Tweet
ALL THE KING'S MEN
by: freedom rain
EMINEM and D-12 get set to turn this mutha out! alf of them can't stomach me, let alone stand me." -"The Real Slim Shady"
Last year, Eminem shocked the world by selling 8 million copies of insanity-on-a-disk. Now, the group he rolls with, D-12, is about to take it to the next level.
"I'm probably the sickest one out of the group," professes 24-year-old co-founder, Bizarre. "I just say whatever is on my mind, what I feel. You know, what amazes me is that no matter how sick I get, that [stuff] is still happenin'. It's non-fiction."
Maybe he's referring to his own lyrical references to the unsolved Jon Benet Ramsey case or maybe he's talking about the uncensored nature of D-12's chart-bangin' single. Either way, the D-12 style is shockingly raw and unhinged ... and that's just the way they want it.
You see, long before the Eminem phenom ran through our culture like Mexican food, there was D-12. The group first jumped off about 10 years ago when Bizarre and Proof (also known as Dirty Harry) started rapping and getting a solid feel for their signature flow.
Bizarre's twisted rhymes and vivid imaginings set the tone from there, so it was time to find some fresh meat that complimented their style. Enter Marshall Mathers, a neighborhood "brother of another color" who just happened to have a vivid imagination of his own and wasn't afraid to use it.
"Me and Proof grew up down the street from each other, but we went to different high schools," Eminem told Rolling Stone earlier this year. "I used to cut class during ninth grade and walk over to Proof's school, and he would set me up in freestyle battles for the money. Nobody thought I could rhyme, so it was like a pool hall hustle where we would take all their lunch money ..."
And although Eminem has little need for other folk's lunch money these days, he's not too big to remember the group (which by then, also included Kuniva and Kon Artist) that helped launch his career.
Eminem's journey to Hollywood began with a 2nd Place win in the 1997 Rap Olympics that left him spinning and his boys regrouping. "We always had a pact that whoever got signed first would come back for the others, and [Eminem] got the deal," Bizarre says. The "deal" catapulted Eminem's solo career into the stratosphere, giving him plenty of room to honor his word.
While Slim Shady was beginning a history-making collaboration with hip-hop guru Dr. Dre, Proof was determined to keep D-12 going. Through hard work and constant encouragement, the group re-discovered its footing with the additions of local MC's Bugz and Swift, but they still struggled to find their ticket to The Game.
"I had a solo project out that was called Attack of the Weirdos. That was about a year and a half ago," Bizarre says of his own life during that time. "Other than that, I was basically doing the same thing. I had odds and ends jobs, you know, but we tried not to get into nothin' too serious because we wanted to do this music thing."
In the midst of it all, tragedy found its way into D-12's world. In the summer of `99, group member Bugz was shot and killed over a simple water gun incident. The others decided then that life was too unpredictably short and, if they were really going to make it happen, they had to just do it.
"That incident brought everything to reality," Kuniva recounted for Rolling Stone, "and let us know that life ain't no game and we gotta make the best of what we got while we got it.
So they did just that. Two years and countless studio hours later, D-12 is preparing for the release of their first CD, Devil's Night, due out in June. The lyrics are unbelievably hard-core, reflecting life through the eyes of not one, but six different MCs. And although there could be a tendency towards over-crowding, Bizarre insists that they're always able to manage artistic differences.
"The way we work it is that our album has a variety [of songs]," he explains. "You can flip modes from some hard-core gangsta [rap] to some rock `n roll type [of music]. So every group member is puttin' his personality into it on each song.
"And we've got that little role where one [of us] will make a beat and come up with a concept. Whoever's not feeling that concept can sit out. Everybody's not gonna be on every song because there's six members. So, basically, whoever's feelin' it jumps on it."
Although it's a different formula from his solo efforts, Eminem is definitely down for doing his part to make D-12 successful.
"[Eminem] is a member of D-12, you know, but by him comin' out first and selling 8 million copies, he can't be with us all the time," says Bizarre. "He tries to make it to everything ... he's dedicated. He's in the studio [working on the CD] more than us. He'll call us and be like, `Where y'all at?' ... and he's the one that's got some money already."
Without a doubt, Bizarre believes that the commitment to keeping D-12 alive all these years is about to pay off-not just for Eminem-but for all of them. The goal, he says, is to let the music speak for itself.
"It's like, you know, you're gonna have your critics, but what really counts are the fans and the people that really listen to music. They'll be like, `Damn. They be touchin' on some subjects that other people don't want to talk about,' because everybody ain't iced out or drivin' around in a Mercedes-Benz. We talk about [things] you can relate to ... but on a wider level.
