news archives

May 31, 2002 - Robert Hilburn of SunSpot.net reviewed Eminem's new album 'The Eminem Show' and praised the rapper for having "a power and complexity all but unrivaled on the contemporary pop scene." Hilburn said, "What makes Eminem such an extraordinary blend of commercial appeal and artistic accomplishment is that he can move from the darkness of 'Cleaning Out My Closet' to the catchiness of pop tunes that seduce with their cute, nursery rhyme-like charm." Read more.

May 31, 2002 - Despite his earlier groans over the Eminem album being leaked to the internet, Steve Berman, Interscope Geffen A&M head of sales and marketing is now glowing over the record breaking success of Eminem's album debuting at #1. "I guess people couldn't wait to sell this record," he admits. "I've seen this before but never at this scale ... it's amazing. Basically, this is like a movie opening on a Sunday evening and being number one at the box office for the week. We had, at the most, a thirty-six hour window with limited public knowledge of availability. All of our advertising runs next week." Read more.

May 31, 2002 - News.com reports Gracenote internet music database shows that Eminem's new album, 'The Eminem Show', was the second most frequently played CD a week before its official release on 26 May. Gracenote chief operating office David Hyman admits, "It's pretty safe to say that it's all CD-Rs that people have bought off the streets or burned from friends." Read more.

May 31, 2002 - David Segal of The Washington Post gave high praise to Eminem's new album 'The Eminem Show'. Segal writes, "The year's most anticipated release is a ranting, raving torrent of words and fun-house beats that you'll hate yourself for loving." Read more.

May 31, 2002 - Rick Dees did a short interview with Eminem where the two talked about the new single 'Without Me' being different from the rest of the album, his being a fan of superheroes including Batman, what's up with his label Shady Records, his duty on the Anger Management Tour, and more. Listen to the audio clip here.

May 31, 2002 - Ted Casablanca of E! Online spoke with Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor and music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, on his feelings about Eminem's controversial lyrics. "One day, a hundred years from now, people will look back on Eminem's music and think, How quaint; how sweet," he opined.

May 31, 2002 - Debra Birnbaum of the New York Post spoke with three New York psychologists to get their thoughts on the lyrics in 'The Eminem Show' and whether his controversial raps are creative expression or a public cry for help. Jane Greer, Ph.D. commented, "This is an angry, pained guy with fear of abandonment." As for her recommended treatment, she offered, "I don't know that he needs treatment - his music has been his treatment, his way of letting out his pain and his anguish." Read more.

May 30, 2002 - Associated Press has a video clip of Eminem talking about his new album as well as some behind the scenes looks at his 'Without Me' video shoot. Watch the video clip here.

May 30, 2002 - Access Hollywood led with the news on injuries at the Eminem concert over the weekend in Washington DC. They also reported that his album 'The Eminem Show' was the first to debut at number one without the benefit of a full week of sales, selling over 300,000 copies in 36 hours. Eminem was quoted saying, "I think people are expecting to get shocked, you know, kind of sitting around like, 'OK, what's he going to say?" Read more.

May 30, 2002 - Globe magazine reports that while he's not showing it publically, Vice President Dick Cheney is quietly seething over Eminem's latest verbal assault on his wife Lynne Cheney. "He's taking a dignified approach and not saying a word," an insider revealed. "But believe me, if Dick Cheny could get his hands on Eminem, he'd kick his butt from here to Afghanistan!" A rep for Eminem explained, "He is reacting to testimony before Congress in which his lyrics were condemned and his right to free speech questioned. Eminem stands by his right to express himself."

May 30, 2002 - HitsDailyDouble.com reports despite the fact that it was supposed to be released on Sunday, Eminem's new album 'The Eminem Show' cleared 311,000 units over the course of Friday and Saturday, and it appears with a wide release that he will easily sell one million, perhaps even 1.5 million in the current full week. Read more. [Requires registration] 

May 28, 2002 - Josh Tyrangiel of Time magazine reviewed Eminem's latest effort 'The Eminem Show' calling it a "significant work of pop culture." Tyrangiel says the album also more clearly defines Slim's three personas, "As a rapper, Eminem has always shown a talent for wordplay, but on his previous work, the lines between his characters — and those characters' broader meanings — were pretty fuzzy. On The Eminem Show, however, the three personalities fit together like a set of Russian nesting dolls." Read more.

