http://www.grantland.com/blog/holly...-the-toilet-and-he-came-up-with-the-alter-ego
The Eminem fans will appreciate this. He talks about Kim and Eminem's mom coming to the studio. Plus lots more.
Q&A: Producer Jeff Bass on Discovering Young Eminem: 'He Was Sitting on the Toilet, and He Came Up With the Alter Ego'
By Amos Barshad on November 6, 2013 4:18 PM ET
You may have never heard of the Bass Brothers. But you've heard the Bass Brothers. Before Jimmy Iovine, before Dr. Dre, it was Michigan's Jeff and Mark Bass who were flipping their sh*t over the sounds of a young kid from Detroit named Marshall Mathers. In the early days, the production duo's studio on 8 Mile Road was like a second home for Eminem. And it was there that they recorded The Slim Shady EP, which would eventually make its way to Dre and Iovine and land Eminem his record deal. They'd continue to work with Em for years, producing all but three tracks on The Slim Shady LP, some of the more twisted ends of The Marshall Mathers LP, and — drum roll, drum roll, drum roll — "Lose Yourself." With this week's release of The Marshall Mathers LP 2, we got Jeff Bass on the phone to talk about the good old days.
How'd you meet Eminem?
My brother was listening to the radio, what today is our 95.5. It was a DJ we knew named Lisa Lisa. He called and asked her who that was, freestyling. She said, that’s Marshall Mathers. He said, “Is there any way we can get in touch with him?” She gives him the number. My brother called. And at three o’clock in the morning [Eminem] came to the studio, with a bunch of little dudes who turned out to be D12. That’s how it began. We didn’t know him, and he didn’t know us. He took a leap of faith at three in the morning.
Was he in school then?
He was working. He was flipping hamburgers at a little diner. Kind of a Coney Island. And every chance he got, he was in the studio. After work, before work. Studio.
What'd you make of him at first?
I was always kind of a hip-hop head, because of the R&B roots behind it. But when Marshall came into the picture, I wasn't quite sure about his ability — because I couldn't understand what he was saying! He was triple-timing, spitting rhymes: I was just trying to comprehend him. Then I started writing tracks for him. And it became apparent that he was amazing.
In between Infinite [Eminem's official, independently released first album] and The Slim Shady EP, we figured out how to communicate with him. Because he doesn’t come from a musical background. We had to figure out a way emotionally to get through to him. So how I approached it is, any song that had a happy feel we’d call a happy tune. Angry, sad, violent — we’d use adjectives to get through to him. So that he could write the type of lyrics that’d go with the track.
Most people know Kim as a character. You have a different perspective.
He’s been with me since ‘95, when he was a young buck. I was with him when Hailie was just born. I knew Kim. She used to come into the studio with us all the time. We used to take Marshall out to the different clubs in Detroit. She would come with us, be her crazy self.
So was it clear their relationship was dysfunctional?
Oh yeah. It was always obvious. He basically lived with us in the studio on 8 Mile road. And you got to know the person. We had to deal with his mother, we had to deal with Kim, we had to deal with uncles and friends trying to be hangers-on. You really get to know a person. And it was amazing. As he would come up with the stories [on the songs], those of us who were close to him working on the project, we knew there was so much truth in what he was saying. That’s pure emotion. That’s realism. And he told it like he was speaking to every kid out there that was going through the same thing. He was their voice. It was quite incredible.
Take me back to the time between Infinite and The Slim Shady EP. What changed in him?
We pressed up Infinite. We might have pressed up maybe five hundred, a thousand records tops. We couldn’t give them away. Nobody was feeling it. We don't know why. Then Marshall, I think he was sitting on the toilet making a poop, and he came up with the alter ego. He came into the studio, talking about this alter ego that he has now. And all the boys in D12, they all had alter egos too. It was just a great thing to start the new project with. And he went with that.
When did the big break come?
He was doing the Rap Olympics, and he was winning all over the place. And then he lost in L.A., but when we were there we had a bunch of The Slim Shady EPs. At that particular show, there was somebody in the audience watching. A young kid, 17 years old, and he saw all the passion that Marshall was putting into his show and his lyrics. And he came up to us after, “Can I get a CD?” Little did we know, he worked in the mail room at Interscope Records. And he LOVED Eminem. And what he did for us, on his own, is slip the CD in Jimmy Iovine’s listening bag that he used to take home every Friday. And Jimmy actually listened to it, and said “Whoa whoa whoa — what is this?” And he called Dre, and then Dre came and listened to it. It’s not like Dre found it on the floor in his garage. The true story was that he was called by Jimmy. And then it all snowballed from there.
Was Eminem blown away when the call from Interscope came in? Or was he trying to temper his expectations?
