I take the beef as seriously as they do, because I don’t consider them artists. They look at me as an artist. I think they get more uptight about it. I can look at them and laugh. They can’t do anything to me. What can they do to me? They have no credibility, no respect, no talent, they have nothing. All they can do is diss me vocally, they can’t diss me lyrically. There’s nothing they can do to me as far as the music goes. I don’t take it as seriously as they do and I think that frustrates them. I think it’s funny.
I don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever.
I feel like a spoilt rapper. I get to pick and choose everything.
I felt like it’s my time to shine, I have to rip this. At that time, I felt that it was a life or death situation.
I get offended when people say, ‘So, being a white rapper… and growing up white… after being born white… ‘ It’s all I ever hear!
I get to pick and choose everything.
I grew up listening to and I never went out and shot nobody.
I had nothing to lose, but something to gain. If I made an album for me and it was to my satisfaction, then I succeeded. If I didn’t, then my producers were going to give up on the whole rap thing we were doing. I made some shit that I wanted to hear. The Slim Shady EP, I lashed out on everybody who talked shit about me.
I had nothing to lose, but something to gain.
I had this whole Slim Shady concept of being two different people, having two different sides of me. One of them I was trying to let go, and I looked at the mirror and smashed it. That was the whole intro of the Slim Shady EP. Slim Shady was coming to haunt me…
I had too much Nyquil and Vivarin again. Lost my stomach all over the place.
I have a slight bit of OCD, I think. I’m not walking around flipping light switches. But when I say I’m going to do something, I have to do it.
I love the attention but I don’t like too much of it.
I mean I got jumped, fucked up shit happened to me a few times, but that happens to everybody. I don’t think it has anything to do with color or any of that shit. It’s just all a part of growing up.
I might talk about killing people, but that doesn’t mean I do it.
I need drama in my life to keep making music.
I need to keep working on myself for a while.
I realized, ‘Yo, I can’t do anything in moderation. I don’t know how.’
I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There’s no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.
I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit.
I took a lot of them, I took a bunch of pain killers – Tylenol. I took I thought I was going die, I thought I was going to die for real.
I try not to look at it that way. Being white. I don’t wake up every day and look in the mirror, ‘Oh. I’m white’.
I try to treat all the money I’m making like it’s the last time I’m going to make it.
I want to keep making records as long as I can, but I don’t know how long you can be taken seriously in rap.
I want to solidify as an artist and show that as I grow as a person and make mistakes and learn from them, I’m going to grow artistically.
I was a smart kid, but I hated school.
I was a terrible person. I was mean to people.
I was pissed off! That’s all I could say. I really felt that I wanted to do that shit. At one point in time, I really wanted to do that shit. For real.
I was poor white trash, no glitter, no glamour, but I’m not ashamed of anything.
I was takin’ a shit. I swear to God. And the fuckin’ name just popped into my head. Then I started thinkin’ of twenty million things that rhymed with it.
I would never fucking put them in a rhyme. I don’t even want them wondering if I was trying to diss them. I got a lot of love for them. I grew up on that shit. The other rappers, whatever.
I’d go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.
If I had a magic wand, I’d make the world suck my dick.
If I made an album for me and it was to my satisfaction, then I succeeded. If I didn’t, then my producers were going to give up on the whole rap thing we were doing. I made some shit that I wanted to hear. The Slim Shady EP, I lashed out on everybody who talked shit about me.
If I said in one of my songs that my English teacher wanted to have sex with me in junior high, all I’m saying, is that I’m not gay, you know? People confuse the lyrics for me speaking my mind. I don’t agree with that life style, but if that lifestyle is for you, then it’s your business.
If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don’t back down.
If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.
If you look at my deck in my car radio, you’re always going to find a hip-hop tape; that’s all I buy, that’s all I live, that’s all I listen to, that’s all I love.
If you’re the parent, be a parent. You know what I mean? I’m a parent. I have daughters.
I’m not alone in feeling the way I feel. I believe that a lot of people can relate to my shit – whether white, black, it doesn’t matter. Everybody has been through some shit, whether it’s drastic or not so drastic. Everybody gets to the point of ‘I don’t give a fuck’
I’m not Mr. Friendly; I can be a prick. If you tempt me, my tank is on empty.
I’m not really book-smart.
I’m not walking around flipping light switches. But when I say I’m going to do something, I have to do it.
I’m so tired of this, I could blow. Fire in the hole.