May 28, 2002 - Vit Wagner of the Toronto Star says Eminem has gone soft on his latest album. "'The Eminem Show' doesn't have anything to match the musical verve and cross-over potential of 'Stan,' 'The Way I Am' or 'The Real Slim Shady,' although a sanitized version of 'My Dad's Gone Crazy' might have what it takes to charm radio programmers, old softies that they are," he said. "At the same time, the disc lacks the kind of incendiary content likely to spark another round of hand-wringing controversy." Read more.

May 27, 2002 - The Sunday Mail spoke with Eminem's grandmother Betty Kresin and his father Marshall Sr.'s wife Teresa. Betty said of her grandson, "Neither his mother Debbie nor I can figure out what happened to this once wonderfully sweet, caring youngster. In just over 12 years, he's gone from telling me, 'Grandma I love you', to, 'Go to hell'. It breaks my heart." As for his dad, wife Teresa explained, "Marshall hasn't seen his son since he was a baby and all he has is one picture of him holding the boy. But since then they haven't had any contact and he doesn't want to add to Eminem's troubles at the moment by talking to anyone." Read more.

May 27, 2002 - G Brown of the Denver Post gave a more positive review of 'The Eminem Show' than the previous reviews we posted today. Brown said, "Is he a hatemonger? There's not much of the stuff that got him labeled homophobic. He probably thinks he's ticked off enough people with that already. However, there are abuse, misogyny and racism in his shocking rhymes. A potty-mouth? Sure, the lines of hyperbole are trying-hard-to-shock overkill. A mad genius? In terms of his storytelling technique, he's one of the best to step into the vocal booth." Read more.

May 27, 2002 - Jim Farber of the New York Daily News reviewed Eminem's new album 'The Eminem Show' and labeled the Detroit rapper a "whiner". Farber said, "The prevailing mopiness only makes us ponder its deepest contradiction. Half the time, Eminem says not to take him too seriously, the other half he chastises us for not listening hard enough to his messages of truth. As a result, Eminem ends up less a bully or an instigator this time than something far more tedious: a whiner." Read more.

May 27, 2002 - Jim Derogatis of the Chicago Sun Times reviewed Eminem's new album 'The Eminem Show' giving it an "avoid" rating. Derogatis said, "For the first time in his career, Eminem is out of touch with current pop culture: His references are all slightly out of date, if not downright dusty. Besides Cheney, the targets of his biting insults include would-be lyric censor Tipper Gore (what is this, 1984?); broadcast personality Joel Siegel; innocuous techno maven Moby, and Sally Jessy Raphael--whose final show was on last week." Read more.

May 26, 2002 - About 30 people were injured on Saturday when the audience at a Washington D.C. Eminem concert pressed forward when he took the stage. One man had a heat-attack and was revived on the scene. Read more.

May 26, 2002 - Rav Singh of News of the World chatted with Eminem by phone in Detroit where he was alerted his tune 'Without Me' beat out Westlife in the singles charts. "Who the fu** are Westlife? Some boyband bullsh**? I've never even heard of them. You tell me they're a pop band. Well, each to their own." Slim added, "Boybands are just pussies. Singing about love and sh**. Who cares!" Read more.

May 26, 2002 - Craig McLean of the Scotsman reviewed the controversial new track on 'The Eminem Show' called 'White America.' McLean said, "Not only does Eminem know better than most that it’s easier to blame a white man for society’s ills than a black man, he can also write a great song about this reverse racism. As opening statements go, 'White America' is phenomenal. Was there ever an artist who was so perceptively aware of his own phenomenon, and so able to turn self-absorption into mass communication?" Read more.