He was really excited, first of all, that Dr. Dre was gonna be involved. [Dre] was a big star in '98. He was freaked out: “Oh my god, I can’t believe it!” Me and my brother were excited: “Dr. Dre wants to talk to us!” And Marshall went out to L.A. with my brother first. They got there a week before me. And it started immediately. Meeting Dre, talking with Jimmy, meeting all these people, this whole crazy period. I think it was February of ‘98.
Is that when the conversation started about the crossover potential? The whole commercial implication of a big white rapper?
All of us who were working on the project, skin color was never an issue. I mean, you got two white guys that took another white guy out to California to get a record deal in a predominantly black music. Right there, that was a little strange. But we never really played that side of the race because we just looked at it as music. We didn’t care, white, black, this, that: It’s the society and the media that makes it a big deal. “Oh, he’s a white rapper, we’re gonna get this white boy out there, he’s gonna make millions of records to all of the black people!” We were doing hip-hop music for the love of hip-hop music.
Where’d you record The Slim Shady LP?
Most of that album was recorded in Burbank. While Dre was doing his thing at his house, and at Larrabee Studios, we had a little studio in Burbank called the Little Mix Room. It was tiny.
What were the hours like?
Pretty much like 20 hours a day. We went through three or four different engineers. We were these workalcoholics, and these kids, they were being paid hourly, and they could not hang. They’d say, “It’s not worth it for me, for six dollars an hour!” We’d sleep four hours and we’d come to start it again. But we wanted it so bad. Ideas would be constantly flowing. And when you had it, you made sacrifices in your life. We moved to L.A., we left our families here in Michigan. We weren’t out there to party. We’d give ourselves Sunday off, to recuperate.
You were the gruff voice on “Public Service Announcement.”
And the voice of the “Soap” skit, and the voice of the “Lounge” skit, and the voice of the old cowboy rocking in a rocking chair before and after “Bad Meets Evil.” I always wanted to do voice-overs. I guess I got people to hear my voice on some records that sold a couple. That’s pretty cool.
Did the label give you a deadline to turn it in?
Normally they liked to have the album in a couple of months, maybe three months. We did the album in three weeks. And they weren't very happy! They said, "You guys are gonna have to go and mix a few other records. That's too early." The marketing department wasn't ready. That's how much we worked. But we were so efficient at what we were doing. We were ready to bust out. "Here, sell this record so he can go tour." They were going, "Whoa! Slow down!" They had to pull the reins in.
The Eminem fans will appreciate this. He talks about Kim and Eminem's mom coming to the studio. Plus lots more.
Q&A: Producer Jeff Bass on Discovering Young Eminem: 'He Was Sitting on the Toilet, and He Came Up With the Alter Ego'
By Amos Barshad on November 6, 2013 4:18 PM ET
You may have never heard of the Bass Brothers. But you've heard the Bass Brothers. Before Jimmy Iovine, before Dr. Dre, it was Michigan's Jeff and Mark Bass who were flipping their sh*t over the sounds of a young kid from Detroit named Marshall Mathers. In the early days, the production duo's studio on 8 Mile Road was like a second home for Eminem. And it was there that they recorded The Slim Shady EP, which would eventually make its way to Dre and Iovine and land Eminem his record deal. They'd continue to work with Em for years, producing all but three tracks on The Slim Shady LP, some of the more twisted ends of The Marshall Mathers LP, and — drum roll, drum roll, drum roll — "Lose Yourself." With this week's release of The Marshall Mathers LP 2, we got Jeff Bass on the phone to talk about the good old days.
How'd you meet Eminem?
My brother was listening to the radio, what today is our 95.5. It was a DJ we knew named Lisa Lisa. He called and asked her who that was, freestyling. She said, that’s Marshall Mathers. He said, “Is there any way we can get in touch with him?” She gives him the number. My brother called. And at three o’clock in the morning [Eminem] came to the studio, with a bunch of little dudes who turned out to be D12. That’s how it began. We didn’t know him, and he didn’t know us. He took a leap of faith at three in the morning.
Was he in school then?
He was working. He was flipping hamburgers at a little diner. Kind of a Coney Island. And every chance he got, he was in the studio. After work, before work. Studio.
What'd you make of him at first?
I was always kind of a hip-hop head, because of the R&B roots behind it. But when Marshall came into the picture, I wasn't quite sure about his ability — because I couldn't understand what he was saying! He was triple-timing, spitting rhymes: I was just trying to comprehend him. Then I started writing tracks for him. And it became apparent that he was amazing.
In between Infinite [Eminem's official, independently released first album] and The Slim Shady EP, we figured out how to communicate with him. Because he doesn’t come from a musical background. We had to figure out a way emotionally to get through to him. So how I approached it is, any song that had a happy feel we’d call a happy tune. Angry, sad, violent — we’d use adjectives to get through to him. So that he could write the type of lyrics that’d go with the track.
