Since Day 1 (Eminem & Dre)

First Encounter

As if on cue Dre came walking up the staircase that led from a floor underneath the house and into his living room.

Holy shit. Marshall tried his best to keep his cool but he could feel his heart pounding like it was trying to break out of his chest. He looked at him and just thought of what he wanted to say: 'dude... I see you on TV all the time. You're like my biggest inspiration ever in life.' That would be too forward though. He was brought out of thought by Dre extending a hand and asking for his name.

Marshall gave him a firm hand shake "I'm eminem, sir."

Dre grinned with a confused look "that's your legal name?" He joked

Shit. Duh. "Marshall is my real name. Marshall Mathers."

'I'm eminem blah blah blah blah. Idiot.' He thought to himself

"Andre Young. You can call me Dre though. Welcome."

Dre guided him away from living room in which his son was playing in and instead into another living room that looked much more well kept. Dre sat on one of his pure black suede couches and offered for Marshall to take a seat in the other. Dre asked him all sorts of questions he wasn't expecting. He had came fully prepared to answer questions like 'how fast can you rap? Can you produce? Are you in a gang' etc. he wasnt expecting Dre to simply sit and ask about how his flight was and whether he is okay with his room. Dre's son sneaked into the room and crawled onto Dre's lap. Dre apologized but Marshall told him not to worry about it since he was a father too. They then discussed their families, work, and other similar topics.
Dre looked at his watch and got up from the couch, he motioned for him to follow. Dre walked him through the house and talked about the plaques and art covering his walls. They made their way into the kitchen and found a chef preparing a meal.

"Do you eat this kind of stuff" Dre asked him while referring to a set up of panini sandwiches and tomato soup.

"Yeah definitely."

"Itll be done in just a minute Mr. Young." Dre's chef told them

Dre led him out of the kitchen and into a dining room. He offered him a seat before excusing himself to round up his kids for lunch. Marshall sat and waited befor Dre came back with the little boy from earlier and another little boy whom he hadn't met yet. Dre sat across from him and the two boys took seats next to Dre.

"Hey Dre I can go just hang out or something so you and your boys can eat."

Dre shot him a puzzled look "Nah you're fine. I mean you're hungry aren't you? There's plenty, don't feel like you're intruding."

The chef served them their food and Dre excused her to go eat as well if she was hungry. They sat, ate, and talked the best they could with the boys playing with their food.

"There's an idea that I like." Dre started "if you want to get to know someone, you do it over food. Offering food is the best way to establish a bond."

Marshall thought for a moment before realizing Dre was right. They had been talking quite a bit since they had sat down to eat. Interesting. It was really nice of Dre to feed him. He didn't normally get to eat good food like this. Dre asked for the chef to serve the two of them a second round. He was glad that Dre did because as filling as the food was, he was still hungry. He didn't eat very much at home because he always wanted to ensure that Kim and Hailie had plenty to eat. After their lunch Dre took him through a small house tour and showed him all his cars and other toys before bringing him downstairs to the under level where his home studio was located. They finally got down to talking about the stuff he had been expecting Dre to bring up in the beginning. They talked about music, his skills, what he wants out of music, and on and on. After a bit of talking, Dre asked him if he wanted to hear a new beat he had been working on.

*the beat that would become My Name Is begins playing*

Marshall listened for a few seconds before a line came to his name head

"Hi. My name is. My name is. My name is. Chicka chicka Slim Shady."

Dre immediately turned the beat off.

"What the hell was that?!" Dre asked

Oh no. He thought it was corny. It was stupid.

"I... I didn't... I was just..."

"Damn. I wasn't expecting us to record today but hell let's go for it."

"Wait what?"

"I can't believe that. You let that beat go for... what? Like 10 seconds? And then you just start spewing a fucking hook!? Hell yeah let's do it."

Dre walked over to a small desk in the room and pulled out a large note pad and a pen. He handed it to him and offered for him to sit and write. Dre turned the beat back on and let him do his thing. Rhymes came to him with ease, starting with that chorus. He had never written rhymes that felt like they matched with the beat so effortlessly. It was almost like it was tailor made for him. Maybe 20 minutes went by before he had a full rough draft of a song. He told Dre he was done and the producer was beyond excited to see that he could write so quickly. Marshall skimmed over his work and began to notice some of the lines he had said. He had shit in there about gays and lesbians and rapeing people and shit. Dre was going to kick him out as soon as he heard this. He walked into the booth and got himself set up with a mic check before he gave Dre a thumbs up to start the beat so they could do just a quick run through. He tried not to look up. For the first verse he kept his eyes down on the pad. He didn't want to see Dre's reaction. Outside of his vision he could see Dre moving and he couldn't help but look up. When he looked up he saw Dre standing at the board dying of laughter. Marshall was confused.
Was he laughing at him?

"When I was little I use to get so hungry I would throw fits. How you gonna breast feed me mom you ain't got no tits?"

As he said this line he saw Dre having to lean down close the board because he was laughing so hard. Wait. He thought he was funny? He thought he was funny! By the end of the song Dre was wiping tears from his eyes. Dre pressed the button that allowed for him to be heard inside the booth.

"Hey I hope you don't mind but I actually recorded all that. Sometimes the first take has some rawness that can be used for the actual song."

They spent the rest of their evening recording the song to its entirety. The only thing left to do was have Dre mix and master it while adding little sound effects and shit like that to make it perfect. They sat and listened to the raw copy of the song, even unedited it was the best song he had made so far. At least in terms of quality. Dre began to bring up marketing and him needing to come up with a look to separate Slim Shady from Eminem. On the topic of looks Marshall brought up the elephant in the room.

"You really think people will like it?"

"Are you kidding? The lines are hard. The shit's funny as all hell. It's gonna be a hit."

"But what about... you know." He said while looking down at his hands.

Dre sighed and leaned back. "I dunno. I really don't. To be honest, I didn't realize you were white until you walked in. I don't care though. And if you're as good as I think you are, other people shouldn't care either.... maybe that's it. Maybe we'll just let your song play, wait for everyone to get hooked on it, then reveal what you look like... I still have to run all this through the management and Interscope and all that shit. If they decide to block me off then I don't really have a say in it."

This worried him. He always sounded good on audio but once higher ups realized what race he was, it was over. The two talked for a bit longer before Dre had to let him go so that he could do dinner with his family. The sheaffer took him back to his hotel.