S. Samuel
Grammy-winning rapper Eminem has shed light on his upcoming Royce Da 5'9 Hell: The Sequel collaborative project and how they resurrected their 1990's 'Bad Meets Evil' rap aliases.
Practically calling the project accidental, Em said the upcoming EP was birthed through his in-studio chemistry with the fellow Detroit lyrical slayer.
“Me and Royce, ever since back in the day when we did records together, we always had kind of a chemistry,” said in an interview. “It was fairly easy to play off what each other was doing, and I think we can [think] a lot alike…This record, the way it came together, it wasn’t anything that we planned to do. We didn’t get together and say, ‘Hey, man, let’s make a Bad Meets Evil record.’ It was more so along the lines of us making amends and repairing our issues that we had, and then one day, Bad [Royce] brought a song to me and wanted me to jump on it, and the way it ended up coming out, it was pretty easy to do. It didn’t take a lot of time. It was fun to do it. The way we knocked that record out kind of quickly … it just morphed into this.” (MTV)
Recently Detroit’s own eLZhi hit up SOHH to share his thoughts on the upcoming project.
“Man, I’ve been waiting on that EP since [Em’s manager] Paul [Rosenberg] flew me out to NYC in ’97 and they had a record on Game [Recordings], which was the Bad Vs. Evil, so I’ve been waiting on this since back then,” eLZhi told SOHH. “The new song I heard, ‘Fast Lane,’ is pretty, pretty insane. I think it’s going to be incredible, man. Eminem and Royce Da 5’9 are two of the best in the industry. Hands down. So I’m excited.” (SOHH)
Earlier this week, the project’s artwork leaked online.
Eminem and Royce da 5’9″ aka Bad Meets Evil unveil the cover artfor Hell: The Sequel, the duo’s collaborative album, due June 14. The reunited Detroit MCs sit perched on speakers as broken televisions and records lay strewn across thefloor in the ominous photo by photographer Danny Hastings, who shot the artwork for The Slim Shady LP and Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). (Rap-Up)
Last week, Royce discussed his decision to have the project released in EP format.
“We didn’t start with any kind of a plan,” Royce said in an interview. “Normally, if you gonna do an LP where Em is involved, you start with a plan and then you go in and you do records. This didn’t come together like that; it just happened naturally. We just started cuttin’ songs, just to be working with each other again, with no intent in mind…We certainly didn’t have enough time to set up to make it an album. We don’t want people to think that it’s that type of release, because it’s not. We went in there and had fun. And we just gonna see what happens. We just want people to hear it.” (Hip Hop DX)
Hell: The Sequel is slated to drop Tuesday, June 14th.
Check out their “Fast Lane” collaboration down below:
