Eminem Covers ‘Rolling Stone’ & Geeks Out About Hip-Hop

Reigning rap god Eminem covers the new issue of Rolling Stone and lets on that, while he has once again positioned himself at the top of the rap game and continues to be sober, he’s still dealing with demons. “I’m as happy as I can be, I guess,” he said in a particularly revealing quote. “Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else. I think they have a word for that — what do they call it? Idiot savant?”

But when he lets out his inner hip-hop nerd, Em sounds completely rejuvenated. “Being a student of hip-hop in general, you take technical aspects from places,” he said. “You go to Tupac, and he made songs. His fucking songs felt like something — ‘Holy shit! I want to fucking punch someone in the face when I put this CD in.’ Biggie told stories. I wanted to do all that shit.”

Eminem also gushed about Beastie Boys‘ and their influence on him. “When Paul’s Boutique came out, I was one of the fans that didn’t get it. It took me years to realize how fucking genius it is. I felt bad for sleeping on it,” Em said. “Obviously, yes, there was something about Licensed to Ill — you had the Zeppelin samples and their vibe. You had Run-DMC, who were so cool, with the attitude of ‘Fuck you if you don’t like us.’ Same as the Beastie Boys.”

Head to Rolling Stone for more interview highlights.

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