May 26, 2002 - David Usborne of the New Zealand Herald shared his thoughts on Eminem ahead of this weekend's release of 'The Eminem Show'. Usborne said, "The music scene needs Eminem, just like it once needed the punk explosion or Alice Cooper. He provides the polarity to a landscape dominated by pre-packaged, squeaky clean candy-bar acts such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and the Back Street Boys. And he resonates because he is simultaneously so ordinary. He raps for the millions of teenagers who feel alienated and are contemptuous of adult society." Read more.

May 26, 2002 - Q4Music.com has a couple clips from 'Eminem’s Mum', a BBC Choice documentary about the Mathers family. Those included in the documentary include Slim's mom Debbie Mathers Briggs, his younger brother Nathan, his grandmother Betty, and Debbie's brother Uncle Todd. Eminem chose not to appear in the special. The two video clips include Uncle Todd, who starts crying reciting lyrics to 'Stan', and Debbie's lawyer Fred Gibson, who reciting some stanzas of Em lyrics 'in hip hop style' that talk about the lawyer wanting Slim to ejaculate in his ass... That one's pretty funny. Check out the video clips here.

May 26, 2002 - According to a posting from DanTheMans22 on Mariah Carey's official website forum: "I was this concert called HFStival with a lot of rock bands and stuff and the main act at the end was Eminem and he was talking to some girl in the audience telling her that he thinks she's pretty etc, etc. and then he was like but I'm going to tell it to you like I did Mariah Carey.... then he said "fu** you bitch you make me ill." And then started a song. He seems to have some bitter obsession with Mariah Carey now."

May 25, 2002 - Rapdirt.com's latest poll asking if you thought Eminem had the a chance to sell 1 million copies of 'The Eminem Show' in it's first week had most of you saying yes. 13.15% think his time has past, while 10.87% said it depended on if it got leaked - it did. Some 8.4% said they wanted to hear the first track first (they have by now with 'Without Me'), while 5.7% thought Em has run out of gimmics. With the album dropping on a Sunday - the first week will only include one day (unless they include Memorial Day Monday sales?)... So it ain't gonna happen in the traditional sense. For the complete results, click here.

May 25, 2002 - RapBasement.com has the pair of freestyle Jermaine Dupri diss tracks DJ Kay Slay put out on his new mix tape. Included in the diss tracks are Eminem, Xzibit, and another exclusive introduced by Eminem for his Shady Records star Obie Trice. Slim's version makes mention of not only JD, but Erick Sermon's jumping out of the window, while Xzibit refers to JD as "Tattoo aka The Leprechaun" and adds, "Why you always gotta sound like the next mans sh**? Went from Big to Puff to Snoop to Jay. Hey Jermaine, who's di** you gonna ride today?" Then on the Obie Trice track, Slim introduces it saying he wasn't able to freestyle because he's in jail right now. Check out the three tracks here.

May 25, 2002 - D12's Proof was interviewed by his sister Mischief for RapBasement.com. Proof talked about how it is important to talk with fans saying, "If they acknowledge me then that means they can feel what Im talking about, we should be on somekind of, we on a common ground, we can deal with each other you know what I'm saying? We can understand eachother, cuz they what I'm talking about and 9 times out of 10 so they can understand they can identify with it and therefore we have a common ground to talk and say whats up with each other right then and there." Read more.

May 25, 2002 - Following news that 'The Eminem Show' would be released on Sunday to meet the demand from a big Memorial Day shopping weekend, Interscope's Steve Berman, tells hitsdailydouble.com: "We found we were able to meet the demand and get The Eminem Show into the stores even earlier than expected. Our mandate as a company was to put the album in listeners' hands the way Eminem intended them to get it, and to do it as quickly as possible to battle the problems we were having with illicit copying. We saw no reason to have fans waiting until Tuesday in this particular case." Read more. [Requires free subscription]

May 25, 2002 - BET.com has a behind the scenes look at the video for the first single off 'The Eminem Show', a shorter and different version than MTV's Making the Video. The site also has the 'Without Me' video to watch as well. After that, check out some excerpts from 'The Eminem Show' bonus DVD. Check it all out here.

