S. Samuel
A day after Eminem and Rihanna's "Monster" anthem premiered online, the person responsible for Slim Shady's latest Marshall Mathers LP 2 record has surfaced.
Twenty-two-year-old singer Jon Bellion revealed putting the record together at mega producer Just Blaze‘s frequent studio spot Stadium Red earlier this year.
Bellion’s session wasn’t with Blaze though; instead he was called to work on music with producers Frequency, Alias and their artist Bebe Rexha. The session started with Bellion playing some of his solo songs (he’s managed by Visionary Music Group, the same outfit who signed Def Jam rapper Logic to his first deal), but quickly turned as he started coming up with a song for Rexha to record. “Fast forward dude plays keys, hopped on the keys, started playing chords and I’m literally like, ‘I’m friends with the monster,'” Bellion said singing the words that Rihanna would eventually sing. “I just mumbled it.” (MTV)
According to Bellion, Atlantic Records reached out in hopes of snatching the track.
Once the song was recorded Frequency suggested that they offer the track up to Shady Records, where he had a connection producing for Slaughterhouse. “We were all like, ‘Yeah that’ll be crazy. That will be so dope if that happened,'” Bellion said, recalling the pie in the sky proposal. “I come back four days later to the studio and he’s like, ‘Yo, Atlantic wants the record, Shady wants the record, everybody wants the joint.'” The creation team eventually decided to go with Eminem. Though other artists had guaranteed to make the song a single out of the gate, the Shady team made no such promises. “Eminem was the biggest risk,” he said. “But we were like, ‘It’s the biggest payoff if he takes it.'” (MTV)
A week away from Em’s album hitting store shelves, the new track premiered online yesterday (October 28).
Eminem and Rihanna topped the charts for seven weeks with their 2010 smash “Love the Way You Lie.” Just in time for Halloween, the dynamic duo reunites for “The Monster,” the haunting new single off Eminem’s upcoming album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, due November 5. “I’m friends with the monster that’s under my bed/ Get along with the voices inside of my head/ Keep tryin’ to save me/ Stop holding your breath/ And you think I’m crazy/ Well that’s not fair,” sings RiRi. In addition to Rihanna, MMLP2 also features Kendrick Lamar, Skylar Grey, and fun.’s Nate Ruess, with executive producers Dr. Dre and Rick Rubin. The deluxe adds five songs including collaborations with Sia and Jaime N Commons. (Rap-Up)
Based on an excerpt from his upcoming Rolling Stone feature, Slim Shady details how determined he is with his latest solo offering.
“Right now, I’m probably working harder than I’ve ever worked in my life,” says a sleep-deprived Eminem, gulping diet Red Bull in his suburban Detroit studio. He’s well past deadline (“They keep telling me a different day,” he says) on his new album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 – out November 5th – and the final mixes still aren’t quite done. “Aside from around the time of The Eminem Show, when I was also doing the 8 Mile movie and soundtrack and score and sh*t like that. This is probably the equivalent of that, but all focused on the record.” (Rolling Stone)
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Check out Eminem’s “The Monster” anthem:
