The "Rap God" tends to cover the 25th-anniversary issue of XXL, where he discusses his current status in hip-hop and what drives him to be the best rapper. “My role in today’s hip-hop is to always try to be the best rapper. That’s it,” said the 49-year-old icon. “That’s how I want to feel inside. That’s what I want to feel.”
He owes his passion to rappers such as Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. “And I can’t do that until I listen to what the f**k J. Cole just put out. What the f**k did Kendrick just put out?” he said. “And I’m thinking, Oh, these dudes ain’t playing. I don’t want to get swept away in that shuffle. I still want to let everybody know who the f**k I am. Like I said, ‘They rap to be the best rappers.’ I’ll hear some shit by them, and I’ll be like, Yo, I ain’t the best rapper right now. I need to fu**in’ get up, get back on my shit.”
Although he's still the greatest rapper of all time, he is more worried about contending with Kendrick, Cole, Joyner Lucas, and Big Sean than with the charts. “At this point, a lot of the big achievements that could come in your career have happened for me already, so I don’t hyper-focus on numbers and being on charts,” said Em. “What I hyper-focus on is people like Kendrick Lamar, Joyner Lucas, J. Cole, and Big Sean, and watching them and how the f**k they’re doing their shit. Because they’re also focused on being the best rappers.”
Em says that he is continuously observing today's MCs in order to stay on top of his game. "I look for younger generation to push me," he continued. "I have fun watching the rappers I just mentioned, and being like, OK, let me see if I can do something that inside I think I can top that. And every time the best rappers drop an album, it changes the landscape of the fu**in’ game. At least it does for me, and I’m like, I need to be able to rap like that. Because if I don’t do that, someone’s going to come behind me, probably in the next couple of years, and wash me.”
In other headlines, Slim Shady discusses his battle with drug addiction and describes a period when things went so bad that 50 Cent had to cover for him.
“I was taking Vicodin, Valium, and alcohol. I kinda fell off the map a little bit and didn’t explain why I went away,” he said. “I remember things started getting really, really bad when me, 50 and G-Unit did BET’s ‘106 & Park.’ We performed ‘You Don’t Know’ on the show and then we did an interview afterward. That’s when the wheels started coming off. One of the hosts was talking to me and I could not understand a word she was saying. 50 had to cover for me and answer every question.”
🚨 25th Anniversary- @eminem on the cover of @XXL! https://t.co/16yHem0HoX pic.twitter.com/eEyHvPS4fh
— Shady Records, Inc. (@ShadyRecords) September 14, 2022