May 25, 2002 - You can listen to a stream of the entire new album from Eminem at his official site, that is if you haven't downloaded all the MP3's already. Also, it appears that Interscope has given retailers the go-ahead to distrubute the album on Sunday instead of the traditional Tuesday release, as the preview page says it is in stores on Sunday. Check out the preview page here.

May 24, 2002 - Eminem will performing be his first full concert in support of his third album, 'The Eminem Show' on Saturday, May 25th at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C., as part of a weekend festival called 'HFStival', sponsored by Washington/Baltimore's 99.1 WHFS radio station. Slim will be performing along with acts such as the Strokes, Papa Roach, N.E.R.D., and the X-Ecutioners for the two-day show.

May 24, 2002 - HitsDailyDouble.com reports that because of the Memorial Day weekend, Interscope is being forced to rush out 'The Eminem Show' to retailers early, and some are wondering if the album will crack the Billboard 200 because of this with pre-release sales over the weekend. Just getting 30-40k in sales over the weekend would put the disc in the top 25 before the album drops May 28th.

May 24, 2002 - Edna Gundersen of USA Today reviewed Eminem's new album 'The Eminem Show' giving it 3 out of 4 stars. Gunderson writes, "In skewering his foes, Em is funny, vicious, arrogant, vulnerable, furious, cunning and ruthless, delivering rapid-fire lines with deadly precision. Pop culture's favorite punching bag gives as good as he gets but in the end inflicts more damage on himself, hoisting 'The Eminem Show' to a level of self-absorption rivaled only by Woody Allen." Read more.

May 22, 2002 - Syndicated radio show hosts 'Opie and Anthony' are trying to steal credit for having Interscope be forced to release 'The Eminem Show' a week early. The pair played five tracks from the disc last week, only to stop after Interscope sent them a cease and desist order. Greg "Opie" Hughes explained to the New York Post, "You can't put two lions in a room with a dead gazelle and say, 'Don't eat it until we say so.'" Read more.

May 22, 2002 - Music insiders are predicting a big opening week for Eminem's new album 'The Eminem Show' despite being leaked to the internet. "It looks like a pretty good candidate to do a million-plus," says Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's director of charts. "We're dealing with a different environment now. It's hard to gauge, but for (Without Me) to jump at radio that fast and considering the retail orders logged so far, the album has a real chance to be the first million-plus week in a year." Read more.

May 21, 2002 - Moby commented on his change of heart to wear the 'I Heart Eminem' shirt on Saturday Night Live over the weekend. Moby said, "Yes. I wore the shirt. Thank you for the shirt. I hope that my wearing the shirt made you laugh. I want every sentence in this update to include the shirt. I'm off to germany now, but the shirt stays here. Thanks, Moby the shirt."

May 21, 2002 - Reuters reports Universal Music Group's head of marketing, Max Hole (No, it's not a porn star name!), commenting on the early release of 'The Eminem Show' because of pirated copies already being in circulation. Hole said, "We're disappointed that inferior pirated copies of 'The Eminem Show' are in circulation, which is why we've decided to make the legitimate version available sooner than originally planned." Read more.

May 21, 2002 - Evan Serpick of Entertainment Weekly reviewed Eminem's new album which he says shows "a bit more of his vulnerability and, dare I say it, tenderness." Serpick adds, "In all, 'The Eminem Show' does present a kinder, gentler Slim Shady. And, truth be told, he does sacrifice a bit of his 'f--- the world' rebelliousness with the drop in shock value. But rest assured, Eminem is still angry, if a little less so. But he's also still rich, and come June 4, he'll be at least a little more so." Read more.

May 18, 2002 - After 'The Eminem Show' leaked to the internet, Aftermath/Interscope has been forced to bump up the release date a week to May 28th. The first two million copies of the album will still come bundled with a free DVD featuring performance and behind-the-scenes clips. Universal Music & Video Distribution president Jim Urie says, "Interscope went to superhuman length to keep this release secure. They did things far beyond what any label has done and it is a shame that it was circumvented." Read more.

May 18, 2002 - Eminem and the rock duo The White Stripes will perform at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards, the cable channel announced Friday. The show airs 9 p.m. EDT June 6th on the network, though will be taped June 1st at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. 

May 16, 2002 - MTV News spoke with a spokesperson for Interscope records after 'The Eminem Show' began appearing online over the weekend. The spokesperson said, "No one's happy about it, but it's very hard to prevent. You do everything you can to stop it from happening and then you get scooped. But we got it down to three weeks, which is not as bad as the industry standard at this point." The likely target of the leak appears to be one of the manufacturing plants that was mass producing the CD before its June 4th release. Surprisingly the spokesperson didn't mention Interscope's leaking of looped versions of the singles designed to hinder swapping of the songs. Read more.

May 16, 2002 - The second part of Eminem's interview with Radio 1's Sara Cox has been posted. Eminem talked quite a bit about his daughter Hailie and his decision to put 'Hailies Song' on the new album. As for how aware she is of what her dad does for a living, Eminem said, "She knows (what I do) to some extent. I can't imagine what a 6-year-old must think… I know that she is getting some type of grasp for her father being on TV. Nobody elses dad is on TV. It must be a little head trip for her… She's obviously the most important thing to me. She's so beautiful and so smart." Listen to the second part of the Eminem interview here.

May 16, 2002 - Interscope sent 93.3 FLZ in Tampa a cease and desist order after they played 'The Eminem Show', leaked over the weekend. Check out the letter addressed to 'Jeff and Dave' signed by Interscope's Lisa C. Rogell here.

May 15, 2002 - The New York Daily News reports following Eminem's attack of the Vice President's wife Lynne Cheney in 'White America', her spokeswoman Natalie Rule told the paper that she "has no response to the personal attacks" but still criticized the rapper that caused the bust-up in the first place. The rep relayed, "Mr. Mathers' repeated glorification of violence against women and gay people. That deserves to be widely condemned." Meanwhile, Slim ditched pal Kid Rock's Madison Square Garden after-party at Cherry in favor of partying with several blondes at the W Union Square's Underbar on Friday night. Read more.

May 14, 2002 - LFI has video captures of Eminem along with Kirsten Dunst from their appearances on Saturday Night Live over the weekend. Included are shots from the skit Eminem was in and the show's closing, where the two embraced. Check out the pictures here.

May 14, 2002 - Alex Pappademas of Spin magazine was on CNN with Bill Hemmer to talk about Eminem's new album 'The Eminem Show'. Alex thought that Slim has taken too much of his time to attack his critics and deal with his own persona on this new album. As to whether he has raised the bar with the record, the Spin writer said that commercially he probably will, but that he could have brought more to the table creatively. They both admitted though that the fact that people are talking about him again shows he's getting the effect he wants.

May 14, 2002 - Well that website we've been linking to for the new Eminem album downloads, after its leak this weekend, is so overloaded that it barely loads - so it's probably better to stick with file swappers now. As you know though, most people still have the looping tracks, so I put together a list of the track names, file sizes, and bit rates to make the search easier. Read here for that info.

May 14, 2002 - Sara Cox's interview part 1 with Eminem has been put on Radio 1's website. Slim gave props to producer Dr. Dre on 'The Eminem Show' saying, "Hopefully I gave Dre a break from trying to be so first hand with my stuff. He lets me do what I want to do. Nothing I do is dope. Everything I do is not wicked and Dre will tell me. He won't sugar coat it. His honesty is one thing that I've appreciated the most, ever since he signed me." Listen to the interview here.

