Interview Wendy Day (mentions Eminem)

[babyjane]

Was this ever posted? Really good interview (the Eminem parts are below, the full interview here: http://www.abcdrduson.com/interviews/fe ... id=269&p=1

She made groundbreaking record deals for hip-hop. She advised Eminem, 2Pac and the whole rap Who’s Who from New York to New Orleans. A relentless activist for artists’ empowerment, Wendy Day tells her impressive story.

A: What's your story with Eminem?

W: I shopped him for nine months. It was next to impossible to get him a deal. Nobody wanted to sign a white rapper. Not only did the majority of white rappers that came before him not sell well, but they got clowned unmercifully in the music industry. At that point in time, I was frustrated at how lyricists were having trouble getting record deals. I did an MC battle event called Rap Olympics. Eminem was on my team with Kwest The Mad Ladd, a guy named Juice out of Chicago, and Thristin Howl III. When my team won Rap Olympics – I guess that's a little incestuous because that was also my event – a part of the prize was for them to go and do the Sway and Tech Wake Up Show. From what Eminem told me at the time, Dr Dre heard him freestyling on the radio and came up to the station to meet him. My recollection is that Dre scooped him up, took him to a hotel room and said "Here are some beats, just keep writing." He was so impressed that he decided to sign him to Aftermath. The rest, as they say, is history [Laughs].

A: Did the preparation of the contract go well?

W: One of the frustrations of the Eminem deal was that I was part of a team again. One of the things that I was arguing that they would not hear was "Let's put a clause in there that if he goes gold, he gets to own half the masters." But there were just too many people to fight to even try to get that clause in there. It was very frustrating for me because I knew he was going to go at least gold – and I think he ended up going twenty times platinum! They told me that it couldn't be done because there was a production company in the way – I guess they were called the Bass Brothers – and the production company owns half of everything and blah blah blah…

A: Now, it's obvious that Eminem is a huge superstar, but at the time…

W: It was obvious then, too. I met him rapping outside of the Atheneum Hotel in Detroit. I had a rapper from Chicago with me called Rhymefest. Rhymefest was in a cipher with Eminem and handed me his demo. But I was hungry. I had just been speaking on a panel for hours and had driven from Chicago that morning, which is a five-hour drive. I was tired and cranky, and I just wanted to go to Denny's and eat something. We got in the car, I took Em's demo and threw it on the floor of the passenger side where Rhymefest was sitting. He looked at me like "Oh that's fucked up! You're white, you know how hard it is in rap being white. Just listen to it, the kid is incredible." I said "Yes he's incredible, I heard him, but he's a white rapper and it's impossible to get on as a white rapper. We're just not there yet." 'Fest was just disgusted with me, like "Maannn, that's fucked up." So in order to appease him, I picked up the cassette, tossed it in the cassette player of the car and realized halfway through the first song that this kid was a superstar. He was so special. I made a U-turn on the highway, went back and said to Eminem, you know, "Here's what publishing is, here's how the music industry work…" [Laughs] I stayed in touch with him. When I got back to New York, Paul Rosenberg, who was an intern at one of the law firms, reached out to me and told me he was Em's manager. He asked me how I could help. Paul was a really nice guy. He was the type of guy who sends Thank You notes and when it was time for Eminem to give out plaques, I was the first person to get one. I haven't seen or spoken to Paul in years but he was cool.

A: Are you still in touch with Eminem nowadays?

W: No, not at all. Once my job is done, I don't really stay in touch with the artists. It's not that I'm cold, it's that I'm not a very social person. I'm on the phone twenty hours a day with my job. The last thing I wanna do at 3 o'clock in the morning before I go to sleep is call Eminem and say "How are you?" I know that's shitty but I'm not just that person. I loved everybody that I've worked with dearly, I'm just really bad at staying in touch. When you're a workaholic, sometimes you overlook the social graces. And I very much overlook them. I'm not in this to make friends, I'm in this to change the status quo. And I have.

A: The Eminem's story is an example of a best case scenario, as far as rap success. How do you look at his career? Do you feel like he's fulfilled and is a happy man?