"I think that [the idea that we're] `Eminem's group' should be far past. And if people keep sayin' that, they definitely won't say it when they hear the album." [end]
by: freedom rain
EMINEM and D-12 get set to turn this mutha out! alf of them can't stomach me, let alone stand me." -"The Real Slim Shady"
Last year, Eminem shocked the world by selling 8 million copies of insanity-on-a-disk. Now, the group he rolls with, D-12, is about to take it to the next level.
"I'm probably the sickest one out of the group," professes 24-year-old co-founder, Bizarre. "I just say whatever is on my mind, what I feel. You know, what amazes me is that no matter how sick I get, that [stuff] is still happenin'. It's non-fiction."
Maybe he's referring to his own lyrical references to the unsolved Jon Benet Ramsey case or maybe he's talking about the uncensored nature of D-12's chart-bangin' single. Either way, the D-12 style is shockingly raw and unhinged ... and that's just the way they want it.
You see, long before the Eminem phenom ran through our culture like Mexican food, there was D-12. The group first jumped off about 10 years ago when Bizarre and Proof (also known as Dirty Harry) started rapping and getting a solid feel for their signature flow.
Bizarre's twisted rhymes and vivid imaginings set the tone from there, so it was time to find some fresh meat that complimented their style. Enter Marshall Mathers, a neighborhood "brother of another color" who just happened to have a vivid imagination of his own and wasn't afraid to use it.
"Me and Proof grew up down the street from each other, but we went to different high schools," Eminem told Rolling Stone earlier this year. "I used to cut class during ninth grade and walk over to Proof's school, and he would set me up in freestyle battles for the money. Nobody thought I could rhyme, so it was like a pool hall hustle where we would take all their lunch money ..."
And although Eminem has little need for other folk's lunch money these days, he's not too big to remember the group (which by then, also included Kuniva and Kon Artist) that helped launch his career.
Eminem's journey to Hollywood began with a 2nd Place win in the 1997 Rap Olympics that left him spinning and his boys regrouping. "We always had a pact that whoever got signed first would come back for the others, and [Eminem] got the deal," Bizarre says. The "deal" catapulted Eminem's solo career into the stratosphere, giving him plenty of room to honor his word.
While Slim Shady was beginning a history-making collaboration with hip-hop guru Dr. Dre, Proof was determined to keep D-12 going. Through hard work and constant encouragement, the group re-discovered its footing with the additions of local MC's Bugz and Swift, but they still struggled to find their ticket to The Game.
"I had a solo project out that was called Attack of the Weirdos. That was about a year and a half ago," Bizarre says of his own life during that time. "Other than that, I was basically doing the same thing. I had odds and ends jobs, you know, but we tried not to get into nothin' too serious because we wanted to do this music thing."
In the midst of it all, tragedy found its way into D-12's world. In the summer of `99, group member Bugz was shot and killed over a simple water gun incident. The others decided then that life was too unpredictably short and, if they were really going to make it happen, they had to just do it.
"That incident brought everything to reality," Kuniva recounted for Rolling Stone, "and let us know that life ain't no game and we gotta make the best of what we got while we got it.
So they did just that. Two years and countless studio hours later, D-12 is preparing for the release of their first CD, Devil's Night, due out in June. The lyrics are unbelievably hard-core, reflecting life through the eyes of not one, but six different MCs. And although there could be a tendency towards over-crowding, Bizarre insists that they're always able to manage artistic differences.
"The way we work it is that our album has a variety [of songs]," he explains. "You can flip modes from some hard-core gangsta [rap] to some rock `n roll type [of music]. So every group member is puttin' his personality into it on each song.
"And we've got that little role where one [of us] will make a beat and come up with a concept. Whoever's not feeling that concept can sit out. Everybody's not gonna be on every song because there's six members. So, basically, whoever's feelin' it jumps on it."
Although it's a different formula from his solo efforts, Eminem is definitely down for doing his part to make D-12 successful.
"[Eminem] is a member of D-12, you know, but by him comin' out first and selling 8 million copies, he can't be with us all the time," says Bizarre. "He tries to make it to everything ... he's dedicated. He's in the studio [working on the CD] more than us. He'll call us and be like, `Where y'all at?' ... and he's the one that's got some money already."
Without a doubt, Bizarre believes that the commitment to keeping D-12 alive all these years is about to pay off-not just for Eminem-but for all of them. The goal, he says, is to let the music speak for itself.
"It's like, you know, you're gonna have your critics, but what really counts are the fans and the people that really listen to music. They'll be like, `Damn. They be touchin' on some subjects that other people don't want to talk about,' because everybody ain't iced out or drivin' around in a Mercedes-Benz. We talk about [things] you can relate to ... but on a wider level.
"I think that [the idea that we're] `Eminem's group' should be far past. And if people keep sayin' that, they definitely won't say it when they hear the album." [end]
Comment