May 14, 2002 - A website has been hacked by a DJ that apparently remixed a version of Eminem's 'My Name Is' without receiving compensation promised from Interscope Records. musicforhackers.com's homepage has been hacked and changed to include a rant by DJ Polish Sausage, and includes voice mail from Interscope's Matt Larsen (or someone claiming to be him), discussing his remix. The DJ also promises comprimising pictures of Larsen, voicemail from Jim, "the greedy fu** that owns/runs Interscope Records (my guess is he's referring to Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope). As for Eminem, he says "I'll see what I have on Eminem (don't hold your breath, he's obviously just a puppet)." Download the clips and read more on this here.

May 13, 2002 - Matt Drudge is playing up the political attack Eminem unleashes on 'White America' - targetting the Vice President's wife Lynne Cheney. The "Fu** you, Miss Cheney!" attack comes after Cheney appeared before a Senate committee to condemn Eminem's music in 2000. She then said, "He is a violent misogynist. He advocates raping and murdering his mother in one of his songs. He glories in the same song and the idea that he might murder any woman he comes across. He talks about how he will choke the women he murders slowly so that their screams will last for a long time." Read more.

May 13, 2002 - Well Eminem only performed one track from his 'The Eminem Show' album, the 'Without Me' one of course, and it appeared he was heavily reliant on the monitor to remember the lyrics. Slim's eyes were looking towards the monitors on the ground almost the entire performance. At the end, Slim said something to the effect, "Hailie, daddy loves you." Later, he was in a skit where he was auditioning support for his tour, and host Kirsten Dunst was acting like a teenybopper fool trying to apply for the spot.

May 12, 2002 - Ananova reports Eminem is to star as the corrupt mayor of New York in a forthcoming Pacewon video entitled 'I Declare War', which is featured on Pacewon's album 'Won', due out June 17th on Rufflife Records.

May 12, 2002 - The entire Eminem album leaked to the internet hours ago and two of the tracks from 'The Eminem Show' make references to Mariah Carey. On 'When the Music Stops', Eminem raps, "I came way too far in the game to turn and walk away and not say what I got to say what the fu** you take me for, a joke? You smoking crack? Before I do that I beg Mariah to take me back." Then, on 'Superman', Eminem raps, "Am I too nice too buy you ice? B*tch if you died, wouldn't buy you life. Whatcha tryin to be? My new wife? What, you Mariah? Fly through twice. But I know one thing tho--bitches, they come and go."

May 12, 2002 - As has been talked about all day on various message boards, the entire 20 track LP for 'The Eminem Show' has been leaked onto the internet. The earlier looped leak has caused tremendous difficulty for people trying to download the real sh**. Fortunately, a site has emerged that has all the tracks available for immediate and free download. Check it out here.

May 12, 2002 - NME.com has a track-by-track rundown of the new Eminem album, 'The Eminem Show'. The album contains references to Insane Clown Posse, Elton John, mother Debbie, daughter Hailie, and ex-wife Kim. Southern hip-hop is mocked with 'Square Dance'. Read more.

May 11, 2002 - Well last time Eminem was asked, he said he didn't have a problem with Moby but he just felt sorry that nobody else liked him. This Monday's Eminem interview with Radio 1's Sara Cox has the rapper saying he can't stand techno. "I don't give a fu** who gets mad at me, I hate techno music, I'm sorry but I can't stand it," he said. "Like, when I used to be on drugs it used to blow my high and like now that I can't be on drugs it blows my high even worse. So just for the record, I hate techno music, so no matter how good Moby is, it's not going to change anything." Listen to the interview via the Radio 1 stream Monday morning UK time here.

May 11, 2002 - Kid Rock stopped by MTV's Total Request Live on Friday to talk with host Brian McFayden before his show Friday at Madison Square Garden. Kid Rock reviewed some TRL videos including Eminem's 'Without Me'. On that video, the rap-rocker said, "It's my man, can't say anything bad. He always makes videos, I like the ends when he is jumpin' around like bin Laden, there right there. 100% entertainment. He not scared to take himself you know." For a transcript, visit Rockdirt.com.