I’m stupid, I’m ugly, I’m dumb, I smell. Did I mention I’m stupid?
I’m thankful for the talent in which God gave me and I’m thankful for the environment that he placed me.
I’m very much a creature of habit.
Infinite was me trying to figure out how I wanted my rap style to be, how I wanted to sound on the mic and present myself. It was a growing stage. I felt like Infinite was like a demo that just got pressed up.
Insecure about my body, about my personality, sometimes even about my understanding of everything.
It creeps me out sometimes to think of the person I was. I was a terrible person. I was mean to people.
It doesn’t exactly feel like a shock, but it’s all new to me, and I’m taking it in as it comes.
It feels good to have your work respected again.
It sometimes feels like a strange movie, you know, it’s all so weird that sometimes I wonder if it is really happening.
It was a growing stage. I felt like Infinite was like a demo that just got pressed up.
It was an honor to hear the words out of Dre’s mouth that he liked my shit. Growing up, I was one of the biggest fans of N.W.A, from putting on the sunglasses and looking in the mirror and lip sinking, to wanting to be Dr. Dre, to be Ice Cube. This is the biggest hip-hop producer ever.
It’d be stupid for me to sit here and say that there aren’t kids who look up to me, but my responsibility is not to them. I’m not a baby sitter.
It’s funny how all the magazines can dwell on my race, but they could never say that my shit is whack because they know my shit is tight!
It’s just hard to meet new people, in my position.
I’ve accomplished enough with the music that I haven’t had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate.
I’ve been running a lot, taking care of myself.
Look. I was pissed off! That’s all I could say. I really felt that I wanted to do that shit. At one point in time, I really wanted to do that shit. For real.’
Love is just a word, but you bring it definition.
Music is so therapeutic for me that if I can’t get it out, I start feeling bad about myself – a lot of self-loathing.
My earliest memory was raping the babysitter when I was 5… she was 15.
My family has never been there for me. They expect things because we’re blood.
My father? I never knew him. Never even seen a picture of him.
My only scheme was to be a rapper.
My overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be.
My thing is this; if I’m sick enough to think it, then I’m sick enough to say it.
Never take Ecstasy, beer, Bacardi, weed, Pepto Bismol, Vivarin, Tums, Tagamet HB, Xanax, and Valium in the same day. It makes it difficult to sleep at night.
Nobody likes to fail. I want to succeed in everything I do, which isn’t much. But the things that I’m really passionate about, if I fail at those, if I’m not successful, what do I have?
Not the expression, no, literally give an arm for?
Now that I understand that I’m an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it.
One thing I won’t do is put out another song like ‘My Name Is,’ his breakthrough hit. ‘I can’t stand that fucking song’ he says. ‘This album is rawer. Fans looking for bubblegum rap aren’t going to get it here.
People can try to reinvent themselves. I don’t think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you’ve done up to now.
Personally, I just think rap music is the best thing out there, period. If you look at my deck in my car radio, you’re always going to find a hip-hop tape; that’s all I buy, that’s all I live, that’s all I listen to, that’s all I love.
Rap was my drug.
Saving Private Ryan was probably the illest, sickest movie I’ve ever watched, and I didn’t see anybody criticizing that one for violence.
Say there’s a white kid who lives in a nice home, goes to an all-white school, and is pretty much having everything handed to him on a platter – for him to pick up a rap tape is incredible to me, because what that’s saying is that he’s living a fantasy life of rebellion.
See regardless of what anybody believes who hates me; you ain’t gonna make or break me.
Slim Shady is just the evil thoughts that come into my head. Things I shouldn’t be thinking about. Not to be gimmicky, but people should be able to determine when I’m serious and when I’m fuckin around. That’s why a lot of my songs are funny. I got a warped sense of humor I guess.
Some asshole kept throwing oranges and other fruit at me while I was onstage. Fucker had an arm like a major league pitcher…
Sometimes I feel like rap music is almost the key to stopping racism.
Sometimes I’m real cool, but sometimes I could be a real asshole. I think everyone is like that.
Somewhere deep down there’s a decent man in me, he just can’t be found.
Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I’ll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know I’ve written a whole song in an hour.
Success is my only motherfucking option, failure’s not.
That’s why my circle is small and tight. I’m kind of funny about making new friends.
The album requires a certain focus of mine that I can’t really explain – let’s just say it’s all I can really do while I’m doing it.
The details surrounding both my marriage and subsequent filing for divorce are private, and I had hoped to keep them that way for the sake of my family.
