The Interview

DECEMBER 1998 (7)

I'm with Dre and Philip Atwell on the set shooting the visuals for My Name Is. I've seen the script for the video and I'm impressed. Of course, as the artist, I had some choices in the script but it mostly came down to Philip but I didn't mind.

From what I seen, it sounded exactly like how I thought about it in my head. The video is gonna start out with a basic redneck family watching TV, and they come across a show starring "Marshall Mathers". Which unless there are some diehard fans for me already, they won't get that that's my actual name. But as the video goes on, I'm gonna parody several TV shows and movies. I also have to dress up President Bill Clinton, Johnny Carson, a porn star, and others. I think somewhere I even saw something about Marilyn Manson.

The video would probably take a little while to shoot seeing as the scenes were way more complex than the one I did for Just Don't Give A Fuck. I mean, I guess it'll make the whole thing more fun and different.

"Hello Marshall, Shady, Eminem, or whatever you want to be called. For the next three days, I'll be directing the visuals for your single. I hope it comes out just as good as the song did." Philip said, outstretching his hand. I shook his hand firmly and he pointed to the nearest dressing room.

The first scene we're doing is me as a mad scientist. I go to the dressing room and sit down in the chair and a blonde lady with a nice figure comes over and starts placing wigs on me, seeing which would look the best.

The wig she decided to pick out was gray and spiked, and once she placed it on me, I could see a resemblance to most movies with crazy ass scientists.

Next, it was time for my outfit. I was dressed in black slacks and a white collar shirt with a black tie. Lastly, I was given some glasses to wear. When I stepped up to the mirror to see how I looked, I was surprised at how good I looked.

The first shot of the video with the redneck family had just been filmed so now it was time for me first cameo on the video. The scene was showing inside the TV and I knock on the screen.

[Ahem... Excuse me! May I have the attention of the class for one second?]

I lean in and tilt my head to the side while placing both hands on the desk. The desk was decorated with a bunch of tubes and shit that made the whole mad scientist thing be embraced more.

[Wanna try 'Cid and fucked up more than my life is?]

In this scene, which was the second and last of the mad scientist part, I poured some bluish green liquid into a measuring cup while sitting down at the desk.

"Cut! That was good, Marshall. Real good. The next scene will be you dressing up as Johnny Carson. Now the dressing room is over there so go ahead and get ready and we'll record after five minutes."

I nodded and walked over to the dressing room. It was way different from the other one. This one made me feel like I was a true celebrity. A star.

There was random assortment of different customes hanging up, a lounging area for me to sit down and catch my breath, a table in the middle of the room with a bunch of snacks on it, and extra stools for other people to come in and sit with me.

I walk over to the custome that has a taped card with the words Johnny Carson written on it. I removed the card from the suite and began to put it on. After a few minutes of getting on the custome, I sauntered over to the hairdresser room for my new wig.

The same blonde lady was there and she flashed a friendly smile. "I love your EP. It was incredible." She praised, while trying many different wigs on my head.

"Thanks, I've worked really hard for this y'know." I responded as she finally found a suitable wig to go with my custome. I got up from my chair and reported to the set like Philip wanted me too. We had a five minute break before the shoot so that gave me some time to think of my next new song I'd write.

There was a lot of songs that mostly joking. Some were serious. A few told stories within the rhymes. Maybe I should like mesh it together. A storytelling song that's meant to be a joke. I'll think about it when I have more time.

I arrive on set just on time and after I give Philip a thumbs up, the cameras start rolling and the music starts playing in the background.

[Hi kids, do you like violence? Wanna see me stick nine inch nails through each one of my eyelids?]

There wasn't much for me to do on this scene except for smile and stare into the camera, which wasn't that hard.

The next and final scene as Johnny Carson was me looking off to the side with a smirk and pointing off in another direction. There was no lyrics behind this scene since it was made for the outro of the visuals.

FIVE HOURS LATER

I'm finally done wrapping up the recording for today. The scenes we shot already added up to be around two minutes long. Which was good since My Name Is is just four minutes long. For half of the day tomorrow, we'll finish up the visuals for My Name Is and start the visuals for Role Model.

My schedule is really compact and right now I just want to go home to Kim and Hailie and spend time with them. I miss being around them. The fame and recognition is fuckin' great and all but not when I can't even spend time with my family.

At least the writing portion of my album is completely finished. The only thing I have to do now is record and let Dre mix and master it. After that, my shit is done and I'll just wait until it drops.

I'll take a lot of time with the recording process though. I want the songs to be fuckin' perfect for this album. It's my only shoot to prove myself as MC and not some wack one hit wonder.

When I got to my hotel room, I checked my phone to see if I had any missed calls from Kim. I didn't. But I did have a missed call from Paul. Instantly, I got a bit worried since he only calls when something bad happens or something business related.

"Em. I just got called by Alana Grey's manager. Apparently she's trying to stop this whole thing before it escalates. I know you're planning on dissing her on your album but I'm asking that you take out those disses before it gets to the point where this isn't fixable."

"Paul... I would do it but she dissed me publicly. Twice. She's gotta get some payback for that. I'm sorry Paul but there is no way I'm gonna let her slide."

There is a brief silence before Paul speaks again.

"If you diss her, keep it to a minimum. She had a line or two going at you in her song. Just respond with one line back. It should be fair game after that. And Em, stay out of trouble."

Paul hung up, allowing me to consider leaving out the disses in the songs. I could halt the entire conflict but then again, I've never been the type of guy to let shit like this slide by me.

I'm gonna keep the disses and just end it there. If she goes back and disses me afterwards then I'll just make a full track on it and shut her up.

~~~

I'm sorry that this chapter was shorter than the last few. I had severe writer's block while making this chapter because I didn't know how to write the filming of the My Name Is video so I just watched the video on YouTube and wrote a description from what was shown. I hope it wasn't too bad. I've decided that the whole beef thing with Alana and Marshall won't go past Chapter 10 so we'll see in reunion soon. And also, I may skip the rest of December and go to January and see how Alana's album does and how the singles from Marshall do. Also, I'll probably go back and re-do some chapter because the grammar is kinda bad : ( Also, I'm debating if I should have Alana be the replacement for Dido on Stan. But anyways, the next chapter may take place in January since I honestly can't find anything from December 1998 that was really relevant to Eminem's career besides the writing and recording of The Slim Shady LP but I don't think anyone wants to see a filler chapter of just reciting lyrics. Anyways, the next part should hopefully be more entertaining. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. I'll update tomorrow as always. Bye bye