May 10, 2002 - Jermaine Dupri has hit back at the new Eminem single 'What You Say' that features Slim and Dr. Dre slammin' JD calling him a "midget" and for getting rich off of 11 year olds - a reference to Lil' Bow Wow. In 'JD's Reply', the rapper blasts, "You same beat making non rapping individual, I was making what you make now when I was a child." As for Eminem, JD says towards the end, "Eminem, I left you out deliberatly, You know why? Cause to me, You're like a character in Disney World, Known for dissing pop groups and Justin's Ex girl." Read rapdirt.com for the full lyrics, and download the track on your favorite file swapper.

May 9, 2002 - The Sun reports Eminem has been stopped from using the riff in the Beatles classic 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', after George Harrison’s widow Olivia nixed the plan to put the music on Eminem's dedication song for his daughter - 'Hailie's Song'. Eminem revealed, "George heard Hailie’s Song before he passed away and liked it. I don’t understand the political side but his wife now has control of the music and she said no, so I had to redo the song."

May 5, 2002 - MTV News talked with Dr. Dre about the diss track on Eminem's new album 'The Eminem Show' that has him and Timbaland going after Jermaine Dupri for comments he made ot XXL magazine. "Well, it was a few negative things that Jermaine Dupri said about us in the XXL magazine, so we were gonna make a song dedicated to him," Dre explained. "He said me or Timbaland can't do what he does. I thought that was kinda crazy. That was cocky. He was just at my studio maybe about two or three weeks before that asking me to do a song with him. So I found that really funny." Read more.

May 5, 2002 - Eminem phoned in to MTV's Total Request Live on Thursday to premiere his new video for 'Without Me' and explain why he took shots at *NSYNC's Chris Kirkpatrick as well as Moby. Slim says he attacked Kirkpatrick because he was the only one who had the guts to say something back at him following 'The Real Slim Shady', plus his last name rhymed with 'get your ass kicked'. As for Moby, he sarcastically told TRL that he liked Moby, but feels bad that no one else does.

May 5, 2002 - Anthony Bozza of Rolling Stone spoke to Eminem ahead of the release of 'The Eminem Show', where he revealed the concept for the new album. "Nothing I do is private anymore," he said. "I usually feel like a monkey in a fu**ing cage with people looking at me. The whole Eminem Show concept was just, 'Fu** it, if the world wants a show, here the fu** it is; here's my show.'" Read more.

May 3, 2002 - Eminem spoke with The Sun about his decision to make fun of Osama Bin Laden by dressing as the terrorist leader in his new video 'Without Me'. Slim said, "With the Osama thing I am trying to make light of a bad situation. If we don’t address the issue, or if we act like it didn’t happen, it’s not a healthy thing. This won’t take away the pain but I hope it will make people laugh and help us all get past it." Read more.

May 2, 2002 - BBC reports Eminem's record label is in talks to release 'The Eminem Show' with technology that would prevent widespread copying. Universal Music spokesman Adam White said, "Clearly, we will have a better sense of how the market feels about copy-protection when a release of Eminem's stature, should we decide to do it, comes with copy-protection on it. Mass-copying has gotten to such a level that we had better take a stand to protect the artists." Read more.

May 1, 2002 - Mark B of the BBC's Radio 1 hosted a half hour documentary earlier today on hip hop sampling called 'Black Market Breaks'. In the documenary Bubba Sparxxx and Ja Rule admit to knowing shamefully little about what they're rapping over, and how New York break traders get top dollar out of Timbaland. This is some pretty insightful stuff, with some questionable sampling examples by Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs, amongst others. Listen to the documentary here.

May 1, 2002 - Adam Graham of The Detroit News caught up with Keith Curry, music director at WDRQ-FM (93.1) in Detroit, who says Eminem's new single 'Without Me' is a monster hit. "The Slim Shady bomb has exploded," he said. "It is the most requested song we have, 25 to 1. The phones have been (ringing) nonstop. Kids are calling up, asking 'What's the name of it? How do I get it?' They cannot get enough of it. It's huge." Read more.

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