W: I'm not close to him so I can't answer whether he's happy or not. I can tell you that after his first album came out, I saw him at Lyricist Lounge. At that point, I had just done the Cash Money deal, so I was very popular in the New York music community [Laughs]. Everybody felt like "Oh, if I have Wendy on my team, I will get a Cash Money deal!" I had a huge crowd of people standing around me. He had a huge crowd of people standing around him. He was about to perform, I hugged him and asked "Is it everything you thought it would be?" He laughed and said "It's NOTHING like I thought it would be. I will be retired after my second album." I have never seen him nor spoken to him since then. It's not any beef, it's just we travel in very different worlds. I was very close to Proof, he would call me up and I would send messages back and forth to Em through him. It was obvious to me that, every time Em went out on tour, that he would have to go to rehab afterwards. It struck me, as an outsider looking in, that he had difficulty with the sleep/wake cycle. So my guess is – and again, I was not in his camp – that he was using artificial stimulants to help him stay awake and help him go to sleep. That's a very addictive process. Many, many artists do that, by the way, when they're on tour. They slap themselves into rehab when they go home because of what they put themselves through on the 45 or 60 day tour. I remember saying to Proof "How come Em don't just stop fucking touring? He's got enough money!” My thinking was 'Stop abusing your body, you can't possibly live happily this way.' I remember Proof hugging me and saying, "Man, I say that to him every fuckin' day. He feels like he has to tour so that everybody can eat off of him." I was like "It's not his responsibility. Tell him to do something different to make money, and he should have enough. He doesn't need to keep making money, tell those lazy fucks around to go get a job! It's not Eminem's job to feed the world!"

[Amaranthine]

I remember saying to Proof "How come Em don't just stop fucking touring? He's got enough money!” My thinking was 'Stop abusing your body, you can't possibly live happily this way.' I remember Proof hugging me and saying, "Man, I say that to him every fuckin' day. He feels like he has to tour so that everybody can eat off of him." I was like "It's not his responsibility. Tell him to do something different to make money, and he should have enough. He doesn't need to keep making money, tell those lazy fucks around to go get a job! It's not Eminem's job to feed the world!"

Most interesting part for sure. He feels/felt like he has to support everyone? That's not healthy.

[Sam.]

I remember saying to Proof "How come Em don't just stop fucking touring? He's got enough money!” My thinking was 'Stop abusing your body, you can't possibly live happily this way.' I remember Proof hugging me and saying, "Man, I say that to him every fuckin' day. He feels like he has to tour so that everybody can eat off of him." I was like "It's not his responsibility. Tell him to do something different to make money, and he should have enough. He doesn't need to keep making money, tell those lazy fucks around to go get a job! It's not Eminem's job to feed the world!"

Most interesting part for sure. He feels/felt like he has to support everyone? That's not healthy.

He has to feed a lot of mouths like Kim's family + Aunt Betty+ Nathan also his education and his own family.

[Sukot]

A: What's your story with Eminem?

W: I shopped him for nine months. It was next to impossible to get him a deal. Nobody wanted to sign a white rapper. Not only did the majority of white rappers that came before him not sell well, but they got clowned unmercifully in the music industry. At that point in time, I was frustrated at how lyricists were having trouble getting record deals. I did an MC battle event called Rap Olympics. Eminem was on my team with Kwest The Mad Ladd, a guy named Juice out of Chicago, and Thristin Howl III. When my team won Rap Olympics – I guess that's a little incestuous because that was also my event – a part of the prize was for them to go and do the Sway and Tech Wake Up Show. From what Eminem told me at the time, Dr Dre heard him freestyling on the radio and came up to the station to meet him. My recollection is that Dre scooped him up, took him to a hotel room and said "Here are some beats, just keep writing." He was so impressed that he decided to sign him to Aftermath. The rest, as they say, is history [Laughs].

This must be the Rap Olympics that he talks about in Airplanes.

[Trimss]

^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKHOkSr2FmA

Never heard of it?

[Sukot]

^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKHOkSr2FmA

Never heard of it?