The kids are old enough now – I just want to let them be kids. I don’t want to comment on them too much. They’re at an age where I just want to let them be kids.
The truth is you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.
The writing process, the way I go about it is I do whatever the beat feels like, whatever the beat is telling me to do. Usually when the beat comes on, I think of a hook or the subject I want to rap about almost instantly. Within four, eight bars of it playing I’m just like, ‘Oh, OK. This is what I wanna do’.
There was a while when I was feeling like, ‘Damn, if I’d just been born black, I would not have to go through all this’.
There were times when friends had to buy me fuckin’ shoes!
There’s a difference between realness and an act, and they’re an act, and they know they’re an act, and they even say they’re an act, they even say they’re cornballs, they admit it.
These times are so hard, and they’re getting even harder.
They expect things because we’re blood.
Throughout my career, I fed off the fuel of people not being able to understand me.
To all the people who never gave love, and continue to deny me ‘cuz of what I look like: suck my dick you fucks!
To the people I forgot, you weren’t on my mind for some reason and you probably don’t deserve any thanks anyway.
Touring is hard on the body.
Trust is hard to come by. That’s why my circle is small and tight. I’m kind of funny about making new friends.
Try to strip me of my credibility and make me look fake, G you only gonna be in for a rude awakening.
Tryin’ to give me the finger is kinda like givin’ the spider the web. I’m just gonna spin and try to use it to my advantage. I catch a fly in that bitch. You think you fly, you just food.
Ultimately, who you choose to be in a relationship with and what you do in your bedroom is your business.
Unless you want to fuck me, why do you care what I look like?
Usually when the beat comes on, I think of a hook or the subject I want to rap about almost instantly. Within four, eight bars of it playing I’m just like: ‘Oh, OK. This is what I wanna do’.
We just kept moving back and forth because my mother never had a job. We kept getting kicked out of every house we were in. I believe six months was the longest we ever lived in a house.
Well, I’m working all the time to stay out of trouble!
What you think, I’m doing this for me, so fuck the world.
When I die, so does hip hop.
When I say I’ll murder my baby’s mother, maybe I wanted to, but I didn’t. Anybody who takes it literally is ten times sicker than I am.
When I was The first rap song I ever heard was Ice-T, ‘Reckless.’ From L.L. to the Fat Boys, and all that shit, I was fascinated. When L.L. first came out with ‘I’m Bad’, I wanted to do it, to rhyme. Standing in front of the mirror, I wanted to be like L.L.
When they know they’re your heart.
When you’re a little kid, you don’t see color, and the fact that my friends were black never crossed my mind. It never became an issue until I was a teenager and started trying to rap.
Whoever likes my stuff, likes my stuff. But just know Slim Shady is hip-hop. I grew up on hip-hop, it’s the music I love and it’s the music I respect. I respect the culture… that’s me.
Who’s Tony Blair, did he get his dick sucked?, oh he ain’t shit then…
Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn’t say I lived in a ghetto, I’d say I lived in the ‘hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now.
Will Smith don’t got to cuss in his raps to sell records – well I do, so fuck him and fuck you too.
With you I’m in my fuckin’ mind, without you I’m out it.
Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it’s like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can’t really speak on it, because I wasn’t there. I don’t feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.
Yo, I failed ninth grade three times, but I don’t think it was necessarily ’cause I’m stupid. I didn’t go to school. I couldn’t deal.
You can’t control who likes you. If I got Backstreet Boy fans what am I supposed to do? Turn them away? Whoever likes my stuff, likes my stuff but just know Slim Shady is hip hop, I grew up on hip hop, it’s the music I love and it’s the music I respect. I respect the culture… that’s me.
You don’t get another chance. Life is no Nintendo game.
You know, fame is a funny thing, man, especially, you know, actors, musicians, rappers, rock singers, it’s kind of a lifestyle and it’s easy to get caught up in it – you go to bars, you go to clubs, everyone’s doing a certain thing… It’s tough.
You know, I don’t know if you know this about me or not, but I’m kind of a big deal.
You know, not to sound corny or nuthin’, but I felt like a fighter comin’ up, man. I felt like, you know, I’m being attacked for this reason or that reason, and I gotta fight my way through this.
You’re not going to say anything about me that I’m not going to say about myself. There’s so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I’m going to say it before they can. It’s the best policy for me.
You’ve got enemies? Good. That means you actually stood up for something in your life.
