- He's a rapper, record producer and songwriter.
He's the best-selling artist of the 2000s in America and Rolling Stone magazine ranked
him as 83rd on their 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.
He sold more than 172 million albums, making him one of the best-selling artists of all
time.
He's Eminem and here are his top 10 rules for success.
- The first time I grabbed a mike, like, in front of actual people that mattered, you
know what I'm saying, in a club, I got booed.
I remember that.
It was very traumatic for me.
And I actually, at that point, the Eight Mile thing was what it was taken from, whatever.
So, I just remembered that being sotraumatic and I think I went home and like, man, I quit.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- And then, you know, maybe couple days later, a week later, hour later, whenever it was,
I don't know, I got the urge to, no man, I got to get up, I got to do it again.
I don't think that my goal has changed in the sense of
I rap from the same aspect of when I did when I was a kid like, I just wanted to get the
respect, I just wanted to get a reaction out of people, I just wanted to be heard and I
wanted people to respect what I do and respect the fact that I respect the craft.
You know what I mean?
Of them singing.
So I really just kind of, it's pretty much the same thing today.
Hip-hop has always been about braggin' and boastin' and I'm better than you with this,
and I'm better than you with that, and I finally found something that, yeah, this kid over
here, he may have more chicks, like he may have better clothes or whatever, but he can't
do this like me.
You know what I mean?
He can't write what I'm writing right now.
And it started to feel like, you know, maybe Marshall is getting a little respect.
I think one of my greatest inspirations, or the things that I would feed off, basically
was just obviously people not believing, in the cloud of doubt I felt hung over my head.
And wanted to just prove everybody wrong, you know what I mean?
I wanted to make it and I was going to make it regardless of what anybody said.
I don't know how I would describe my flow.
I think that I developed a flow from so many other different artists.
Like, I was inspired by like I would have to say like early on LL, Beastie Boys, Run
DMC, then it became, and Rock Kim and kind of started gong into maybe Kool G Rap, KRS-One,
Treach from Naughty By Nature.
So I was a student of hip-hop so I watched, I studied what everybody did in the game and
just try to develop my own kind of sound and it took me a long time to get but I just kind
of watched what everybody was doing, was just a sponge and soaked up everything.
Don't be afraid to try whatever even if the idea in the beginning is stupid 'cause a lot
of ideas in beginning stages, not mine, of course, mine are just insane from the moment
I think of 'em but sometimes ideas, they're not always the greatest.
- Don't be afraid to fail basically to get somewhere else, to get on the journey.
- Absolutely, yeah.
So if you say one thing that's going to spark another thing to lead to a better thought.
Like always with anything, you got to take the good with the bad.
You might, I understand the level of success that I'm at doesn't happen to everybody every
day but like there's new problems you're going to have with everything.
If it wasn't my success and I was still trying to look for a job or working a dead end job
and didn't have no money to eat with, it would be those that I would have and those type
of family problems, how are we going to feed Haley, how are we going to raise her, how
we going to stay together, how we going to pay our rent?
So now it's new problems, it's like money's not the problem, now it's different things,
other people interfering in our lives and our business andlike that so you got to take
the good with the bad.
Well I definitely think that people have seen me push boundaries and maybe some people get
inspired to do the same thing.
But I got that from other people, you know what I mean?
Like hip-hop has always been about seeing and feeding off of, getting inspired from
other MCs in the game.
Everybody gets inspired from everybody.
Like I saw Dre do it and MWA and the way that they push boundaries and it was kind of like
every few years there would be certain rappers that would come along and do that and some
tend to do it better than others or push it further than others.
I was reserved and was shy and had it in me but wasn't quite sure how to bring it out
yet.
I wanted people to hear me so bad and I wanted to do my bit but it was like them jitters
and them I'm scared, I'm not scared.
That whole struggle and everything, especially early on for me, which I love being on stage
and stuff like that.
Once I got a mic, I was cool but it was that prompting me to do it and get up there and
not be scared to grab that and just rock.
I feel like anybody can do anything they set their mind to but it depends on how bad you
want it and I wanted to do it.
At this stage in my life, I don't feel like there's too much that I can't do.
I don't mean to sound cocky or nothing but if I really, really want t do it, I don't
give up that easy.
Back then, somebody would call somebody out on the mic and I don't think I ever called
anybody out, I always got called out.
Somebody had a mic and they, "And the white boy over there can get it too."
- So break me down, how would you break down an MC?
I'm going to give you a pass to break me down if I was an MC just stepping at you like this.
- If you was an MC and you would call me out, well it would depend, it probably would depend
on what you--
- What I said?
- What you said to me in order for me to throw it back.
- I'll say top of the head Slim Shady.
♫ Weaker than the ankles on an elderly lady ♫ Faker than a mannequin posing at Old Navy
♫ Schooled i'mma change your name ♫ Into Dooser Slim Brady
- Then I would say to you ♫ Off the top of your head ♫ That's not off the top of
your head ♫ I'll take the turban off the top of your head ♫ Leave you flat on the
ground dead ♫ Yo, I'm number one and that suit right there is from 1981 ♫ And first
of all, you don't want to step to me ♫ Look at your shoes ♫ Dog, you're broke as ♫ Is
broker than you ♫ Look at your gear ♫ You, get theout of here ♫ I don't want to have
it ♫ Here, take another beer ♫ Go take a sip ♫ Go sit down, do yourself a favor
♫ 'Cause dog you're clown
- I just got slayed by Em.
- And then the best part about it was no matter what somebody said to the next person, you
shake hands and it was all love.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
I made this video because Dariah Bateet asked me to.
So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments
below and I'll see what I can do.
I'd also love to hear which of Eminem's top 10 rules most resonated with you.
Leave a comment below and I'm going to join the discussion.
Thank you guys so much for watching, continue to believe and I'll see you soon.