No, I never heard of it before (apart from when Em mentions it in songs obviously). Is it like a really big event?

[Amaranthine]

^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKHOkSr2FmA

Never heard of it?

No, I never heard of it before (apart from when Em mentions it in songs obviously). Is it like a really big event?

It's basically what gave Em him big break, even though he came in second. Some guy who worked for Dre came up to him and asked for a demo tape, and Em was mad at losing and threw it at him and took off, the guy gave it to Dre, and...well, I'm sure you can figure out the rest.

[Sukot]

^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKHOkSr2FmA

Never heard of it?

No, I never heard of it before (apart from when Em mentions it in songs obviously). Is it like a really big event?

It's basically what gave Em him big break, even though he came in second. Some guy who worked for Dre came up to him and asked for a demo tape, and Em was mad at losing and threw it at him and took off, the guy gave it to Dre, and...well, I'm sure you can figure out the rest.

Thanks. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm pretty glad he didn't oversleep and miss it.

[Amaranthine]

Thanks. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm pretty glad he didn't oversleep and miss it.

Word. Have you read The Way I Am? Em pretty much walks you through it in it.

[2PointOBoy]

Shit is fucked up... God knows what the real drug abuse Em went through. That "Eminem wanting to feed people" from his success & tours thing has really been the revelation of this interview. Apart from that there are still some very interesting things there...

Was this ever posted?

It's probably been less than 6 hours since that interview was posted... ^That made me think it was an old interview..

Most interesting part for sure. He feels/felt like he has to support everyone? That's not healthy.

He has to feed a lot of mouths like Kim's family + Aunt Betty+ Nathan also his education and his own family.

Em could probably provide for them all in every way throughout their lifetime from the money he got from his first two albums... And at the time, according to Kim's interviews, he wasn't sending her any substantial money - don't know if this is in fact true, but it's what she told in her ABC/Dr.Keith Ablow interviews - & he definitely wouldn't have been supporting her parents. Aunt Betty started really eating off him around the time of The Eminem Show... The question of him being able to feed the many mouths dependent on him was probably eliminated when he blew up with The SSLP. What Wendy (& Amaranthine) were talking about was him wanting to help other people make a living from his success, which to be honest, is not a trait you would associate with the rich & famous...

Just goes to show how much of a "decent human being in him" there is..

I always saw more in (Lil) Wayne than anybody. Back then, he could rap pound for pound with the most lyrical motherfuckers out there.

at what happened afterwards..

[Sam.]

Em could probably provide for them all in every way throughout their lifetime from the money he got from his first two albums... And at the time, according to Kim's interviews, he wasn't sending her any substantial money - don't know if this is in fact true, but it's what she told in her ABC/Dr.Keith Ablow interviews - & he definitely wouldn't have been supporting her parents. Aunt Betty started really eating off him around the time of The Eminem Show... The question of him being able to feed the many mouths dependent on him was probably eliminated when he blew up with The SSLP. What Wendy (& Amaranthine) were talking about was him wanting to help other people make a living from his success, which to be honest, is not a trait you would associate with the rich & famous...

Just goes to show how much of a "decent human being in him" there is..

Kim is liar and fucking bitch, this has been proved from time to time, so if she says that she never received anything from Eminem,then she is wrong.Hell, he even paid for her vacations with her BF,when they were still married.She needed more money for the blow she snorting.Not only that he supported Kim's sister(Dawn) also.I think Aunt Betty is still around, leaving with him,stupid bitch Part 2. He supports these people so much because of the guilt that he has even when he does so much for them.

[mdemaz]

Man fuck it, even with 20+ songs proving me wrong, I'm gonna say it, Em is a fucking saint!!

A saint with black wings.

[2PointOBoy]

Man fuck it, even with 20+ songs proving me wrong, I'm gonna say it, Em is a fucking saint!!

[Sam.]

Man fuck it, even with 20+ songs proving me wrong, I'm gonna say it, Em is a fucking saint!!

I ain't pointin' fingers, heaven knows i've never been a saint.