New York, NY – In the early 2000s, Shady Records was an empire that could not be stopped. Between artists like 50 Cent and D12 selling platinum albums, the label was working its course and Eminem couldn’t have been more enthused with the direction the company was heading. But then after the release of the album ‘Encore’ and then the compilation ‘The Re-Up,’ like Eminem, the label also went into a deep hiatus. It wasn’t until 2009 when Eminem opt to return to limelight with ‘Relapse,’ then a year later with the multi-platinum ‘Recovery.’
It seems as though the release of ‘Recovery’ gave Em the momentum to continue, taking that momentum and putting it into the rebuilding of his Shady Records. Em quickly signed massive Hip-Hop group Slaughterhouse and Alabama emcee Yelawolf, making them the 2.0 Boys and the literally the second generation of Shady Records.
The CEO of Shady was recently featured on MTV’s RapFix Live and spoke to Sway about the restructuring of the empire. These were his comments:
“The whole Slaughterhouse thing and what Royce was doing when they formed that group, it was exciting to me just because, aside from the Detroit connection that I already had with Royce, to me it's just exciting for Hip-Hop because it's so new and fresh and different. And also, at the same time, I feel like I'm kinda taking this year to try and reestablish and rebuild the label back too.”
It’s obvious that Em has a master plan for everything he does, because after the initial signing of Slaughterhouse, he also picked up his once arch nemesis Royce Da’5’9 in tow. 10 years ago, the duo was suppose to release an EP with Royce and go by the name Bad Meets Evil. Now that collaboration will officially go into effect as they are preparing to drop ‘Hell: The Sequel.’
With Slaughterhouse and Alabama rookie rapper Yelawolf in the fold, Eminem commented with the "very fun, competitive-type atmosphere" now exists around the label. “I need things like this to feed off of.”
Eminem, who is considered one of the all-time great rap lyricists, admitted that at times it got so competitive while recording with Royce for the upcoming project that he felt a bit of pressure:
“There was a few moments on the EP where I really had to like — there were a couple of things that I wanted to go back in and rewrite once I heard his verse.”
At press time, ‘Bad Meets Evil – Hell: The Sequel’ is officially scheduled to drop on June 14. The Slaughterhouse album, on the other hand, is looking for a release date sometime around Christmas.