Most people know Kim as a character. You have a different perspective.
He’s been with me since ‘95, when he was a young buck. I was with him when Hailie was just born. I knew Kim. She used to come into the studio with us all the time. We used to take Marshall out to the different clubs in Detroit. She would come with us, be her crazy self.
So was it clear their relationship was dysfunctional?
Oh yeah. It was always obvious. He basically lived with us in the studio on 8 Mile road. And you got to know the person. We had to deal with his mother, we had to deal with Kim, we had to deal with uncles and friends trying to be hangers-on. You really get to know a person. And it was amazing. As he would come up with the stories [on the songs], those of us who were close to him working on the project, we knew there was so much truth in what he was saying. That’s pure emotion. That’s realism. And he told it like he was speaking to every kid out there that was going through the same thing. He was their voice. It was quite incredible.
Take me back to the time between Infinite and The Slim Shady EP. What changed in him?
We pressed up Infinite. We might have pressed up maybe five hundred, a thousand records tops. We couldn’t give them away. Nobody was feeling it. We don't know why. Then Marshall, I think he was sitting on the toilet making a poop, and he came up with the alter ego. He came into the studio, talking about this alter ego that he has now. And all the boys in D12, they all had alter egos too. It was just a great thing to start the new project with. And he went with that.
When did the big break come?
He was doing the Rap Olympics, and he was winning all over the place. And then he lost in L.A., but when we were there we had a bunch of The Slim Shady EPs. At that particular show, there was somebody in the audience watching. A young kid, 17 years old, and he saw all the passion that Marshall was putting into his show and his lyrics. And he came up to us after, “Can I get a CD?” Little did we know, he worked in the mail room at Interscope Records. And he LOVED Eminem. And what he did for us, on his own, is slip the CD in Jimmy Iovine’s listening bag that he used to take home every Friday. And Jimmy actually listened to it, and said “Whoa whoa whoa — what is this?” And he called Dre, and then Dre came and listened to it. It’s not like Dre found it on the floor in his garage. The true story was that he was called by Jimmy. And then it all snowballed from there.
Was Eminem blown away when the call from Interscope came in? Or was he trying to temper his expectations?
He was really excited, first of all, that Dr. Dre was gonna be involved. [Dre] was a big star in '98. He was freaked out: “Oh my god, I can’t believe it!” Me and my brother were excited: “Dr. Dre wants to talk to us!” And Marshall went out to L.A. with my brother first. They got there a week before me. And it started immediately. Meeting Dre, talking with Jimmy, meeting all these people, this whole crazy period. I think it was February of ‘98.
Is that when the conversation started about the crossover potential? The whole commercial implication of a big white rapper?
All of us who were working on the project, skin color was never an issue. I mean, you got two white guys that took another white guy out to California to get a record deal in a predominantly black music. Right there, that was a little strange. But we never really played that side of the race because we just looked at it as music. We didn’t care, white, black, this, that: It’s the society and the media that makes it a big deal. “Oh, he’s a white rapper, we’re gonna get this white boy out there, he’s gonna make millions of records to all of the black people!” We were doing hip-hop music for the love of hip-hop music.
Where’d you record The Slim Shady LP?
Most of that album was recorded in Burbank. While Dre was doing his thing at his house, and at Larrabee Studios, we had a little studio in Burbank called the Little Mix Room. It was tiny.
What were the hours like?
Pretty much like 20 hours a day. We went through three or four different engineers. We were these workalcoholics, and these kids, they were being paid hourly, and they could not hang. They’d say, “It’s not worth it for me, for six dollars an hour!” We’d sleep four hours and we’d come to start it again. But we wanted it so bad. Ideas would be constantly flowing. And when you had it, you made sacrifices in your life. We moved to L.A., we left our families here in Michigan. We weren’t out there to party. We’d give ourselves Sunday off, to recuperate.
You were the gruff voice on “Public Service Announcement.”
And the voice of the “Soap” skit, and the voice of the “Lounge” skit, and the voice of the old cowboy rocking in a rocking chair before and after “Bad Meets Evil.” I always wanted to do voice-overs. I guess I got people to hear my voice on some records that sold a couple. That’s pretty cool.
Did the label give you a deadline to turn it in?
Normally they liked to have the album in a couple of months, maybe three months. We did the album in three weeks. And they weren't very happy! They said, "You guys are gonna have to go and mix a few other records. That's too early." The marketing department wasn't ready. That's how much we worked. But we were so efficient at what we were doing. We were ready to bust out. "Here, sell this record so he can go tour." They were going, "Whoa! Slow down!" They had to pull the reins in.
