FINDING EMINEM | Wendy Day

I then went on to speak on a panel in Detroit, right? And it was at the Athenaeum Hotel, which is still there today. And outside of the Athenaeum Hotel, these guys were standing around in a cypher and they were rapping. And I had Rhymefest with me. Rhymefest is a rapper from Chicago. He's actually one of the people that wrote on Jesus Walks for Kanye West.

Kanye West.

Yes, exactly, exactly. Which is kind of funny because he's Muslim. But anyway, um, I had Rhymefest with me and he, he said to me, you know, we were— I was hungry, we hadn't eaten, we had driven from Chicago and then I came in to speak on the panel. I hadn't eaten and I was starving. And you know, I'm a fat girl, so I like to eat. And we were trying to go to Denny's to have some lunch or dinner or whatever time of day it was And, um, I heard this kid rapping. It was, it was a white rapper named Eminem. And, you know, I didn't pay much attention because like we all know that, you know, white guys can't rap, right? Especially back then in the early '90s, like white boys can't rap.

And this is at Denny's, right?

It was a meth— this is, um, outside of the Athenaeum Hotel. Okay, I was trying to go to Denny's, so I was in a big fat hurry to get away from the cypher. Yeah, but Rhyme Fest was in the cypher and he was rhyming with with Em, and, you know, I, uh, come on, come on, come on, I'm hungry, can we leave already? Yeah. So, um, Eminem hands me a demo. It was a tape, right? Remember cassette tape?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, run, uh, he hands me a cassette tape and we get in the car and I throw it on the floor in the front seat.

This is kind of an embarrassing story, um, to tell, but I, I keep going.

I'm going to because, like, I'm not shy, right? So I throw the cassette in the front seat, and my mindset is food because I hadn't eaten in like 24 hours. I was starving.

Yeah. And this is the Eminem demo that he gave you?

Yes, Eminem handed me his demo tape, and I threw it on the floor, and Rhymefest is in the passenger seat, and I throw it on the floor of the passenger seat because I'm in a hurry to get to Denny's, right? That's all I'm thinking about. Yeah, you know, cars in first.

Gotcha.

And right Rhyme Fest is looking at me. You know how when you're, when you're driving, you— I hadn't pulled out of the parking space yet, but you know how when you're driving you can feel when the person next to you is like staring at you?

Yeah.

So I look at him, I'm like, what? And, and it's like, like he was shaming me, right?

Yeah.

But it's like I felt like I knew what it was about. I knew it was because I didn't listen to the demo, and he's a rapper and that matters to him, right?

Yeah.

And normally I would listen.

So that's what really happens to the demos, huh?

I just really wanted to go to Denny's.

You were just hungry at the time.

Yeah, I got—

I felt—

I was ashamed. I was— I was like, give me— give me the cassette. So I popped it in, and now we're moving, right? We're into the first song, and I leave the hotel and I get on the highway, and it's banging. Like, yeah, oh my God, like, it's banging. Can I swear?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fucking banging. It's like, it's like, like the best rapper I've ever heard. And at this point, like, at this point in time, my favorite rappers were Rakim, Rhyme Fest. There was a guy named Juice out of Chicago who was super lyrical with it. And I'm like, yo, this kid's awesome. So I make a U-turn across the grassy median on the highway. Kids, don't do this at home. I made a U-turn and I went back to the hotel and I'm like, get in. You know, I'm gonna take you to Denny's and we're gonna eat. So we were able to spend some time together and really bond, you know.

So you doubled back to get Eminem?

Did I?

Dude! Wow. I gotta salute you for that. I gotta salute you for that.

I floored it. I floored it. I couldn't get back there fast enough. Like, he's so talented. So when I got back to New York, Like, I shopped him to every label, every label, every label, every label. I had just done the Twista deal, so the presidents of the labels knew who I was from the bidding war that had ensued from, from, from T's deal, Twista's deal. And all of them were, were nervous to sign a white rapper. Yeah, you know, so, um, at that point in time, I was, I was friends with the, the guy that was writing, um, for The Source. So we got him in, and Paul Rosenberg played a role in this. I don't want to take complete credit for it, like, Paul did an amazing job.

