Lil Wayne is a titan when it comes to rhyming and has been for a very long time, but he still had some doubt creep in when it came to collaborating with Eminem for the first time.
Talking to The New York Times for its Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary feature published on Wednesday (July 19), Tunechi admitted that he was “scared” when he called Em to collab for what ended up being the 2010 song, “Drop the World.”
“I was scared, actually, when I called Eminem for a song,” Wayne said. “That is a monster. He must have the same thing I have with words. Like, we can’t get them out of our heads. Every meaning, every aspect of them. Things that rhyme, we hear it. I already know the gift and the curse that he has. And I love to hear the way he puts it together.”
He continued: “When I was on The Tonight Show, I was playing Pictionary. And my thing was Harry Potter. So I drew a pot, and they got that. I drew a man with a face, and I put a bunch of hair around him. They were like, ‘Wait, he’s hairy.’ I’m, like, Harry Potter. We plan our words. At all times.”
“Drop the World” lived on Wayne’s Rebirth album, and while it was his personal first song with Eminem, the pair had previously both appeared together on Drake’s 2009 song “Forever” along with Kanye West. They then collaborated on Eminem’s Recovery album later in 2010 for “No Love.”
Tyga recently named both legendary rhymers as his top two rappers of all time.
“Lil Wayne & Eminem are the best rappers of all time! Lyrical word play, delivery, flow, pockets, originality, raw, intentional, clarity, generational influence,” he wrote in a March tweet in response to Billboard and VIBE‘s list of their Top 50 Rappers of All Time from earlier in the year.
Several days later in a series of follow-up tweets, he also acknowledged his former Young Money partner-in-rhyme, Nicki Minaj.
“Nicki is the best female rapper of all time no one comes close! World play, punchlines, delivery, pockets, beat selection, creativity. Inflictions,” he tweeted. The California native even shouted out Doja Cat, who he said was a “really good rapper too.”
In other Lil Wayne news, the New Orleans native is about to make his G-Funk debut, having joined forces with West Coast veteran Warren G for an upcoming song named “All Alone.”
“First time Wayne did some records over some G-Funk shit,” Warren said in an interview with AllHipHop earlier this week. “I can’t wait for people to hear it. People are gonna be like, ‘Damn that n-gga and Warren, they got verses of the year.’ That’s how dope it is.”
As of press time, a release date for the song has yet to be announced.
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