Pardon me for a second…
HOLYMOTHERF@#$INGS#!%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ahem. Where were we? Oh yeah. The good news? Eminem just signed Slaughterhouse and Yelawolf to Shady Records! The bad news? I’m pretty sure I only have two wishes left now…
So, obviously the rap gods read my articles. While the ‘Slaughterhouse/Shady’ rumour was the worst-kept secret since ‘gay boy band member,’ thanks to them appearing alongside Em in the Forever video and on the Recovery bonus track Session One, Yela signing on the dotted line was a Keyser Söze-ass plot twist: perfect, yet surprising as shit. I won’t go into all of the reasons why, as I already covered them extensively in the posts linked at the beginning of this paragraph. To summarize for you goat-mouths that are too lazy to click a link: he is the new Eminem. So it’s only right that Marshall takes him under his wing. It feels like a passing of the torch. And once again, like Em back at the close of the previous century, it feels good to have gotten on board before he got his big break and score a window seat before everyone else hops on the bandwagon.
Slaughterhouse is sick too, but it’s one of their members specifically that makes this deal for me. Royce Da 5′9″. Back when Em first burst onto the (mainstream) scene with The Slim Shady LP, he had only one guest featured on a track and it was Royce. And he blew me away. To hang with young, hungry Eminem on a track is no small feat, and Royce pulled it off. The song (and the name the two Detroit MCs were known as collectively) was Bad Meets Evil. I tracked down their EP, but it wasn’t enough! I was dying to hear even more from this duo. There was a compilation track here (and here), a hook there, the original Jay-Z-less version of Renegade, and then…silence. What happened after that is a long-ass story of one thing after another that kept these two powerhouses apart. Until now. Slaughterhouse having Mr. Mathers to shepherd their careers (and foot the bills) is wicked-good, and I suspect their upcoming EP will finally deliver on the promise of this underground super-group. I don’t mean to short-change the other members (Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz and Crooked I, AKA “Mr. Pig Face Weapon Waist”!!) but for me, Slaughterhouse’s signing, and the not-so-subtle hints Living Proof and Echo, mean one thing: mo’ motherfuckin’ Bad Meets Evil! And that’s ‘Rad Meets Awesome!’
What’s that? Oh you want me to use my two wishes now? Hmmm…well, if I was giving them to Shady, I’d sign two more artists that were allegedly close to signing in the past, but were held back due to red tape and bullshit on the parts of their former labels: the Tasmanian Devil of Hip Hop, Pharoahe Monch and Eminem’s favourite rapper of all time, Redman. Come on, son! Pharoahe’s already worked with Slaughterhouse, and the Em/Redman soundtrack appearance is the sole argument for The Nutty Professor 2’s existence. Plus, Pharoahe and Yelawolf could team up to find yet one more excuse to yell “GET THE FUCK UP!” (See Exhibits A and B) Even without those two on the roster though, Shady Records is looking stronger than they have since the 8 Mile/Get Rich or Die Tryin’-era and my ‘2010 Artist of the Year’ pick is looking like a lock to repeat in 2011. This deal is good for the music industry as a whole. It’s good for rap in particular. But most of all, it’s good for me! Nuv wins again, pooh-butts!
– Nuv
