Listen to Cipha Sound's Interview with Eminem

Sounds recently had Marshall Mathers up at his Shade45 radio show for a new installment called “Behind The Boards,” where he spoke to the Detroit rap icon at length about pretty much his entire career. It’s a really great interview, about two hours long. So if you have the time, take a listen

Peep him talking about his original alias:

“My first alias was Billy the Kid, and it was on some gunslinging type shit. Proof became Dirty Harry. That was his alias… it was on some Wild West shit.”

Then he talks about how he ditched that name for his now famous moniker:

“I was literally taking a shit when the name Slim Shady hit me. Proof had said, ‘Come up with a name that when you rhyme you’re going to be this person as opposed to Eminem. You’re going to be this alias. In this alias you can say whatever the fuck you want to say.’ ”

And totally unrelated, on his VMA loss for Akon’s “Smack That:

“I know that it had the highest billboard leap. It was from like 79 to 7 in a week. It jumped up all them slots. As much airplay as it got, at the VMAs, I really thought we was gonna win that.”