And just for you, for you guys that don't know, Paul Rosenberg is Eminem's manager.

Exactly, still to this day. Yeah, yeah, to this day. Yeah. Um, and, and we got him in, um, in The Source, and you know, he started to bubble a little bit. We put out his own EP. They put out his own EP. I didn't play a role in that. I was busy with Twista at this time. But he was really starting to buzz a little bit and I was frustrated. Like, for 9 months I shopped this kid a deal and not one label would sign him and it just didn't make sense to me. So I decided to do an event called Rap Olympics, right? Yeah, it wasn't called Rap Olympics, right? It was called Rap Olympics, right? So, so Rap Olympics was an event in LA. It was like a battle between teams instead of a battle just like mano a mano. It was teams, and on my team I had Quest the Mad Lad, I had Rhyme Fest, I had Juice, Eminem, Uh, Thurston Howell III was on that team.

We just spoke to him.

Yeah, I love him. He's just— he's such an awesome, awesome, awesome motherfucker.

Yeah, salute. Yeah, yeah, really incredible lyricist too.

Oh my God, yeah, and funny, like really fun. He was part of my team. He was just—

is he known as the Polo Don or something? He wore out— rocked up polo, right? He rocked all polo. He was known for rocking a lot of polo.

It was part of Lowlife, which which is a crew out of Brooklyn. I'll let him tell that story because I'll just fuck it up. Um, but yeah, he, he led Lowlife, like he was the head of Lowlife.

Yeah, he's the Lowlife founder, one of the founders.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Okay.

Um, and just a really good dude, like very legitimate, very authentic, you know, and yeah, and very real. Yeah, just a good dude. Yeah. Um, but we did Rap Olympics and, um, part of the prize for the winning team was to appear on the Sway and Tech Show, the Wake Up Show.

Okay.

And so, you know, the way I remember it, and, and this is not echoed by Eminem's book, but the way that I remember it was that he was rapping on the Wake Up Show, and he'd been to the Wake Up Show many times. Yeah. He was like a favorite there. Um, Dre heard him on the Wake Up Show and went to meet with him from that. That's how I remember it. Oh, and put him up in a hotel.

You know what the story is, right? The story is someone handed Dre a tape, right?

Right. And oh, what a surprise that it was Jimmy Iovine's nephew.

Oh my gosh.

You know, maybe, maybe he did. I'm not taking that away from him because a lot of people were at Rap Olympics and they were giving out, you know, tapes.

It's probably both things. You know, when you gotta like you see something one time and then you see it another time. It's absolutely— it takes— sometimes it takes two times consistency.

Well, remember, I had, I had sent the demo to Jimmy's office like over a 9-month period, like two or three times. So maybe it was the culmination of that, but maybe it took his nephew saying, yo, this kid is something nice.

And then, and then, but then also looking back, like, I've gotten this kid's tape 20 million times, now my nephew's bringing it to me. Maybe I should take it a listen.

Exactly. And that's basically how it happened.

So persistence over resistance.

Exactly. Exactly. After the M&M deal, and, you know, I didn't help negotiate that, but I looked over the paperwork and I played a role in it. I feel like I helped to negotiate it because there were things that I brought to the contract that I thought should be in it.

Yeah.

And you being a good person, do that, you know, like you don't want to see people get screwed.

Absolutely. And you know, they gave me, they gave me a plaque. They gave me the first platinum plaque that came off the line.

Where is it?

Um, in my garage somewhere.

Okay.

Are you— so you don't display plaques? You're not a big plaque person?

I don't.

Yeah, it's, it's not what drives me, Jordan. I'm more about the deal and the success. I'm not really about the accolades.

Most people would take the plaque and put a chain around it and wear it to the business meetings.

Right, exactly. That's not lying. A lot of people would do that.

You know what Jay-Z told, uh, DJ Paul? DJ Paul told me, he said, if— damn, if I won an Oscar, I'd wrap that motherfucker around my neck, walking around with that shit. You know, because, you know, Three 6 Mafia is what, one of the only groups to win an Oscar, right?

Yeah, I think they're the only rap group to win it.

No, Eminem did too.

Oh, he did?

Oh yeah, for 8 Mile, right?

Yeah.

Okay, I didn't realize that.