Eminem recounts being booed early in his career and nearly quitting, but pushed through by studying LL Cool J, Rakim, and other greats. He stresses not fearing failure, experimenting with "stupid" ideas, and treating setbacks as fuel for better ones. Success just swaps old problems for new ones.
Chapters
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 the mic, like, though, like, in front of actual people that mattered, you know what I'm saying? Like, at a club, I got booed. I remember that. It was very traumatic for me. And I had actually— I think I had at that point— like, the 8 Mile thing was kind of— that's what I was taking from or whatever. So I just remember that being so fucking traumatic. And I think I went home like, man, I quit. Right. And then, you know, maybe a couple of days later, a week later, hour later, whatever it was, I don't know.
I just—
I got the urge to like, nah, man, I got to I gotta get up, gotta do it again. I don't think that my goal has changed in the sense of, you know, from, from just from, from this. 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 MCing. So I really just kind of— it's pretty much the same thing today. Hip-hop has always been about bragging and boasting, 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, you know, 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's getting a little respect. I think one of my greatest inspirations or things that I would feed off of basically was just obviously people not believing in the, you know, the cloud of doubt that kind of 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 gonna make it regardless of what anybody said. I don't know how I would describe my flow. I think that I developed the 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, you know, Rakim, and then it kind of started going into maybe Cool G Rap, KRS-One, Tretch from Naughty by Nature. So I had a, you know, I was a student of hip-hop, so it was like I just, I watched, I studied what everybody did in the game and just, you know, try to develop my own kind of sound. And it took me a long time to get, but, you know, I just kind of watched what everybody was doing, was kind of just a sponge and soaked up everything. Don't be afraid to try whatever, even if it that the idea in the beginning is stupid.
Yeah.
You know, 'cause a lot of ideas in beginning stages, not mine of course, mine are just insane from the moment I think of them. Of course. But sometimes ideas, you know, they're not always the greatest.
Yeah.
No, I mean, you know.
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 gonna spark another thing to lead to a better thought. Yeah.
Like always with anything, you gotta take the good with the bad, you know? You might, I understand that, The level of success that I'm at doesn't happen to everybody every day, but like, you know, 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 kind of problems that I would have, those type of family problems. How are we going to feed Haley? How are we going to raise her? How are we going to stay together? How are we going to pay our rent? Do you know what I mean? So it would be— so now it's new problems. It's like money's not the problem now, it's different things. Of course, other people interfering in our lives and our business and shit like that. So you got to take the good with the bad.
Well, I definitely think that people have seen me push boundaries, and maybe, you know, 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, you know, getting inspired from other MCs in the game. And everybody gets inspired from everybody, you know. And I saw Dre do it, you know what I'm saying, and N.W.A. and the way that they pushed boundaries. And it was kind of like, you know, it's every few years there'll be certain rappers that'll come along and do that. And, you know, some tend to do it better than others and push it further than others.
I was reserved and I 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 shit, but it was like, you know, 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. It depends on how bad you want it, and I wanted to do it. You know, at this stage of 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 like really, really want to do it, I don't give up that easy. You know, 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, you know what I'm saying?
You know, somebody had a mic and the white boy over there can get it too. So break me down, like how would you break down an MC? MC, I'm gonna give you a pass to break me down. If I was an MC just stepping at you like this, you know, if you, if you was an MC and you would call me out.
Yeah, well, it would depend on it. It probably would depend on what, what you, what I said, what you said to me in order for me to throw it back.
But I'll say top of the head, Slim Shady. We could end the ankles on the elderly lady. Fake it in a mannequin, holes in that Old Navy. Screw it, I'mma change your name, introducing Slim Brady.
Then I would say to you, off the top of your head— that's not off the top of your head, I 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, they broke as fuck. They're broken than you. Look at your gear, you're— get the fuck Not here. I don't want to have it here. Take another beer. Go take a sip here. Go sit down. Do yourself a favor because, dog, you're a clown.
The orange—
I just got a misslaid by him. And then, you know, the best part about it was no matter what somebody said to the next person, you shake hands, you know what I'm saying? And it was all love.
Yeah.
Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Daria Batish 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 in the discussion. Thank you guys so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.
