Veteran record producer Rick Rubin, who's responsible for Eminem's new 'Berzerk' single, opened up about it during a recent interview conducted at the video shoot for the track.
"I think it's unlike any current hip-hop songs," Rubin said. "If you listen to what's going on in hip-hop, this is not what this is. We wanted to do something kind of throwback to some of the early records we were making in the '80s, and it more reflects that energy of the early days of hip-hop... We were working in the studio on a bunch of ideas, and this was one of the later ones to come up. It started with a sample, and the sample that we started with ended up not being in the record. The song sort of evolved. It started one way, it kind of got programmed and written to, and then it changed into a whole different song... I thought the track was really strong, and didn't know what direction it was going to go vocally," Rubin added. "And then, when I heard the vocals, I was pretty excited. It was not at all what I expected. Just the energy in it, and the lyrics, and the style of it. It's so well done, and so smart, and so funny."
Rubin also mentioned that this collaboration had been in the works for quite some time.
"I had met Paul [Rosenberg], Em's manager, a few years ago, and we always talked about the possibility of getting together to work on something at some point down the road. It just worked out that it was meant to be at this time."
Eminem's new album The Marshall Mathers LP 2 is executive-produced by Rubin and Dr. Dre and is scheduled to drop on November 5.
Listen to 'Berzerk' below:
