“What I would say to any up-and-coming rapper? I would say that it is hard to get it, and it’s even harder to maintain it.” Eminem shares those words in the closing minutes of a one-hour-plus interview with Kxng Crooked on Crook’s Corner. The video interview takes place in Dr. Dre’s recording studios.

Eminem is at an interesting juncture in his career. Widely revered as one of the greatest MCs of all-time (and the winner of one such reader competition at Ambrosia For Heads in 2015), Eminem has released three albums in less than three years. His most recent, Music To Be Murdered By, arrived one month ago—without warning. That LP, in part, deals with criticism—which Marshall Mathers gets a lot of. The Detroit, Michigan MC/producer has always been the target of criticism. In the early years, that push-back seemingly came from outside the culture—save for a few Rap opponents. Since 2017, a self-aware Eminem has gotten challenged by some of his peers, including former artists and collaborators, as well as MCs that Slim Shady grew up admiring.

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