Did Kanye West tried to jack Eminem’s drum sound?
Kanye West and Eminem today are two of the biggest artists of our generation, but believe it or not, there was a time Ye was such a huge fan of Em’s beats he actually schemed to snatch them. The rapper who is seen by numerous individuals as perhaps the most influential artist of his generation once admitted to wanting some of Eminem’s drums from his instrumentals so bad that he actually copied it.
According to reddit/hiphopheads, whose source was a dedicated fan with an impressive collection of Kanye West memorabilia, including magazine issues with some pretty interesting interviews from the early 2000s. Kanye admitted to Scratch Magazine that he used to love the beats from producer D12 back in the day. However, he eventually set his sight on Eminem, who he says was one of his top 5 producers at the time with the best drums.
“I had to work with D12 right?” Kanye said in the interview. “And I think Eminem is a dope-ass producer, so I wanted to ask him to trade drums but I was intimidated because he was such a superstar and everything.”
Kanye West explained that while Kon Artis used to give him a lot of drum sounds, Eminem’s drums were still superior. “They were badder to me,” said the Yeezy in 2004. “Eminem has probably the best drums in hip-hop.” Eventually Kanye had the opportunity to fulfill his wish and used the first chance he had alone in the studio to attempt his sneaky plan. “I’m going to try to get as many sounds copied before they come in,” he said. “I started copying them and the next thing I know an engineer comes in and straight grabs the disk and leaves.”
It’s nice a reminder that even some of the greatest rappers of today once looked up to other greats and sought to emulate them. While Kanye wasn’t able to cop all the sounds in time, he clearly picked up a few things along the way and even a few stunts from watching Eminem work. “I started seeing how he do, doing sh*t I wouldn’t do because I still had certain rules,” Kanye admitted. “I was seeing how he truncated sounds, like chopping the air completely. It gives it a certain sound, the sound he wanted. I learned a lot going through Eminem’s drum kit.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Kanye West lauded Eminem’s musical prowess dubbing him one of the best and even giving him a place in his top five producers. “Me and Em together, d*mn,” he imagined. Of course, we’ve seen the two collaborate since then, and “d*mn” has been proven to be a very accurate description. Do you think Eminem helped Kanye evolve?
My basement flooded last month and ruined my collection of Scratch Magazines so please forgive the quality. pic.twitter.com/VPyhUsxQ1i
— Howard “Treble” Cox (@Trebworld) March 19, 2020
