When everyone was sleeping... I peeped it.

Tuesday: Hi, My Name Is...
written by JusHH

You ever called someone? Nah, not on the phone, I mean to be the first person to recognize the greatness in someone and say something like, “yo, dude is sick, he’s gonna be one of the best.” That feeling is the best – especially when no one agrees with you when you first call him. That gives you bragging rights forever. I can’t say that I’ve called that many people but this one in particular will hold me down for the rest of my life.

I remember when I first saw him. I was watching MTV and I caught the song in the middle of the second verse. Although the flow was slow, the way he put his rhymes together, I knew that this was no accident. It was weird because it was difficult not to judge this book by its cover but something about the rhymes seemed authentic. Another thing that threw me for a loop was his co-signer.

Wait, was that Dre?

If there was one thing for certain, when Dre put his name behind a new artist, you better pay attention. And pay attention I did. So when that video came on again, I was ready and peeped it from start to finish. The way he mixed comedy with complex raps was something that I really hadn’t seen before. At that moment, I knew dude was nice and I officially called… Eminem.

Of course I took s**t for it. “Who the white boy that Dre signed? Please. You trippin’ Jus.” None of my boys had my back. They thought I was going crazy. They also laughed at my affinity for Korn and Aerosmith as well. No one I knew saw the skills that Em had.

So the day the album dropped, my boy Ill, who always went and bought albums with me, and I headed to this spot on Long Island called CD Warehouse. It was the only place I knew at the time that bought and sold used CD’s. We get there and we go through all of the used albums looking for some hidden classics. I get to the counter and I ask the clerk, for that new “Slim Shady” album (I’m not even sure that I knew that his official rap name was Eminem). Ill immediately gives me that look that I’m about to throw away $15 and he’s gonna laugh his ass off if the album turns out to be wack. The funniest part was that the clerk, who was white, literally laughed at me like I was from another planet or something. I shrugged it off and took my Slim Shady LP to the crib.

I of course, was not disappointed. The cartoonish, over-the-top content obviously jumped off the page, but it was the raw skills that drew me. Hearing Em open up on “Role Model” with, “I’m cancerous/ so when I diss, you wouldn’t wanna answer this/ if you responded back, with a battle rap you wrote for Canibus”, gave me a straight up Fanatic moment! The sheer brilliance behind the “98 Bonnie and Clyde” where he talks about killing Kim (for the first time) in “baby gibberish” to his young Hallie, is impossible to ignore. Hearing stories about poppin’ pills, getting beat up by bullies and horrible parenting was refreshing during a time where everyone was blinged up and thugged down. The back and forth with then unknown Royce the 5’9 was off the hook. The album just blew me away and its still in rotation today.

So yeah we all know where the story went. Eminem burst onto the scene sold 3 million records with his debut. Then he dropped the Marshall Mathers LP and changed the game forever. This led to Grammy’s and ultimately people giving him the title of one of the best to ever do it. Well, guess what, I saw it a long time ago when everyone was still laughing at the white boy trying to rap. I called Eminem and I’m damn proud of it because he is still in my Top 5 and produced one of my favorite albums of all time (The Eminem Show). You gotta love what Dre and Em did back in ’99. They knew what they were up against: Vanilla Ice set white rappers back 15 years with his display of “talent”. They both knew Eminem could rap circles regardless of his lack of melanin. So they introduced Em to the world in the most straightforward way…

Hi, my name is…

And the skills did the rest.